A new programme of data collection and supply chain collaboration can help leather make a fresh impression on brands.

There are now “documented cases” of tanners producing carbon-neutral leather. There are leather manufacturers who have the numbers and the analysis to show that the leather they produce, and the supply chain activity upstream of their operations, absorb more carbon dioxide than they emit. These are among the key findings of a new approach that tanners in Italy have led, working in partnership with Milan-based consultancy Spin 360. They say the work they have done and are continuing to do can be of benefit to the whole of the global leather industry.

Large, public-facing companies have openly declared ambitious-sounding emissions targets. Adidas wants to reduce its emissions by more than 40% by 2030. Nike says it will reduce its emissions by 65% by the same year. At luxury group LVMH, the stated goals are to halve greenhouse gas emissions across scopes one and two by the end of this year and reduce its emissions “per unit of added value” by 55% across scope three by 2030. As a reminder, scope-one emissions are direct emissions from company-owned and -controlled resources. Scope two covers indirect emissions from the energy an organisation consumes in its own facilities. Scope three expands this to indirect emissions from upstream and downstream supply-chain partners. Kering has a target of reducing the total amount of greenhouse gas the group emits, by 40%, but it is giving itself until 2035 to achieve this.

In automotive, BMW has said it will cut its emissions by at least 60 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent by 2035. Toyota is aiming to cut vehicle use emissions by 50% by the same date.

One voice

Leather manufacturers are going beyond this today. They are producing material that is climate-positive. Others in the industry can follow suit and offer high-quality, traceable, circular leather to brands.

This was the clear position of Fabrizio Nuti, the president of Italy’s national tanning industry body UNIC, in opening remarks he made at a presentation at APLF in Hong Kong in March. Speaking to senior leather industry figures from all parts of the world, Mr Nuti said UNIC and its technical partner, Spin 360, have already put together “documented cases of zero emissions” in their work on a supply chain collaboration programme that they are calling Leather Leaders. “And with leather there is the potential to go below zero,” Mr Nuti said. “With synthetic materials, that potential is not there.” 

Science and data are the keys to achieving and demonstrating climate-positive leather, Mr Nuti explains. He adds that new science emerging on biogenic carbon will help the global leather industry present itself in a positive light. This is based on the fact that emissions from natural materials such as wool, mohair, cashmere and leather are different from those that come from the production of synthetic alternatives.

Use of fossil fuels puts into the atmosphere carbon that had been stored for millions of years. With biogenic carbon, living organisms, including livestock, absorb carbon from the plants they eat and return a high proportion of it to nature for it to be reabsorbed. Mr Nuti supports moves for developers and suppliers of natural fibres to “speak with one voice” on the importance of the distinction between emissions from fossil fuels and biogenic carbon. He also says there is a growing acceptance that commonly quoted lifecycle assessment figures underestimate the environmental impact of synthetic alternatives and, at the same time, some momentum is building up behind the easy-to-understand idea that calculations of a product’s impact ought to take into account the longevity of the material it is made from. “The only credible path to sustainability is for brands to buy materials that science and data prove are better,” he concludes.

Spin 360’s founder and chief executive, Federico Brugnoli, confirms that 13 tanners are already involved in the Leather Leaders programme and that leather chemicals suppliers support the initiative. He is keen for more to join them. The 13 tanners, whom he describes as the programme’s pioneers, are Nuti Ivo, Gruppo Dani, Rino Mastrotto, Gruppo Mastrotto, Montebello, Volpi, Incas, Masoni, Deviconcia, Antiba, BCN, Settebello and Russo di Casandrino. 

Brand requirements

He views the work this group has done so far in a positive light. This is welcome, and in his view there is much for the leather industry to be positive about even if, as he puts it, many luxury brands are restructuring and are in wait-and-see mode. “Some sports brands,” he adds, without naming names, “bought more leather than ever in 2025.”

Consumer opinion matters, but Mr Brugnoli says brands matter more because it is brands’ purchasing teams, pushed by their design colleagues, who choose the materials they put into their products. For Leather Leaders, 20 brands are going to form an advisory group and will approve a roadmap for taking the programme forward. 

The names of the 20 brands are not yet in the public domain, but the roadmap is already in place, at least in draft form. It contains 29 criteria. Tanners can use data they collect from their supply chain partners and from their own manufacturing activity to show they comply with these 29 points. “We think it is complete,” Mr Brugnoli says, “and we have introduced it to the brands, but with 20 different brand headquarters involved in the approval process, it was always going to take time to reach agreement.”

What the roadmap will lead to, he hopes, is a clear method for showing that leather manufacturers can meet the challenges of regulation.

Passport requirements

There is no turning back on regulation, Mr Brugnoli argues. Nor is this a challenge solely for companies working in or trading with the European Union (EU). He points out that China may activate measures such as digital product passports faster than the EU. This would be a historical first, he notes (please see article on this question on page 24). Digital product passports will make details of a product’s materials, origin and environmental impact accessible to buyers. In the EU, digital product passports are part of a wider programme, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). This came into force in July 2024, but, in typical fashion, roll-out is gradual. Leather, for example, will be part of wider digital product passport rules for textiles. Detailed rules might come this year, but will probably take until 2027. Compliance in the EU may not come into effect until late 2028.

Timelines are one thing. The Spin 360 founder points out that, sooner or later, action will be necessary and that supply chain partners are going to have to learn to share data better than they have done traditionally. “There are specific needs of retailers and brands that require a huge amount of data,” he says.

Changing landscape

The work will be hard, but the landscape is changing and many of the changes are favourable, according to the programme team. Federico Brugnoli has been working on methods for calculating leather’s carbon footprint for the best part of two decades now. He insists that the way the world measures environmental impact is undergoing significant change. He explains that planetary boundaries, a series of processes that define a safe operating space for humanity, encompass more than carbon emissions. In fact, they cover nine different areas, including land-system change and ocean acidification as well as climate change. “Planetary boundaries are playing a big role in universities now,” he says. “This is important. One of the nine areas of focus is called ‘novel elements’, which refers to humans putting into the environment substances whose long-term consequences we do not know. This includes microplastics. This is relevant for us because natural fibres don’t normally produce microplastics.”

In the land-system change area, the rise of regenerative agriculture is helping leather’s cause, improving the value of farm properties, producing good food and good materials. The Leather Leaders programme sees great potential in connections between the food industry and the sectors that use the natural fibres their farms generate.

As mentioned, climate change is part of the planetary boundaries model, too. Federico Brugnoli says something else that will help the leather industry is last year’s finding from Cologne-based think-tank nova-Institute that there has been “a major underestimation” of methane emissions from oil and gas. “The scientific evidence is still building,” he says, “and, in this case, it is satellite imaging that is helping us.” 

The nova-Institute specialises in defossilisation and renewable carbon. It carried out analysis that shows global methane emissions from oil production are likely to be 15 times higher than the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) has claimed. For natural gas, the institute said emissions are up to 3.8 times higher in key producing countries than IOGP has estimated. It says downstream products such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate, which are all types of plastic in use in consumer products, should now carry carbon footprints that are between 20% and 30% higher than previous lifecycle assessment figures have suggested. “Tanners want to take their share of responsibility, but we have to be fair,” Mr Brugnoli comments.

Next steps

What will happen next is that a pilot phase will launch, with all indications pointing to the middle of this year for it to begin. The 13 pioneering tanneries are those who will take part in the pilot. It will not have escaped readers’ notice that all 13 of them operate in Italy. “What we want from the pilot is to be able to assess whether or not we are on the right track,” the Spin 360 chief executive explains. “The pilot will focus on Italy, but after that we will be able to scale. There is a lot of interest in this from tanners outside Italy, indeed from tanners outside Europe.” The idea is for leather manufacturers to gain certification under the Leather Leaders banner.

For them to qualify, they will have to meet customers’ demands for the quality of their finished leather while fulfilling the rest of the programme’s 29 criteria. These include chemical compliance, environ-mental management, health and safety, traceability, animal welfare, durability and corporate social responsibility.

Consumer impact

It will be up to brands to work out how best to share progress on this with consumers. Most consumers want to respect the environment and live responsibly, but Federico Brugnoli wonders out loud how much they really care about the detail behind a label claiming sustainability or circularity.

“The point is that we are in business-to-business (b2b),” he explains, “not in business-to-consumer. And brands really do care. What we want here is to create an opportunity to communicate well in the b2b context. If we had a budget of, say, $1.5 million and tried to use it to connect to consumers, the money would run out in half a day. But you could do a lot of b2b communication with that amount of money.”

Buy better

Summing up the programme, Fabrizio Nuti says its aim is to strengthen the scientific foundation of the leather sector through reliable, measurable, comparable methodologies. It is in Leather Leaders’ work on this so far that cases have come up showing that the upstream environmental impact of hides is zero, he insists, and, through calculating biogenic carbon accurately, it can be less than zero.

“You have to keep in mind that 90% of the environmental impact that brands report derives from purchased goods,” Fabrizio Nuti says. “This means the materials they are buying. Buying better, and using science, data and supply chain collaboration and transparency to establish what really is better, is the only credible and sustainable way forward for brands. With Leather Leaders we are taking an important step, shaping a new strategy and a new, science-based approach for our sector.”

A more accurate assessment of biogenic carbon, compared to emissions from fossil fuels, can make a big difference to brands’ perception of leather. Credit: SLG

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