The European Federation Of Tanners Has Calculated The Average Carbon Footprint Of Cowhide Production in The European Union

As a participant in the European Green Deal leather project, leather manufacturers in seven EU countries (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Hungary and Austria) collect information on the carbon footprint of their daily operations and use the latest version of the ECO2L tool developed by the German Leather Federation to convert the information into carbon footprint data.

On May 16, at the conclusion of the "Green Trade Leather" event in Brussels, the European Federation of Tannery Associations mentioned that in the carbon footprint data collected this time, the carbon footprint of different companies producing 1 square meter of finished cow leather is as low as 4 kg of CO2e, and the highest is close to 12 kg of CO2e.

The Secretary General of the Federation of European Tanning Associations pointed out that the discrepancy in these data stems from the huge differences in the way leather is produced in Europe, such as different leather thicknesses and different treatment methods will produce different data results.

Just as the analysis of synthetics does not take into account the impact of upstream petrochemicals, the European Green Trade Leather project also does not take into account the upstream carbon footprint of livestock, said the secretary general of the European Federation of Tannery Associations. The average carbon footprint of European cow leather is 8 kg CO2e, which is similar to that of many plastic-based synthetics. However, at the same level of carbon footprint, the durability and longevity advantages of leather are significant.