A new circular strategy for leather and textiles, soon to be released by the European Union (EU), promises to underscore the significant role leather continues to play in promoting a fair and closed-loop economy. World Leather takes a closer look at how the evergreen material relates to the EU’s approach to sustainable employment so far. 

According to a European Commission document published last year, A new circular economy action plan: for a cleaner and more competitive Europe, the number of jobs considered to be linked to the circular economy across the EU’s single market, the world’s largest, increased by 5% to reach roughly 4 million between the years 2012 and 2018. Earlier, in 2019, the same organisation released the European Green Deal, which it described as a new economic development strategy intended to stimulate a fair, modern, resource-efficient, competitive and more circular economy, home to zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and “where economic growth is decoupled from resource use”.

To achieve its vision of a climate neutral and circular economy over the next several decades, the Commission called for the full mobilisation of industry. “It takes 25 years – a generation – to transform an industrial sector and all the value chains … decisions and actions need to be taken in the next five years,” it said. At the time of the deal’s publication, “linear” (ie, non-circular) sectors - broadly inclusive of parts of the textile, garment, leather and footwear (TGLF) value chains, plus others – accounted for 20% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, the document points out that only 12% of materials used, industry-wide, have been recycled and therefore not newly extracted (and emitting) for the purpose of further production.

An updated EU strategy for sustainable textiles, specifically, including leather, is expected to be communicated during the third quarter of this year. A public consultation on the proposal as it currently stands is ongoing and accessible online, with the feedback period ending on August 4 at midnight Brussels time.

Greening the labour market

The transition [to a circular economy] is an opportunity to expand sustainable and job-intensive economic activity. There is significant potential in global markets for low-emission technologies, sustainable products and services. Likewise, the circular economy offers great potential for new activities and jobs. However, the transformation is taking place at too slow a place with progress neither widespread nor uniform. The European Green Deal will support and accelerate the EU’s industry transition to a sustainable model of inclusive growth.

In last year’s circular economy action plan, its most recent, the Commission went further:

For business, working together on creating the framework for sustainable products will provide new opportunities in the EU and beyond. This progressive, yet irreversible transition to a sustainable economic system is an indispensable part of the new EU industrial strategy. A 2018 study [by Cambridge Econometrics, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment, ICF and Trinomics] estimates that applying circular economy principles across the EU economy has the potential to increase EU GDP by an additional 0.5% by 2030, creating around 700,000 new jobs.

As per the 2019 green deal, for these new, more circularity-minded jobs to be inclusive of all workers, proactive reskilling and upskilling of the local workforce is therefore required, in order for what the Commission describes as the benefits of this “ecological transition” to penetrate throughout European society.

Hence, late November of 2020 saw the European Council publish its recommendations on modernised vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, including discussion on “evolving” jobs, lifelong employability and social inclusion, among other factors, linked to the EU’s covid-19 recovery and its transition to an increasingly green and digitised society. Later that same month, the Osnabrück Declaration, which framed the shift to green and digital work as a significant potential enabling force behind the EU’s economic recovery from the ravages of the pandemic, was approved by the European member states, Commission, social partners and other relevant bodies.

Leather means (green) business

Unpacking what all this means for leather and leathergoods production is critical for the industry, particularly in terms of futureproofing its existing workforce, as well as boosting the vocational attractiveness of the sector for future, green-minded trainees. European fashion and leathergoods specialists at the luxury end of the spectrum, such as Hermès, LVMH (the parent company behind Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Loewe and Celine, for example) and Kering (Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Balenciaga, among others) are very aware of this and, understandably, dominate public perception of leathergoods due to their globally felt influence.

Last month, Hermès opened its eighteenth leather workshop, whereas the 75 luxury brands under LVMH’s umbrella together signed an artisanship pact to better promote and preserve their vocational know-how within the creative, craft and sales experience trades in late July. Swiss group Richemont also recently acquired the world’s oldest luxury leathergoods company, Belgium’s Delvaux. This is perhaps the best signal of the continued business interest in luxury leather manufacturing and, therefore, its producers and artisans. Undeniably, luxury’s stake in leather is incredibly positive for the material’s reputation as a premium, naturally derived material in many respects, particularly as many of these brands publish far-reaching sustainability reports which spotlight the use and reuse value of leather as a secondary raw material. (World Leather looked in-depth at Kering’s circularity strategy as it pertains to leather and leathergoods in our last issue, for instance.)

Yet, especially given the fact that several of the abovementioned companies have toyed with “alternative” materials of plant or other non-animal origin (while, at least in the case of Gucci’s Demetra and Hermès’ Sylvania, processing and finishing them much in the same way as genuine leather) in the recent past, touting the so-called eco-conscious credentials of these new fabrics, it is important to remember that the court of ever-fickle public opinion is easily confused. To continue to attract the best talent to fill its vocational positions, particularly as these evolve to meet the demands of an increasingly circularity-incentivised EU economy, at least, it would be wise for the industry to communicate its position as a well-established home for the ecologically and socially astute, in line with what has so far been said about the common market’s green recommendations.

Display your credentials

As touched upon above, one example of this would be the Commission’s emphasis on boosting industry’s use of recycled materials. Leather not only inherently involves the upcycling of waste as an otherwise landfilled by-product of the meat and dairy industry, but its offcuts are also eminently recyclable. As shown by Kering recently, Gucci alone was able to recycle 27 tonnes of its leather scraps between 2018 and 2020, for example. In 2020, the same brand collected and reused 25 tonnes of leather offcuts as plant fertiliser. Smaller leather-making companies involved in similar, closed-loop recycling schemes also need to publicise their efforts, in order to both enhance the perceived “greenness” of existing sector jobs as well as better establish themselves as ongoing providers of competitive, resilient and potentially lifelong employment and training opportunities.

Beyond recycling, though, the EU has highlighted the need to reduce and reuse materials before they ever reach this stage. We have repeatedly shown in earlier issues how pre-owned leathergoods can be kept in circulation for longer thanks to resale, for instance, owing to tanned and finished leather’s exceptional durability. Although the EU has privileged the repairability of electronics over that of leather in its communications thus far, the leather industry is already well aware of the material’s suitability for repair. Pointing to the increasing viability – and visibility – of leathergoods repair as a future growth industry in its own right, luxury e-tailer Farfetch launched Farfetch Fix for products including leathergoods and footwear alongside London-based boutique repairs firm The Restory earlier in 2021.

Moving somewhat into the digital sphere (as we have seen, green and digital enterprise appear to be closely linked for the Commission going forward), the Green Deal further hinted at a potential e-passport for purchases, designed to inform consumers about a product’s origin, composition, repair and dismantling possibilities, plus recommended end of life handling. In April last year, a coalition of social and environmental non-governmental organisations published what it called a civil society European strategy for TGLF industries ahead of the forthcoming EU recommendations for sustainable textiles, in which an electronic passport for materials including leather was stressed as a useful idea.

It remains to be seen how the Commission’s forthcoming guidelines will take shape for the sector, but leather businesses will do well to stay alert to applicable VET incentives, especially as they relate to the proven value of leather to a contemporary, skilled circular economy. 

As a secondary raw material, there is an established place for leather in the green economy. 

All credits: Gruppo Dani

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