Flawed figures have led to Veja’s ‘less leather’ decision
Footwear brand Veja has published a detailed report on its carbon footprint. It said in the report that the raw materials it uses to make its shoes contribute 71% of its total carbon footprint. It went on to say that leather accounts for 97% of the impact of all of its raw materials.
Based on this, Veja said it had decided to reduce the presence of leather in its collections. It pointed out that, while 70% of the shoes in its autumn-winter collection in 2019 contained leather, the corresponding figure for autumn-winter 2020 was 51%.
In its calculations, it found that 70% of the carbon footprint that it attributes to leather occurs upstream in the supply chain, mostly from cattle farming. It attributed the remaining 30% to leather production and transportation. The European Commission has said that the share of the upstream carbon footprint attributable to leather is not 70% but 0.42%.
Paradoxically, the brand also said in the report: “Even if using leather is not always the best option, it allows us to produce long-lasting sneakers. As cows are raised and sold for their meat and not their skin, leather is considered a by-product. We give this [by-product] value.”
To its credit, Veja has been transparent enough to reveal its total carbon footprint for 2019 as 36,867 tonnes of CO2-equivalent. If 71% of this is attributable to raw materials and 97% of that figure is attributable to leather, it suggests that the leather the brand used in 2019 had a carbon footprint of 25,390 tonnes of CO2e.
Veja has also been transparent enough to reveal that, in the same year, it consumed a total of 252,697 square-metres of finished leather.
Breaking this down, it means Veja has calculated the carbon footprint of its leather at 100.5 kilos of CO2e per square-metre. This figure is implausibly high, especially taking into account that the Paris-based brand has told leatherbiz that it aims to source “the best leather in terms of quality, but also taking into account its lifecycle impact”.
In contrast to Veja’s 100.5 kilos, Scottish Leather Group calculated the carbon footprint of its finished leather at 1.4 kilos of CO2e per square-metre in 2019. That same year, UNIC calculated an average of 1.98 kilos per square-metre for its member tanneries. The industry’s best performers are achieving carbon-footprint figures that are 70 times better than Veja’s, again suggesting that Veja’s figures are flawed.
If Veja’s decision to reduce its use of leather is based on a flawed calculation of leather’s carbon footprint, it should reconsider its decision. Veja has said it believes its calculation to be correct.
Image: Veja.
