FT publishes letter from World Leather
02/07/2012
Mr Zeitz complained that leather was one of the biggest contributors to Puma’s overall carbon emissions and he said the brand wanted to use less leather as a result. He said that analysis Puma has carried out shows that the biggest environmental impact in its value chain occurs among its tier-four suppliers, those who source raw materials from nature, including the cattle that are the source of its leather.
In the letter, World Leather raised a point that University of Colorado academic Dr Temple Grandin has made, that cows offset their own carbon emissions by encouraging pastures to grow wherever they graze, often on land unsuited to cultivation. When new pastures grow, they absorb carbon emissions. Really big contributors to global carbon emissions, including landfill sites, coal-fired power stations and rice paddies cannot offset their own contributions in the same way.
Another point in the letter is the obvious one that landfill sites would become far more full than they already are if by-products from the global meat industry, including hides, went into them instead of into tanneries to make leather.
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