LHCA and World Wildlife Fund announce new partnership
Conservation group The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Leather & Hide Council of America (LHCA). The two organisations have said they are joining forces to collaborate on a series of initiatives aimed at enhancing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in the US leather industry.
LHCA said it was confident this initiative would position the US industry as a global leader in sustainable leather production.
“This is a historic moment for the leather industry,” said LHCA president, Stephen Sothmann. “By partnering with WWF and embracing ESG practices as a central tenet of its business culture, the US leather industry is poised to take the lead in addressing the most critical challenges we face today and will face in the future.”
With support and guidance from WWF, LHCA said it will act as a conduit for projects that will help US companies adopt “robust systems and processes to construct, implement, and demonstrate progress on science-based, data-driven ESG commitments”.
These projects will address deforestation, water stewardship, human rights, zero net greenhouse gas emissions and other topics. The partnership, which builds on previous collaboration efforts between the two organisations, will also seek to promote dialogue with stakeholders in academia, non-government bodies, the public sector and financial institutions.
WWF’s senior director for beef and leather supply chains in the US, Mauricio Bauer, said the organisation views the US leather sector as “well positioned to significantly contribute towards decoupling deforestation from global leather value chains”. He insisted that the new partnership represented “an important step forward in this direction” and would help the wider global leather sector.
