COTANCE seeks to heal fissures in traceability systems
According to the main representative body of the leather industry in the European Union, COTANCE, a proliferation of certification bodies dealing with the traceability of leather is proving to be counter-productive and causing what it terms “audit fatigue” for leather companies.
Transparency and traceability are of increasing concern for customers and campaign groups as there are requests to know the origin of the raw material and by whom, and where products are made.
Traceability is vital to disclose issues such as animal welfare, forced labour, deforestation, and the use of toxic chemicals in leather manufacture. Certification bodies offer tools to assist companies to analyse and comply with transparency and traceability requirements.
However, customers do not necessarily give equal recognition to all certifications and this causes additional, unproductive costs for companies wishing to be certified to the satisfaction of their customers, and, in the final analysis, results in audit fatigue.
To combat these fissures in the traceability conundrum, COTANCE wants to offer certification bodies a set of core traceability rules as well as a forum where they can negotiate a common traceability package, allowing them to serve the best interests of the leather industry and its value chain.
COTANCE chairs the European standardisation body CEN TC 289, where such agreements can then be officially ratified, to be referenced in legislation. It has called on certification bodies active in traceability to work together on a set of minimum technical requirements.
