Brussels training day for ‘green product’ pilot project
10/01/2014
EU leather industry association COTANCE is co-ordinating the leather sector’s participation in the pilot project and has arranged for a number of industry representatives to take part in the training day.
Those attending the Brussels event included Elisabetta Scaglia of UNIC in Italy, Kerry Senior of the UK Leather Federation, Jutta Knoedler of VDL in Germany, Rémy Gacogne of CTC in France, Albu Luminita of APPBR in Romania and Federico Brugnoli, a consultant who has been working for several years with the leather industry on its environmental footprint, led by COTANCE general secretary, Gustavo González Quijano.
The European Commission’s overall aim is to make it easier for consumers to understand how environmentally friendly products are. COTANCE said when applying to take part in July 2013 that it was sure the whole global leather industry could benefit from establishing an accurate and fair assessment of leather’s environmental footprint and communicating it better to consumers.
On completing leather’s application to take part in the pilot project, Mr González Quijano said: “The sustainability of leather in its competition for market-share with other materials is at stake here. We have seen the results of previous attempts to calculate the carbon footprint of leather using conventional methodologies that include the livestock phase. According to these, leather always scores worse than synthetic materials.”
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