Carbon footprint tool for tanners to launch at Frankfurt workshop
Following its launch in Milan in September, a European Union-funded project called ‘Green Deal Leather’ will move forward now with a second workshop. This second event will take place in Frankfurt on January 25.
The leather industry’s representative body in the European Union, COTANCE, has said the focus of the Frankfurt workshop will be the carbon footprint of bovine leather produced in Europe.
It said the highlight will be the launch of a new tool for measuring and helping to reduce the carbon footprint of leather. The tool, ECO2L, builds on work that the German Leather Federation (VDL) has been doing in this area for the last 12 years.
In 2012, VDL launched ECO2L as a label that would present finished leather as being “energy controlled”, hence the name. It said this label represented accurate calculations of the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of leather manufacturing facilities. Tanneries in Germany continue to undergo regular audits to be able to present ECO2L certification to their customers.
COTANCE will now present the ECO2L tool as being “made by tanners for tanners”. It said the tool could “empower tanners to benchmark their carbon footprint against an EU average, aiding them in their journey towards more sustainable practices”.
Image credit: Lederfabrik Josef Heinen.
