Green Deal Leather report: sustainability and safety of the European leather industry
Leather is one of the most sustainable materials known to man. This is the conclusion of the Green Deal Leather (GDL) project, an ambitious two-year EU-funded initiative to conduct the first-ever study of the carbon footprint of European bovine leather. The study was published at the Green Deal Leather final conference in Brussels on 16 May, challenging many misconceptions about leather and its environmental and social sustainability. Two panels were organised on tannery safety and the carbon footprint of bovine leather, with expert speakers sharing their visions and trends for the future of the leather industry.
Tanneries are still too often portrayed as dirty, polluting and backward. At the same time, leather is criticised as an unsustainable material, giving an image that is far from the reality of the European leather industry. With the Green Deal Leather Project, COTANCE, the Confederation of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community, which brings together over 95% of European tanneries, and IndustriAll-Europe, together with seven social partners from Spain (ACEXPIEL), Portugal (APIC), France (FFTM), Hungary (MKZS), Italy (UNIC), Germany (VDL) and Austria (FVTBSL), proved that these opinions are without basis.
The final results of the GDL study, presented at its final conference in Brussels, contributed to the scientific debate by showing that leather is an upcycled by-product of the meat industry, effectively reusing a resource that would otherwise be wasted. Tanners transform animal hides and skins, which represent, on average, only 1% of the animal’s economic value, into a sustainable fashion material that drives economic and social growth, creating wealth and jobs across Europe. Leather is a natural material that can be repaired, reused and repurposed, playing a crucial role in the circular economy and establishing it as the first choice for sustainable practices.
In addition, a recent FILK Freiberg Institute gGmbH study showed that alternatives such as “faux” or “vegan” leather cannot compete with the technical performance of real leather, such as durability. As a natural product, leather is 100% biodegradable within 10 to 50 years in a typical landfill, unlike plastic-based materials such as vegan leather, which can take over 500 years to decompose. For more information, see a new Italian scientific paper that critically compares leather’s bio-based content and sustainability balance and alternatives.
Although the leather industry is one of the smallest sectors in the European economy, with around 1,600 tanneries, it employs around 33,000 people and generates a turnover of almost €8 billion. Despite its modest size, Europe is the world’s largest supplier of luxury leather, accounting for 30% of the global leather industry’s turnover. Another element of sustainability often overlooked in sustainability discussions is occupational safety. In any industry where people interact with machines, incidents are inevitable, and no one is completely safe from accidents, yet occupational safety is important for the social pillar of sustainability. European tanneries are already safe places of work and getting safer every year, thanks to investment in comprehensive training and state-of-the-art equipment for their employees.
According to the GDL report, the total number of accidents in EU countries participating in the survey (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Austria) was 1,317 in 2019 and 1,102 in 2021, representing a 16% reduction in reported accidents over the two years analysed and an incidence of 3.2% in 2021. Approximately 15% of the accidents occurred during the commute between home and work, while more than 90% of the accidents registered during the reporting period were classified as “minor”.Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, Secretary General of COTANCE, commented: “I am very proud of the excellent dialogue we have with our Social Partner, industriAll-Europe, with whom we have developed many very interesting projects to the benefit of the European Leather industry. The Green Deal Leather initiative is our latest “baby”, with which we aim to set baselines and benchmarks in two crucial areas: workplace safety in tanneries and leather’s carbon footprint. Transparency is our best arm for countering public misperception of our industry.”