COTANCE welcomes UNIDO environmental footprint guidelines
The leather industry’s main representative body in the European Union, COTANCE, has welcomed the new UNIDO guidelines for assessing the environmental footprint of leather.
COTANCE said the UNIDO guidelines constitute “the most thorough and credible assessment of leather’s environmental performance” to date.
According to the guidelines, hides and skins from animals slaughtered for human food consumption are “non-determining animal by-products”. They go on to say that hides and skins come from “a multifunctional process” and do not affect production volume.
UNIDO concludes: “Non-determining animal by-products, by definition are not drivers of environmental change.”
COTANCE commented that, because this finding is from “one of the world’s most credible international bodies”, attempts to link leather to the environmental impacts of livestock farming should stop.
Outcomes include setting the allocation of upstream carbon footprint for raw hides at 1.5%, which COTANCE described as “a significant correction to previous approaches”.
The development also means formal recognition for leather as a biobased material. Finally, there will be a methodology for measuring durability and product lifespan.
COTANCE said it would now take this work forward, giving UNIDO’s work “the attention it deserves”.
