Alejandro Pena has been the company’s thought leader and transformational guidepost since he was first appointed to his position in 2017. After spending over a quarter of a century in product experience, Pena would take his talents to Keter Group following a successful run at Rubbermaid. Honing in on high concepts like corporate responsibility and sustainability, Pena has been one of the focal points in the company’s successful growth in recent years.

Pena’s focus on corporate sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and priming the company for greener initiatives has led the charge. Along the way, Pena has helped to transform the Keter Group into a leader in the space.

Beginning With Resin

Keter Group has been in existence for years as a sustainable supplier of home and garden decor. Creating their products from sustainable resin-based materials, Keter has been lauded for products that require little by way of maintenance. This can be best exemplified by any of Keter’s Adirondack Chair products, nicknamed the ‘Zero Wood Chair’.

According to the team of researchers at Keter, for every 1,000 chairs that the company produces, it will save over 26 pounds of wood as well as more than 50 trees. Pena says of this outcome, “One of the benefits of using resin materials is that they can be recycled.”

Understanding that recycling isn’t always a first thought among consumers, Pena has made a concentrated effort to showcase the benefits of the practice to more and more people. Pena went on to say, “We’re starting to be more proactive in trying to collect back many of these products that are being discarded.”

Leading with Sustainable Strategies

Keter hasn’t found itself at the top of the sustainable food chain by accident. Instead, they’ve been focused on building their platform for a long time. It all began when Keter chose to work with recycled resin over virgin resin, thus reducing the company’s exposure to energy waste, GHG emissions, water consumption, and smog.

Pena says of the recycled resin efforts that they utilize, “It is very important to understand that all Keter products can and should be recycled.”

According to the team of statisticians at Keter, the company has prevented more than 680 metric tons of greenhouse gasses from being emitted into the environment every year. For comparison’s sake, that much greenhouse gas is roughly the equivalent of 565 passenger vehicles driving on the road for an entire year.

Another way that Pena helps to guide the company toward greener outcomes is by maintaining sustainable manufacturing strategies. This means putting production facilities in the region where products will eventually end up getting purchased.

Pena added, “During the pandemic, we were able to leverage our global footprint and avoid long lead times that our competition had.”