COTANCE continues to have support for EU pilot
13/05/2014
Last year, COTANCE applied successfully for leather to be the focus of one of a series of ‘green product’ pilots the European Commission will lead, starting in June 2014. But before this work starts, the Commission asked representatives of the leather, meat, dairy, animal feed and pet food sectors to form a new working group that will attempt to agree “system boundaries between the stakeholders in the cattle value chain” on how to share environmental responsibilities.
On May 12, COTANCE said that, with some responses still to come, members of a “technical secretariat” it has set up to help it run the pilot, which includes World Leather, have encouraged it to agree to take part in the working group.
“Members responded positively,” COTANCE said in a statement, “including Europe’s most important leather-producing country, Italy, which has more than 50% of the EU’s total production.” Participating tanners in the technical secretariat, Pittards and the Scottish Leather Group, also gave support, as did leather chemicals manufacturer Stahl, the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies and the International Council of Tanners (ICT).
In sending a response on behalf of his organisation, ICT secretary, Paul Pearson, said: “We agree that it is very important that the leather sector is involved in the working group. This is a fundamental issue in the calculation of any environmental footprint of leather and the sector cannot afford not to be involved.”
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