Aukje Berden, ESG Director Royal Smit & Zoon has a well-known mission: “To create a socially and environmentally sustainable leather value chain, together.” In our annual ESG Report we share our goals and achievements – the drops that make a difference – and our ESG Roadmap 2025 that outlines our path towards that mission. Challenges for the leather industry The year 2025 approaches quickly and we recognize the urgency to update our roadmap to anticipate on challenges: Challenges to our planetary boundaries. For example climate change posing a significant risk, directly affecting the food system on which we (and our business) depend; Rising stakeholder expectations; Demands for transparency and traceability on the environmental and social impacts across supply chains; Reduction of CO2 emissions as a critical issue; An unprecedented number of new laws and regulations for our industry driven by the EU and its’ Green Deal to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. For example, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Double Materiality Assessment Recognizing the importance of updating our current ESG approach and roadmap, we have started our Double Materiality Assessment as required by the CSRD. This assessment involves engaging with our stakeholders worldwide to understand their perspectives on ESG topics, impacts, risks and opportunities that Royal Smit & Zoon should prioritize over the coming years. For example, we are holding in-depth conversations with a selection of our highly valued customers across the globe, industry associations and educational institutions. We are also organizing an online supplier and agent survey and will consult all our employees worldwide to learn from them where they think we can make the biggest difference and how they would like to contribute. We will consolidate the output of the assessment into a matrix (Double Materiality Matrix), and use the focal topics, impacts, risks and opportunities identified for defining and setting priorities for our updated ESG Strategy. For us, this means we will go through a process late this year to update and define ESG objectives, targets and KPI’s, and steering later accordingly for execution and reporting. The way forward It is a challenging exercise, but we believe it is the only way forward. It has already brought us so many incredibly valuable learnings and insights. We are sincerely grateful to everyone who contributed thus far! ESG is a journey of continuous improvement and collaboration, that can support our entire value chain in becoming more sustainable. So please also consider this as an invitation to engage with us on this path! Let us work together and leave a positive legacy for future generations. Interesting for you Discover more on The leather industry Certifications for safer chemistry you should know about How to source sustainable materials? Asking for the right certifications helps. For the leather supply chain there are 4 certification every brand should know of. 6 vital elements in Post COVID-19 era The leather industry has been in transition for some years, with many value chain partners delivering very positive results. In this blog I am describing how I see the Post-COVID-19 period in the leather industry. I will do this by highlighting six of the major elements the industry is focusing or should be focusing on, for a sustainable society. What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)? Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodological tool used to quantitatively analyze the environmental impacts of products/services throughout their life cycle. The leather industry Discover Stay informed Receive the latest company news and industry updates Subscribe Share this: