First brands ‘invest’ in Textile Exchange’s LIA
Texas-based non-profit Textile Exchange recently announced that fashion brands Ralph Lauren and H&M had become the first-ever investors in its Leather Impact Accelerator (LIA) impact partnership incentives scheme.
As a result of the project, farmers will be supported in the preservation of their forests, including preventing loss from fires, Textile Exchange said. Farmers will also be provided with training and assistance in becoming certified to a LIA-approved animal welfare standard.
According to the non-profit, the intention behind the LIA scheme is to, firstly, encourage brands to “address their use of leather” and, secondly, arm them with a tool to incentivise farm-level improvements in areas such as animal welfare, traceability and deforestation and conversion free (DCF) land management.
Before investing in - or purchasing - LIA impact incentives, brands must estimate their raw hide usage by using the dedicated “leather use to impact incentives calculator” (or leather use calculator), which will help generate an estimate figure for the number of impact incentives they should purchase.
Textile Exchange said that it considers the use of one raw hide to be “addressed” by the purchase of one impact incentive. It praised both companies for “showing leadership”.
Image: Ralph Lauren via Instagram.
