New agreement between Scottish Leather Group and university
25/01/2012
Student interaction, sponsored academic programmes, joint research, knowledge transfer activity, consultancy work, and staff education and training programmes are among the activities that the tanning group believes will take place as a result of the new partnership.
Professor Seamus McDaid, UWS principal and vice-chancellor, said on announcing the agreement: “Scottish Leather Group is a hugely successful business based in the west of Scotland with a growing international client portfolio and this partnership will aid the group as it continues to go from strength to strength. This partnership will bring an added dimension to the university and provide new opportunities for both staff and students to get involved in project work in a dynamic and fast moving industrial setting.”
In response, the chairman of Scottish Leather Group, Jonathan Muirhead, said that it was investment in education, training and technology that allowed the group to develop initiatives such as Low Carbon Leather. What makes the group's leather "low carbon" is a new thermal energy plant.
Opened in 2010, this plant takes what was previously waste sent straight to landfill from the tanneries and converts it directly to energy for heating the huge volumes of recycled water required in the manufacturing process. "Leather manufacturing has moved from being a craft-based industry to [one that adopts] new technologies," Mr Muirhead said, "and our own innovation has enabled us to be in control of the complete manufacturing process in a sustainable way."
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