Volvo fails to fill the hole in its leather logic
Automotive group Volvo has responded to questions leatherbiz put to it after its announcement that it will eliminate leather from its cars by 2030.
Our questions centred on an obvious hole in the thinking Volvo seems to have used in reaching its decision. In all of the statements it has made on the subject, it has failed to recognise that hides and leather are by-products of the livestock, meat and dairy sectors.
In March, it said it would put synthetic material in the interior of its C40 Recharge electric vehicle instead of leather out of its concern for animal welfare.
In a separate statement on September 23, it said it would go entirely leather-free by 2030, repeating its claim that this would, somehow, help improve animal welfare. In the September statement, it added references to the “negative environmental impacts of cattle farming, including deforestation”.
Responding to our point that hides will continue to accrue from cattle slaughter driven by demand for meat and dairy whether tanners turn them into leather or not, Volvo started by recognising that the raw hides used to make the leather in Volvo cars today “are responsibly sourced as by-products from the beef industry”.
But it said it had “significant sustainability concerns related to farming, particularly cattle farming”. It said it regarded these concerns as being “intertwined with the leather industry”. And it said it believed reduced demand for would support animal.
Asked what it thought would change on farms if Volvo and others stopped using leather, it repeated its assumption that lower demand for leather would, somehow, “help combat” challenges such as methane emissions from cattle. It did not explain how.
