Environmental Sustainability in the Leather Value Chain

Sustainability has emerged as one of the most important requirements for any business and as such goes hand in hand with leather manufacturing. Debates on the sustainability of real leather is a hot topic in for example the fashion industry, which is encountering a selection of alternative materials and sometimes confusing messaging. It is also experienced that a concept of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is often requested as input data from a supplier, without realizing what an LCA is,  what it takes to perform it or what it is meant to be used for.

In this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) paper, we explain the basics for a better understanding of the concept of environmental sustainability, focusing on the leather industry. In this context most of the generally recognized, common methods to measure sustainability such as biodegradability and LCA are also explained.

This FAQ was written to offer our knowledge in accelerating the process of creating a socially and environmentally sustainable leather value chain in a responsible and circular society.

Dr. Yujie Ma, Senior Scientist
Lorenzo Taddei, Product Development Engineer
Lilian Chang, Global Director R&D
Egbert Dikkers, Global Director Sustainability