GreenPan - The Cookware Company | 2007-Ongoing

Location: New York, New York, USA
Designers: The Cookware Company Design Team, The Cookware Company, Irvington, New York, USA

We’re in it for the long haul, so we’re committed to sustainable practices. We’ve been named one of the best factories in the industry for social and environmental standards. But being the best means nothing if we’re not being the best we can be. And we’re not waiting for anyone else to make things better. We continue to examine our process because we’re constantly striving to be better. By the time you read this, we will have taken the opportunity to improve something else.

We own our factory, so we don’t have to wait for the industry to change—we change it. We’ve recently reengineered our manufacturing process to help minimize waste when applying our coating. It’s better for the quality of our products, and it’s better for the earth. We even installed solar panels on our rooftop, which generated 6.6 million kW in 2021, or 18% of our total electrical requirement. Sustainable products aren’t a substitute, they’re the only way forward. We make our coating, we make our pans, and we make sure every product is made for the future. All our aluminum cookware vessels (excluding handles) are made from a minimum of 65% recycled aluminum. We use recycled cardboard in our packaging.

We’re committed to further incorporating recycled and sustainable materials into our processes. We’re constantly thinking about how to do our part and create a more sustainable cycle. We’ll safely recycle your old cookware because we believe in a better way to cook. You don’t have to worry about what happens to your pans, and we can make the process healthier for everyone. You may have read about companies pouring materials used to make nonstick products into rivers and streams, letting nature deal with the waste. While our process doesn’t use PFAS to begin with, we’ve taken the additional step of building a wastewater management facility onsite. The water from production is treated and reused, creating a sustainable cycle.

The Cookware Company (CWC) prepares an Annual Report in reference to GRI standards for its Board of Directors. As we are a private company, this report is not made public. The report sets forth our sustainability achievements for the previous year and provides stretching targets for the year ahead. The 2021 report covers four main offices spanning Europe, USA and Asia as well as three of our factories: two in Asia and one Europe. These office and production sites together comprise our Human Capital, which brings about strength from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Working closely with our suppliers, we raise the bar in terms of Corporate Governance, Equal Opportunities, Business Ethics, Environmental Stewardship, OHS and Social Responsibility.

By doing so, we aim to lead our industry. Two of our manufacturing sites have implemented the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System for minimizing environmental risks. In addition, our wholly owned factory in China has been awarded the Cleaner Production Partner of The Environmental Protection Department of HKSAR and Department of Industry and Information Technology in Guangdong, China. Climate Change is set as a very high priority by CWC Board of Directors with the ambition to transition towards Carbon Net Zero ahead of the Paris Agreement. Operation of our manufacturing and sales offices contribute the majority of our energy consumption and GHG emissions, which is why we promote energy efficiency across all our locations. Energy Efficiency Initiatives in progress are supported by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF – Hong Kong) under the Low Carbon Operation Programme (LOOP) and Low Carbon Manufacturing Program.

In 2018, we began installing on-site Photovoltaic Cells on the roof of our wholly owned factory in China, which has capacity to generate 6.65 Million kW hours per annum. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, we support renewable energy development through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) from the local power company, China Light and Power (CLP). The REC is attributed to sources including solar power, wind power and landfill gas projects. During the year 2021, our Hong Kong Office purchased a total of 14,000 kWh of electricity, which equates to a reduction of 5,180 kg of Carbon Emissions. An independent party was appointed in 2021 to conduct Lifecycle Analysis on 5 SKUs, which indicated that our biggest contribution to our Carbon Footprint is generated by the upstream supply chain: e.g. Aluminum raw material. Therefore, we are actively working on increasing the percentage of recycled content of our raw materials. It also provides a baseline as well as clear direction for enhancing our mitigation efforts. Further to our own reduction efforts, CWC has been engaging its customers by integrating the EcoCart on the GreenPan and GreenLife websites. This allows customers to opt into offsetting the carbon footprint made by their online order by funding a special project.