Genuine leather, key in reducing the environmental footprint of the fashion industry

Original content posted by: RealLeather.

The enormous environmental impact of the fashion industry has been highlighted by research by the UK’s Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA).  It found that half (49 per cent) of 100,000 sampled products from online retailers were made entirely of new plastics. Low cost and disposable, these can quickly end up in landfill.

As consumers look at sustainability, the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) is campaigning to see the millions of surplus hides, currently burnt or thrown away, used instead to deliver long lasting leather goods. It sets out some of the key figures in its new video short that can be viewed below.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calculates that the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions, an impact compounded by pollution caused by production of synthetic materials which ranges from chemical waste to microplastics. The US leather industry uses 83% of the hides from dairy and meat, some 27.5 million hides per year, and is committed to ensuring that the remaining 17% (5.5 million) are not burnt or sent to landfill but used to make clothing or shoes.

You can read the original post HERE.

The urgent need of the leather industry to communicate and explain itself

Original content posted by: LEATHER CLUSTER BARCELONA.

Last October, the Leather Cluster Barcelona organized a conference at the Adoberia Bella in Igualada, where the main lines of communication that should guide the sector in the short and medium term were presented. A participatory session open to the entire value chain of the leather industry in Catalonia with the aim of sharing key messages, story, pillars of content and channels to highlight the leather as a benchmark for circular economy and sustainable fashion.

During the day, which aroused a lot of interest in the leather sector, the cluster highlighted the urgent obligation of the leather industry to explain itself, to communicate and to make itself known. Leather Cluster Barcelona detailed the work it is doing to work on communication proactively with the aim of helping to change the current perception that an important part of society has about the industry, often skewed, as as a result of anti-leather campaigns.

The session also explained the need for the leather sector worldwide to share knowledge, weave collaborations and generate synergies to meet the great communicative challenge of reaching the general population and the consumer in particular. A strategy with the aim of communicating to the world, working from local to global action, to contact and reach all audiences. Generating content to inform society and that can be used by other associations and agents in the leather sector from around the world to reach society in general, providing information for, where appropriate, a responsible and sustainable purchase.

You can read the original post HERE.

International leather industry calls on COP26 to reduce reliance on fossil-fuels, prioritise natural materials

Original content posted by: COTANCE.

COTANCE, along with 30 other international leather industry organizations, today called on the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to have a fresh look at natural materials. The “Leather Manifesto” asks the COP26 to recognise the cyclical, climate-efficient characteristics of natural fibres and their aptitude to reduce the climate impacts of consumer products.

“Natural fibres are part of the biogenic carbon cycle and as such are comprised of carbon that has been in the atmosphere for a millennia,” the Leather Manifesto states. “These readily available raw materials, when ethically and properly produced, are an important replacement for fossil fuels, reducing the need for its extraction and retaining more carbon in the earth. Furthermore, at the end of life, properly produced natural materials will biodegrade, limiting their impact and mitigating harmful emissions, such as microplastic pollution, often associated with synthetic materials.”

The signatories further note that leather risks being penalised because of a lack of understanding of its nature. Producers of leather substitutes, often fossil fuel-based synthetic alternatives, use this confusion to make unsubstantiated claims about their sustainability.

“Leather exists because Mankind discovered a way to transform a residue of meat production into a durable material that would otherwise rot causing harm to human health and the environment. Can we afford losing this beautiful, natural and renewable resource that has been with us since the eve of time?” said COTANCE President Manuel Rios (INPELSA, Spain).

You can read the original post HERE.