This has happened more than once: a company makes public pronouncements about leaving leather behind it and draws opprobrium from people inside the industry’s active and loud but limited bubble. If it later changes its mind, perhaps after realising that the financial benefits of bringing leather products to market outweigh the extra complications involved in sourcing and using the material, the bubble’s reaction can include schadenfreude and even a tiny bit of triumphalism.

The strictest standards

Polestar’s name has been around since the 1990s, but it was only in 2017 that owners Volvo and Chinese group Geely Motors decided to launch it formally as a standalone brand devoted to electric vehicles. Its first car, the now discontinued Polestar 1, went into production in 2019, with the Polestar 2 following in 2020. It generated a high level of publicity by emphasising that it was using “vegan WeaveTech upholstery” in the interior of these vehicles instead of leather. The Polestar 2 even won ‘Best of the Best’ in product design in the 2021 edition of the prestigious Red Dot Awards. Head of design, Maximilian Missoni, said Polestar was determined to challenge all the “old notions of what premium means in the car industry” and it was clear in the early days that he viewed a preference for plastic in the seat covers as part of that.

As World Leather reported in April-May 2022, the automotive company then had a change of heart and said it would begin offering customers leather upholstery as an option in the Polestar 2. And when it launched the Polestar 3 in October, it kept the leather option in place. Head of sustainability, Fredrika Klarén, says the company has put leather into the mix because it has found upholstery leather that meets its sustainability credentials. She explains: “We require that all leather used in Polestar products must live up to the strictest standards on animal welfare, along with being fully traceable and chrome-free.” Bridge of Weir, part of Scottish Leather Group (SLG), is the supplier that convinced the company to come into the pro-leather camp. It is now wearing its love of leather with pride.

Kindred spirits

At the start of 2023, the Gothenburg-based electric vehicle manufacturer announced its decision to apply clear labelling on the seats of the Polestar 3, highlighting the sustainability credentials of the leather it is using. It said it regards these labels as “a badge of honour”. In its announcement it explained that it was proud to present the nappa leather it has sourced from Bridge of Weir as 100% traceable, chrome-free, and animal welfare-secured. The rawhides are sourced from responsible suppliers in the UK and Ireland. Bridge of Weir’s lifecycle assessment (LCA), with independently verified data, shows that the material has a carbon footprint of 8.1 kilos of CO₂-equivalent per square-metre, the lowest published figure for leather anywhere in the world so far. Polestar said this labelling initiative will show consumers that its commitment to transparency is serious.

It knows Bridge of Weir’s commitment to transparency is equally serious and refers to the leather manufacturer as “a kindred spirit”. It has shared with all its stakeholders extensive comments from SLG’s head of innovation and sustainability, Dr Warren Bowden, explaining the leather manufacturing group’s approach.

Beautiful, sustainable leather

The LCA information that Polestar is including in its new labels is independently created and verified, Dr Bowden says, ensuring what he calls “100% confidence in the figures presented”. The group has in place what he describes as “a patented circular manufacturing process that helps minimise waste and radically reduces carbon footprint without any carbon offsetting”. Integral to this is an on-site thermal energy plant that Bridge of Weir formally unveiled in 2010.

Here, Dr Bowden calculates, more than 50% of each rawhide in weight is reclaimed as energy and converted into steam, generating heat for the leather production process. He talks of borrowing the water Bridge of Weir uses; it treats, recycles and reuses as much as it can and further treats water it cannot reuse before sending it back into the eco-system. Most of the water that enters the production system comes from an on-site loch, which SLG owns. The LCA study concluded from all of this that Bridge of Weir’s water consumption is zero.

Since 2017, the leather manufacturer has been using certified 100% renewable electricity. “This also dramatically reduced the carbon intensity per hide of our leather,” Dr Bowden explains. He goes on to say that SLG has command of 100% traceability of the raw hides it sources from its suppliers in the UK and Ireland. Furthermore, he points out that these are “two of the highest-rated territories globally in the Animal Protection Index”. This index is compiled by a non-profit organisation called World Animal Protection and covers 50 countries, with governments, chief veterinary officers and the World Organisation for Animal Health verifying the data. The tannery is also audited by multi-stakeholder body the Leather Working Group and has a rating of 100% for traceability from it.

Dr Bowden says: “These credentials are important as they reassure our customers of the provenance and sustainability of our raw materials. All our own suppliers sign a code of conduct enabling full traceability of our supply chain. We are committed to producing a quality leather product for our customers and our local procurement policy ensures quality raw materials. High standards of animal welfare are important to us as they ensure high-quality raw materials. At the end of the cattle’s life, we take the discarded hides and make them into beautiful, sustainable leather.”

Ethically superior

His message to Polestar is that, with the rise of electric vehicles and fossil fuel-free transportation, it should be clear to everyone that leather, “a truly biobased circular material, made using second-generation biomaterials, is ethically superior”. Then he points out that leather outperforms the alternatives technically in terms of durability, comfort and aesthetic appeal. He says leather is “re-emerging as the material of choice in the premium electric vehicle sector”.

The automotive company’s response is that it has “a moonshot goal” (in other words, a lofty ambition) to make a climate-neutral car by 2030 and it likes the fact that SLG has made clear its ambition to create carbon-neutral leather by 2025. Warren Bowden explains that this ambition extends to making SLG a carbon-neutral company by 2030. Then, every square-metre of leather the group produces will be carbon-neutral and will have the LCA data to prove it. “We have achieved more than 90% progress towards net-zero,” he says, “without offsetting. We have a clear roadmap to complete our journey, including our own self-generated renewable energy plant with solar panels to supplement our existing energy recovery plant and green-energy generation.”

It seems clear to him that Bridge of Weir and Polestar are “on the same page”. He describes the car company as “a progressive, challenger brand”, with a clear commitment towards sustainability. “Bridge of Weir has the same commitment and passion,” he says. “We too strive to lead the way in our own sector with the responsible, sustainable manufacture of leather and we believe that we can work with Polestar to help it achieve its climate-neutral ambitions.”

Instead of recoiling in horror when messages that were unsupportive of leather came out of Polestar in the early days, SLG has worked quietly behind the scenes to use facts, figures, science and documented proof to show the automotive company what the benefits of using leather are. It has listened to Polestar and taken on board the company’s commitment to producing a climate-neutral car. It then set about showing its customer that using leather can help make its dream come true. 

Polestar’s head of sustainability, Fredrika Klarén.

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