Nothing to Hide: The carbon footprint of leather www.nothing-to-hide.org

摘要

In 2013, the European Commission agreed to fund a series of pilot projects to examine the environmental footprint of a range of consumer products, part of a wider initiative to define what makes a 'green product'. The leather industry's representative body in Europe, COTANCE, applied, with the backing of the global leather industry, to take part. The work is ongoing, with how big a share of a cow's carbon emissions tanners need to include in their own carbon footprint calculations, one of the trickiest hurdles to overcome. A clear definition of the environmental impact of a product and of its lifecycle can be a key market driver these days and calculating a product's impact correctly is a strategic element in global competition. However, working out how to calculate environmental impact or carbon footprint of products linked with livestock can be particularly difficult. Such product chains can be complex because of the variety of manufactured product types that often start from the same agriculture or livestock phase. A case in point is the cattle industry and leather.