PrimeAsia completes lifecycle assessment of its leather
Tanning group PrimeAsia has announced the completion of a 12-month exercise to carry out a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of its leather production. It said it had concentrated on using the “high-quality primary data” that came out of a detailed analysis of all elements that contribute to the environmental impact of its production processes.
This evaluation covered 266 processes phases, collecting 3,000 data points from operations in five different countries.
Chief executive, Jon Clark, said discussions about the sustainability of different materials are likely to become more and more important in the coming years. He added, though, that many of these discussions seemed to him to be based on assumptions or on “generic and outdated data”.
He explained that PrimeAsia had decided to carry out a detailed LCA exercise, collecting precise primary data “to be able to manage our efficiencies in a more precise way”.
The group’s chief sustainability officer, Fernando Bellese, said: “This is not the end, but rather the beginning of a continuous process aimed at adopting LCA thinking as a way to confront our beliefs and provide more reliable, science-based data that will support the decisions aimed at achieving our sustainability goals.”
PrimeAsia worked on this project with Spin 360, a Milan-based environmental consulting company with more than 10 years’ experience in developing LCAs for the luxury, footwear and leather sectors.
Spin 360 founder, Federico Brugnoli explains his current thinking on LCA and his reasons for moving away from using a single number to present leather’s carbon footprint in an interview in World Leather February-March. The interview is available to read here and an audio version will be available in the coming days as part of the World Leather Podcast series.
