According to those who study consumer habits, millennials and Gen Zs are looking for two things when they go shopping: sustainability and individuality. One jewellery company is capturing hearts and wallets by offering both.

Pandora, launched as a family-run jewellery shop in Copenhagen in 1982, has grown to become the world’s largest jewellery maker, by pieces sold. And unlike much of its industry in recent years, Pandora’s star is rising. As competitors like Tiffany and Signet see diminishing returns, Pandora ended 2024 with 31.7 billion krone (US$4.5 billion) in annual revenue, representing 13% organic growth.

These figures reflect a major turnaround. In 2019, following several years of declining sales, Pandora embarked on a new strategy: to expand its product line beyond the luxury charm bracelets for which it had become famous and go all in on sustainability. It established three new priorities: to decarbonize, push circularity and promote a more diverse corporate culture.

Six years later, Pandora’s charms, which can be engraved and assembled to create personalized pieces, are just one element in its full palette of fine jewellery. And the company is aspiring to the highest sustainability standards in its field. Since 2021, it has used only lab-grown diamonds – to avoid concerns about blood diamonds and inhumane labour practices – and since 2024, exclusively gold and silver in recycled form. 

According to Mads Twomey-Madsen, Pandora’s senior vice president of sustainability, the transition to recycled metals took four years to complete and required 100 additional staff: a relatively small investment for a company with some 37,000 employees worldwide.

More than 40 of Pandora’s suppliers – both smelters and producers of clasps and chains – had to change their processes to meet its new standards (which are issued by the Responsible Jewellery Council), but they were persuaded to do so by the volumes in question.

Pandora claims that its annual purchase of roughly 340 tons of recycled silver, sourced from electronics, silverware, manufacturing waste and old jewellery, accounts for some 6% of the total global market. 

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The shift away from newly mined metals will reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by 58,000 metric tons annually by the company’s estimates: roughly the equivalent of taking 6,000 gas-powered cars off the road. It’s also costing Pandora some US$10 million annually, largely in premiums paid to suppliers to help them adjust. It’s “a cost we are willing to absorb” Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik told The New York Times last year.

While sustainability may be front of mind for younger buyers, Lacik admits that the average jewellery shopper is looking primarily at design and price. But even if customers weren’t clamouring for it, Pandora’s sustainability push has proven a sound business decision; according to its 2024 annual report, the company has grown by 45% since 2019. No doubt, others in the industry are watching with interest. 

Naomi Buck is a Toronto-based writer.

The post Pandora’s big bet on sustainability pays off appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Kimberly-Clark is an American consumer products company that makes personal care products like diapers, tissues, and yes, toilet paper. Some of its brands include Huggies, Kleenex, Kotex and Cottonelle. I was quite skeptical of Kimberly-Clark going into my research. The forestry sector, in general, has a chequered past with impacts on biodiversity loss, climate change, and indigenous rights.  As far back as 2005, Greenpeace vocally accused Kleenex of blowing our noses on the Boreal forest.

Earlier this year, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Stand.earth released a damning new report: The Issue with Tissue: How Americans are Flushing Forests Down the Toilet. You may have also read about how disposable wipes are creating costly sewage systems clogs or ‘fatbergs’ – giant clumps of unflushable waste mixed with grease. How could I forget learning about the epic fatberg found in London, England that was 250 meters long and weighed 130 tonnes in 2017.

It’s worth noting that, since Greenpeace’s early campaign, KC developed a sourcing strategy that dramatically increased its recycled content (anywhere from 24 to 28% of its total fibre usage is currently recycled). And the vast majority of its virgin tissue fibres are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC certification isn’t perfect. The NRDC calls FSC certification a floor, not a ceiling for responsible sourcing. But it’s the most respected forestry certification out there.

No matter how stringent FSC certification becomes (it’s just announced comprehensive new Canadian standards), some environmentally conscious investors may not want to flush trees down the toilet. Lucky for them, there is a Canadian company that produces a line of toilet paper from 100% recycled fibre. Cascades is a Quebec-based paper company that produces tissues and packaging, with a long history of sustainability leadership.  Across its entire product line, 82% of its fibres come from recycled sources, and any virgin (non-recycled) source material comes from FSC-certified sources. Cascades has also hired a third-party firm EcoVadis to assess suppliers on sustainability criteria. With all of these initiatives, it’s no surprise that Cascades is a common sight on Corporate Knights’ ranking of the best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada list (the 2019 list will be released June 4^th).

From an investment perspective, Cascades is a much smaller company than Kimberly-Clark and pays a smaller dividend. Cascades could see higher revenue growth from expansion into areas like 100% recycled food packaging, and may provide better growth over time as the anti-plastic wave picks up.

Both companies have good sustainability scores, but I’ll give Cascades the win for this week’s Sustainable Stock Showdown since it is the Canadian king of virgin tree-free paper products.

Beta is a measure of a stock’s volatility in relation to the market. By definition, the market has a beta of 1.0, and individual stocks are ranked according to how much they deviate from the market. A stock that swings more than the market over time has a beta above 1.0. Lower beta means less risk.

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Tim Nash blogs as The Sustainable Economist and is the founder of Good Investing.

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