Floor graffiti to raise leather sustainability awareness
Tuscany’s Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium (Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata al Vegetale) recently launched a campaign to raise awareness of the sustainability of leather by using a graffiti style message on the pavements of Milan.
Between February 14 and 22, thirty of the floor campaign messages will be seen in the fashion district surrounding Milan's central station, displaying the consortium logo along with data showing how leather has higher bio-based content than vegan 'alternatives'.
Their data is based on research conducted by chemist Gustavo Adrián Defeo, the chief executive of specialist laboratory services provider Ars Tinctoria, who measured the incidence of biological origin carbon and the presence of derivatives of oil on samples from 20 associated Tuscan tanneries, comparing it with that found in alternative materials. His results concluded that vegetable-tanned leather was approximately 95% bio-based, as opposed to 25% for the non-animal material, which has 75% fossil-based origins.
On the use of the term “vegan leather” for the alternative materials analysed, the chemist told Leatherbiz that, while understood to be incorrect, this phrasing was used as it “has more impact”.
