The European Social Partners of the Leather Industry kick off their new common project:
Leather: European Social and Environmental Report 2020

On 7 February 2019, Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano (COTANCE) and Laurent Zibell (industriAll-European trade  union), the Social Partners at European level of the Leather/Tanning Sector, met to give an official start to their new Social Dialogue project. They will produce and publish a new Social and Environmental Report of the European Leather Industry that should follow-up on the exercise done in 2012. This 18-month initiative received the support of the European Commission and will be carried out with the collaboration of affiliates in 10 EU Member States (see hereunder).

Starting with an intensive survey amongst European tanneries, the project will collect company data on some 37 social indicators and about 39 environmental parameters that reflect the performance of the tannery. Company data will be anonymised and aggregated at national level before being centrally computed at European level for drawing the conclusions that will flow into the 2nd Social & Environmental Report of the European Leather Industry. The Report will be completed with the activities developed by the Social Partners together or individually between 2012 and 2019 and in particular those related to projects such as Leather is my Job!, A Future for Leather!, or Due Diligence for Healthy Workplaces in the Tanning industry, as well as to the development by COTANCE of the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for Leather, to Animal Welfare, to Traceability and to all the initiatives to improve the image of leather and develop education and training in the European Leather industry.

The initiative also includes the implementation of national workshops aimed at promoting the exercise and addressing hot topics related to Social or Environmental issues affecting the image of the leather industry.

A Final Conference in June/July 2020 associated with the COTANCE Assembly General where the results will be presented will conclude the initiative.

The first project meeting with all partners will be held in Brussels on 27 February.

Project details:
Reference: VS/2019/0009
Coordinator: COTANCE
Co-coordinator: industriAll European trade union
Partners: ACEXPIEL (Spain), AHLI (Hungary), APIC (Portugal), APPBR (Romania), FFTM (France), FV TBSL (Austria), SG (Sweden), UKLF (UK), UNIC- Concerie Italiane (Italy), VDL (Germany).
Dedicated website: http://www.euroleather.com/socialreporting/

The Social Partners of the European Leather industry met on 30 October 2018 for reviewing the overall results of their joint project on Due Diligence for Health & Safety at tannery workplaces.

COTANCE and industriAll-Europe are pleased with the success of their final conference held on October 9 in Brussels that brought together some 50 stakeholders of the leather value chain, including tanners, workers’ representatives, brands, sector associations and experts, as well as international organisations and NGOs.

The EU social partners are particularly satisfied with the positive impact of their initiative on the image of the European leather industry, on the perception of the importance of health & safety at tannery workplaces along the leather value chain, on the promotion of the values of the Social Dialogue at Sector level and of its fruits, such as the OiRA Tannery tool.

Both sides of the European leather industry understand that the work on health and safety needs to be continued.

“Health and safety for workers is a priority for industriAll-Europe,” says Sylvain Lefebvre. “The objective of the Due Diligence project was to identify any concern in that field and while it was achieved successfully, we must continue to develop a long-term policy of good practices to ensure a quality of life on the workplace. OECD, OSHA, the European Commission, national governements and the ILO can and should take measures to improving working conditions.”

COTANCE’s participation in the new EU OSHA Campaign on the sound management of dangerous substances (https://healthy-workplaces.eu/en/campaign-partners/confederation-national-associations-tanners-and-dressers-european-community) is a clear reflection of that commitment. Their submission to the European Commission of a new joint project looking at Social & Environmental Reporting in Europe’s leather industry is a further positive example of their fruitful Social Dialogue.

“The follow-up on these matters will remain a priority for COTANCE and industriAll in the years to come,” concludes Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano.

Links:

Reports in 7 languages:
http://www.euroleather.com/index.php/documents/245-due-diligence-survey-report

OiRA tool for tanneries

<March 11, 2019> - In the last few years, several new initiatives have gained ground in the leather industry, sometimes overlapping but mostly strengthening each other. COTANCE and Leather Naturally will intensify their collaboration for the benefit of the Leather industry and to promote the uniqueness of Leather as a sustainable material.

'COTANCE acknowledges the need for a Global campaign that promotes Leather as a material, independently of the producing country or operator, and recommends the sector’s operators to support the initiative developed by Leather Naturally’ adds Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, Secretary General of COTANCE.  

'Leather Naturally acknowledges the importance and the value of the existing network of the sectors’ Trade Associations and Societies at national, regional and international level in embodying the good governance structure of the Leather industry and recommends the Leather industry’s operators to join them and support them’ commented Egbert Dikkers who is the Chair of Leather Naturally.

Leather Naturally is currently crowdfunding for a global Leather promotion campaign targeted on the new generations. The objective of this campaign is to create a state-of-the-art multimedia platform to promote Leather as fashion item to targeted young generations in order to stimulate the Leather consumption. The first part of the project will last one year but aiming to continue for a total period of 5 years.

About Leather Naturally
Leather Naturally promotes the use of globally-manufactured sustainable leather and seeks to inspire and inform designers, creators, and consumers about its beauty, quality and versatility. Leather Naturally’s members are tanneries, leather chemical manufacturers, machine manufacturers, service providers and brands.

About COTANCE
The Confederation of National Associations of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community (COTANCE) is the representative body of the European Leather Industry. Gathering almost all leather producers associations of the EU, connecting over 95% of European tanneries, it is an umbrella organisation with a Secretariat in Brussels and member associations in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK. COTANCE is a non-profit organization established in order to promote the interests of the European tanning industry at international level. Apart from representing European tanners and dressers, it also has the mission of promoting European leather both in the European and international markets.

50th Anniversary of the European Leather Association 

At a time when European citizens were reflecting on their vote and who will be sitting in the next European Parliament, COTANCE member associations and their tanners gathered to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their common representative body. They chose for this Paris where COTANCE was born and the Auditorium of the Académie de l’Agriculture de France for the open session of the Assembly General.   COTANCE, created in 1969 in Paris, has been representing the leather industry and Its interests at European and international level over the last 50 years. This celebration, besides being a moment of festivity, has been an occasion to pause and reflect over this fifty-year journey, and at the same time, to look into the future of the European leather industry. "European Leather for the Future" was indeed the leading thread of the event's interventions: from the welcoming speeches hold by Jérôme Verdier, President of Tannerie ALRAN SAS and President of FFTM (Fédération Française de la Tannerie Mégisserie - French Federation of Tanners) and by Andreas Kindermann, current COTANCE President from Wollsdorf Leather (Austria), passing through the European and international institutional' views of Anna Athanasopoulou from DG Grow at European Commission and Maria Teresa Pisani from the Economic Cooperation and Trade Division at UNECE, and last but not least with the perspective of a luxury brand by Chiara Morelli (Group Operations Sustainability Manager at Kering).   "COTANCE serves as a shield", asserted COTANCE President Andreas Kindermann. "In all these years which have passed, we have seen many successes also some failures, highs and lows, times of booming business and times of crisis… But the European leather industry is resilient. It never ‘gave up’ and cooperation was decisive!".

Anna Athanasopoulou reminded the audience how “sustainability, smart investments, innovation, fair competition and skills are the main keywords in the current European policy for industry.” These priorities are highly relevant for a robust EU leather industry to remain sustainable and globally competitive and continue holding a strategic position in the international markets. “The European Commission promotes different types of interventions in order to create a favourable environment for growth, as direct funding, instruments to stimulate investments in research, innovation, sustainability and skills, as well as new initiatives for the establishment of industrial clusters. In working together SMEs can be more innovative, create more jobs and register more international trademarks than they would alone.”   Chiara Morelli, Kering Group Operations Sustainability Manager, shared in her keynote speech how collaboration among the different actors of the leather supply chain is key and at the core of Kering activities with suppliers. This approach can strengthen the industry’s value and will enable tanners to strive for innovation and more sustainable processes. Besides working on the reduction of carbon emissions and use of hazardous substances, according to C. Morelli - -, the leather industry should strengthen the cooperation with farms and slaughterhouses in terms of animal welfare with the final aim of improving the traceability of hides and skins and the transparency of the supply chain.

Enhancing Transparency and Traceability for Sustainable Textile and Leather Value Chains is emerging as a key priority to make the industry achieve more responsible production and consumption patterns, and it is  indeed also the main objective of the UNECE UN/CEFACT project coordinated by Maria Teresa Pisani, and jointly implemented with the European Commission, ITC, ILO and key industry partners. This initiative aims at setting up a multi-stakeholder platform, and developing policy recommendations, global traceability standards and its implementation guidelines for sustainable textile and leather value chains.   Drawing the conclusions of the event, COTANCE President Kindermann, stressed how the importance of sustainability in the leather value chain was highlighted by each panellist. He emphasised that sustainability is a key priority of COTANCE, as it had been demonstrated with the setting at EU level the rules for calculating the environmental footprint of leather. He also pointed out that the European leather industry with its high standards is well positioned for the future and further improvements of the environmental performance of the European industry. "For the future of the leather industry, we aim at zero-waste if we want the tanning industry to be recognised as excelling in the circular economy".    The festivities continued with a private visit to the nearby Orsay Museum and a dinner in the Museum restaurant, where we welcomed a number of former COTANCE Presidents: Mr Nalle Johansson (Sweden), Mr Jean Claude Ricomard (France) and Mr Jonathan Muirhead (UK). Guests attending the event included distinguished representatives from UNIDO, Ivan Král and from the International Council of Tanners, Paul Person.

The Social Partners of the European Leather industry met on 30 October 2018 for reviewing the overall results of their joint project on Due Diligence for Health & Safety at tannery workplaces.

COTANCE and industriAll-Europe are pleased with the success of their final conference held on October 9 in Brussels that brought together some 50 stakeholders of the leather value chain, including tanners, workers’ representatives, brands, sector associations and experts, as well as international organisations and NGOs.

The EU social partners are particularly satisfied with the positive impact of their initiative on the image of the European leather industry, on the perception of the importance of health & safety at tannery workplaces along the leather value chain, on the promotion of the values of the Social Dialogue at Sector level and of its fruits, such as the OiRA Tannery tool.

Both sides of the European leather industry understand that the work on health and safety needs to be continued.

“Health and safety for workers is a priority for industriAll-Europe,” says Sylvain Lefebvre. “The objective of the Due Diligence project was to identify any concern in that field and while it was achieved successfully, we must continue to develop a long-term policy of good practices to ensure a quality of life on the workplace. OECD, OSHA, the European Commission, national governements and the ILO can and should take measures to improving working conditions.”

COTANCE’s participation in the new EU OSHA Campaign on the sound management of dangerous substances (https://healthy-workplaces.eu/en/campaign-partners/confederation-national-associations-tanners-and-dressers-european-community) is a clear reflection of that commitment. Their submission to the European Commission of a new joint project looking at Social & Environmental Reporting in Europe’s leather industry is a further positive example of their fruitful Social Dialogue.

“The follow-up on these matters will remain a priority for COTANCE and industriAll in the years to come,” concludes Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano.

Links:

Reports in 7 languages:
http://www.euroleather.com/index.php/documents/245-due-diligence-survey-report

OiRA tool for tanneries

Industry statement on ECHA REF-4 REACH-EN-FORCE project press statement

COTANCE lines up with other sectors for defending the reputation of leather - download the joint statement here.

Leather is perfectly safe when produced by responsible tanners. What is the EU waiting for for setting up a qualified origin marking scheme? Consumers need to be able to make informed purchasing choices, knowing where the leather product comes from and where its leather comes from.

The SELAMBQ project takes stock of the first year of activity and is projected into the second year operational phase.

Activated at the end of 2017, SELAMBQ (Spanish Entrefino Lamb Quality) is a multi-year cooperation program that comes from the need to find solutions to the effective qualitative deterioration of a niche tanning raw material, that is particularly appreciated by the highest end of the fashion market: the Spanish entrefino lamb.

Coordinated by Cotance (Confederation of National Associations of Tanners the European Community) in collaboration with UNIC - Concerie Italiane, Acexpiel (Asociación Española del Curtido) and FFTM (Fédération Française de la Tannerie Mégisserie), SELAMBQ was promoted and financed by the most important specialized European tanneries: Russo di Casandrino (Italy); Riba Guixa, Colomer / Ledexport, Inpelsa and Bosch Girona (Spain); Bodin-Joyeux, Megisserie Richard and Megisserie Alric (France). The Spanish associations of lamb farmers and meat producers, Interovic and Anafric, are also collaborating in the project, as a demonstration of its significant cross-cutting supply chain.

During the meeting held on 29 November in Spain, at the headquarters of Adobinve tannery, SELAMBQ closed the first annual activity step focused on the mapping of over 300,000 Spanish entrefino skins, traced and analyzed on to their defects by a team of researchers led by Jose Maria Gonzalez-Sainz, professor of veterinary science at the University of Zaragoza.

The sample analysis has highlighted a series of defects due to breeding and slaughtering practices that require an improvement in terms of technological solutions and good practices, even at animal welfare level. These solutions would lead to an upgrading in the management of the animals and, consequently, in the quality of their skins and leathers.

In addition to the continuous mapping of the lambskins processed by the industry, one of the goals of SELAMBQ now becomes the developing of a campaign to raise awareness in the upstream part of the supply chain, establishing some shared standards on breeding and slaughtering activities, that could eventually lead to the development of process certifications and quality guarantees.

Joint Statement of the EU Social Partners of the leather industry on EU-Mercosur FTA negotiations

COTANCE and industriAll-Europe reviewed the state of play of EU-Mercosur negotiations in their Social Dialogue meeting of 27 February 2018. They understand that the trade partners are in the final phase before a deal is eventually concluded, but also that there is still no agreement on the promised dismantling of export restrictions and duties applied by Mercosur on hides, skins and intermediate tanned leather (HS 4101, 4102, 4103 and 4104).

The EU Social Partners of the European Leather Industry call on the European Commission to ensure a trade deal for the leather sector that consecrates full reciprocity in a symmetrical process, both in the access to markets and in the access to raw materials, as well as more generally a social chapter that promotes high social standards across the free trade area.

They insist notably on the vital need to put an end to the protectionist trade barriers on tanner’s raw materials applied by Mercosur that risk at term pushing out of business a profitable EU tanning industry that creates wealth and employment in the EU and that is today a model for the World in terms of social accountability and environmental performance.

Brussels, 27 February 2018

Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, Secretary General, COTANCE
Sylvain Lefebvre, Deputy General Secretary,industriAll-Europe

COTANCE will support its customers to achieve the ambitions of the Fashion Pact submitted to the intention of the G7 leaders in Biarritz

COTANCE, the representative body of the European leather industry, welcomes the sustainability ambitions described in the Fashion Pact subscribed by 32 luxury and fashion brands, many of which are good customers of European tanners. We look forward to it that G7 leaders support this important initiative and hope that the target of 20% of the global fashion industry in terms of volume is soon achieved for delivering the aimed environmental benefits.

The European leather industry shares the aims expressed in the 7-page Fashion Pact and is committed to contributing to those objectives that allow reaching them.

COTANCE has been pioneering in sustainability initiatives for the leather industry, developing instruments capable to account, deliver and certify best practice in social accountability and environmental performance. European tanners are frontrunners in developing the product category rules for the environmental footprint of leather, for social and environmental reporting and for health & safety at tannery workplaces. The instruments developed are moreover open standards and freely available to any tanner worldwide. COTANCE furthermore cooperates in many cross-sector initiatives within Intergovernmental organizations, such as OECD, UNIDO or UNECE, or with private bodies such as ICEC, LWG, SAC, ZDHC, that support the ongoing environmental good practice and innovation of the leather industry.  

Project partners review the reporting questionnaire for their new project
European Social and Environmental Report 2020

After their kick-off meeting last February 7, 2019, COTANCE and industriAll-European Trade Union called the project partners on 27 February 2019 for the first Steering Committee meeting of the new Social Dialogue project that aims the drafting of the 2nd European Social and Environmental Report.

The delegates from ACEXPIEL (ES), AHLI (HU), APPBR (RO), FFTM (FR), UKLF (UK), UNIC (IT) and VDL (DE) met in Brussels at the COTANCE headquarters and, since this first meeting was open to observers, were joined by a representative of BDSZ, the Hungarian trade union.

The main focus of the meeting concerned the review of the questionnaire used in the 2012 exercise, its update and development, as well as the methodology to be adopted for collecting the necessary company data. Indeed, developing a report on the social and environmental performance of an industry is not a simple exercise. Tanneries in Europe are already solicited by other reporting exercises to both public and private stakeholders, that it is important to justify well an additional one and to balance appropriately the extent and depth of the exercise.

COTANCE and industriAll-Europe understand that it is important for the image of Europe’s leather industry to highlight in the Social & Environmental Report 2020 the progress achieved by the sector’s companies since 2012. Markets ask for information on sustainability performance of the leather industry, labour wants to know the kind of industry it is engaging with, tanners like to benchmark their results against overall sector data and media need accurate information for avoiding that fake news take the overhand in the public perception of the leather industry. The 2020 report can become a powerful tool for responding to all these needs. It’s an opportunity for Europe’s leather industry and all project partners are very conscious on transmitting this message to their affiliated companies when confronting them with a questionnaire that will require the collection of some 37 social and 39 environmental parameters.

The project partners took particular care in ensuring the anonymity of the company contributions and decided on a two-tier data aggregation methodology capable of guaranteeing confidentiality.

Project partners agreed to finalise the questionnaire by the end of March so as to allow more time for the apposite data collection.

The next Steering Committee meeting will take place on the 8th of July.

Website: http://www.euroleather.com/socialreporting/

COTANCE President Kindermann in Brussels for defending leather authenticity

On Thursday 5 July 2018, COTANCE President Andreas Kindermann (Wollsdorf Leather, Austria) was received by DG GROW Director Slawomir Tokarski for addressing the state of play of the leather authenticity dossier.

Mr Tokarski was assisted by the Head of Unit in charge of the leather industry, Mrs Anna Athanasopoulou, and Mrs Katarzyna Kuske, dossier manager, while Mr Kindermann led a small COTANCE delegation composed of Mr Luca Boltri (UNIC, IT), Mrs Sophie Hivert (FFTM, FR), Mr Kerry Senior (UKLF, UK) and Mr Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano (COTANCE Secretary General).

Mr Kindermann emphasised the importance for Europe’s leather industry to have a legislative instrument that protects leather from fakes and consumers from being misled. He assured the Commission that member State governments stand behind the industry and that the sector’s network of national trade associations stands ready for assisting Mr Tokarski’s services in anything that they may need for furthering the legislative process. An appointment after the summer break was agreed for discussing a complement of information that was handed over in the encounter.

Mr Tokarski indicated that due to next year’s nomination of a new Commission, it would be now too late for initiating a legislative process as the leather industry requests and which is in line with the impact assessment report and the public consultation launched by DG Grow in 2013 and 2014. But he raised the expectations of COTANCE to reference this pending business in the Vision Paper for the new Commission.

Brussels, 9 July 2018

Partners of the hides, skins and leather value chain agree on traceability objectives

Last 2nd of October 2019, ahead of the UNIC SER 2020 Workshop focussing on tanners' raw materials, representatives of the hides & skins supply side and of their buyers in the European leather industry met in Lineapelle for discussing issues of interest to the value chain.

This encounter, bringing together delegates from COTANCE (European Leather Industry Association), UECBV (European Livestock & Meat Trades Union), USHSLA (US Hides, Skins & Leather Association), CICB (Brazilian Leather Industry Association), national organisations and individual companies from Italy, Austria, Germany, France, UK and Denmark, constitutes a first in terms of geographical scope and format, as it was meant to kickstart a constructive dialogue in which to address key concerns of the European leather value chain, such as animal welfare, deforestation, traceability, quality improvement, authenticity and environmental allocation.

Participants agreed on the common agenda and committed to converge on objectives in the various areas.

As a major result in this first encounter, value chain partners agreed to set 2030 as the date on which an appropriate system to trace product based on the various risk factors would be implemented including back to the individual animal, where appropriate, and 2025 when traceability up to the slaughterhouse would be routinely available for hides & skins. They agreed furthermore to cooperate in campaigns, such as #MeattheFacts, where facts on animal welfare and the reality of the European livestock sector are communicated to the wider public dispelling prejudices and misconceptions.

A follow-up encounter for monitoring progress is planned to be held at the next Lineapelle Fair.

Andreas Kindermann becomes President of COTANCE in Verona

Austrian Andreas Kindermann, CEO of Wollsdorf Leather, was unanimously elected by his peers as President of COTANCE at the General Assembly that took place on 29 May in Verona (Italy). Mr Kindermann takes over this position from German Thomas Bee (Schafstall - VDL) for a 2-year mandate until 2020. He addressed a few words of gratitude to the membership for the trust put in him and committed contributing in the interests of the European leather industry and in the promotion of the value and the quality of European leather together with all national organisations and the strong team of COTANCE in Brussels. Mr Bee thanked COTANCE members and the Secretariat for the assistance received during his Presidency.

Mr Kindermann will be assisted in the COTANCE Presidency board by 3 Vice-Presidents; Mr Thomas Bee, as immediate past President, Mr Rino Mastrotto (Rino Mastrotto Group – UNIC) and Jean Christophe Muller (Tannerie Haas – FFTM).

After completing his 6-year Presidential cycle , Mr Jonathan Muirhead (Scottish Leather Group – UKLF) stepped down from the COTANCE Board. He was long applauded for his highly fertile leadership and his loyal services at the head of the European leather industry organisation. Mr Muirhead did not skimp on efforts for addressing hands-on the sector’s issues, listening to everybody and always generating consensus. His success and style made him a very cherished COTANCE Presidency member.

The debates of this year’s COTANCE AGM focussed on the defence and promotion of the leather industry and notably the image of leather. COTANCE regrets that the perception of leather in the general public is greatly influenced by Fake News conveyed largely by vegan or environmental activist organisations whose primary goal is either the eradication of meat consumption or the elimination of industry. For furthering their objectives, these bodies don’t hesitate spreading lies and confusion about the nature of leather and its industry on the internet and through social media.

COTANCE delegates from Sweden, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania, Portugal and France watched an eye-opening video produced by UNIC, demystifying one by one a collection of the most blatant fake news that can be found in the media. Delegates also watched the recent Leather Naturally! Video and the one produced by LG for promoting its new leather covered smartphone G4. Delegates agreed intensifying and developing the COTANCE strategy in support of the image of leather pushing for mandatory authenticity legislation in Europe and developing a Web-based communication campaign addressing consumers. COTANCE also decided to prepare for next year’s 50th anniversary of the umbrella association with the choosing of a new slogan in a stakeholder-inclusive process that should reflect the ambition of the European leather industry in the XXI century. Slogan proposals will be tested for their merits in the different languages and against selected audiences for the most appropriate being finally chosen in the COTANCE Autumn Council that will take place mid-October in Naples.

Finally, it was also noted that increasingly unpredictable and unreasonable testing demands from customers, notably in the fashion sectors, were adding unwarranted unproductive costs on tanners and creating further pressure on margins for leather manufacturers.

Leather Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules officially approved

Brussels, 19 April 2018

On 18 April 2018, the Leather Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (Leather PEFCR) were officially approved by the Environmental Footprint Steering Committee. The establishment of the Leather PEFCR represents a major milestone in coming to a harmonised methodology for the calculation of the environmental footprint of leather made from hides and skins of animals slaughtered for the production of meat, which represents 95%+ of all leathers traded worldwide.

COTANCE Secretary General Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano: “We will finally see a robust, credible and transparent LCA methodology come to life to accurately and consistently assess our sector’s ecological footprint. Although there is still some “unfinished business” in the PEF methodology, such as the issue of 0-allocation for hides and skins of slaughter animals, the current rules will allow leather manufacturers to demonstrate their capacity to help reduce environmental impacts linked to their production.”

0-allocation to hides and skins, as a by-product of animals slaughtered for meat production, is though fully acknowledged in the CEN Standard EN 16887 (approved in Nov 2016, published in March 2017, applicable not later than Sept 2017) Leather – Environmental footprint – Product Category Rules (PCR) – Carbon footprints. It sets the Product Category Rules for the Carbon Footprint of leather. The PEF looks, however, not only at the issue of Climate Change but addresses also many more environmental impact categories, serving thus the users to get a comprehensive approach for the eco-design of their leathers. 

The EF pilot phase will culminate in the EU PEF conference on 23-25 April 2018 after which all approved PEFCRs will be published. A transition phase will follow until 2020, where the lessons of this 4-year Environmental Footprint Pilot Phase will be drawn and possible policy options will be considered. COTANCE will remain involved in the further methodological developments as well as in the policy debate, notably through the “Apparel and Footwear Cluster” that it has promoted and that it will be chairing next to other 6 clusters bringing together the various Product Pilots. 

The 2012 UNIDO Report titled Life Cycle Assessment, Carbon Footprint in Leather Processing prepared for and presented by F. Brugnoli during the XVIII Session of UNIDO Leather and Leather Products Industry Panel in Shanghai in 2012, kicked off the work of the leather industry in the area of LCA producing detailed explanations, definitions, methodological approaches and terminology pertaining to leather’s footprint.

COTANCE President Thomas Bee: “Europe’s leather sector can be extremely proud of delivering a comprehensive toolbox after several years of hard work. I would like to thank our Italian colleagues for their leadership role and all member associations and companies that supported the Technical Secretariat of the Leather PEFCR as well as all value chain partners and stakeholders that have supported the process.”

The Council of COTANCE requests the European Commission to use its power of legislative initiative for regulating leather authenticity labelling
in the EU market

The representatives of the Italian, Spanish, French, British, German, Portuguese, Austrian and Swedish tanners met on 6 October 2017 in Milan for their Autumn Council of COTANCE with the topics of “Leather authenticity” on their agenda.

At the beginning of the year COTANCE submitted a Paper to the European Commission requesting regulatory action for uniform leather authenticity rules in the EU, one of the largest global consumer markets for leather products. The leather industry has consistently requested EU to redress the market failures that the current legal fragmentation provokes for the last decade. The phenomenon of false and misleading product descriptions with regard to leather has grown exponentially reaching intolerable levels. The damage this causes to the leather industry and its value chains cannot be ignored, nor is it acceptable that consumers are systematically confused or deceived with descriptions that hide the true nature of the material that is purchased. Both sides have a legitimate right of protection; protection against the misuse of the term “leather” and protection against deceptive commercial practices that avoid disclosing the true composition of the products bought.

While in a different sector and regulatory environment, the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed in its ruling of 14 June 2017 (Case C-422/16: Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb vs. TofuTown) that purely plant-based products such as tofu or soya cannot, in principle, be marketed with descriptions such as ‘milk’, ‘cream’, ‘butter’, ‘cheese’ or ‘yoghurt’ and that these terms are reserved for animal products under EU law, it clearly sets a precedent for the principle of transparency and authenticity in the EU legal order. This cannot be limited only to Milk and Dairy. Also the leather sector pretends such legal protection and that misleading qualifying terms indicating the plant or else origin of the product concerned and/or that it does not contain animal products, are also prohibited.

The Global Leather Coordination Committee (GLCC), gathering the three international Leather organisations (International Council of Tanners – ICT, International Council of Hides, Skins and Leather Traders Associations – ICHSLTA, International Union of Leather Chemists and Technologists Societies - IULTCS) meeting earlier in Shanghai at the end of August equally condemns the current market dysfunctions and has specifically called on EU authorities to respond to the collective will expressed by the international leather community to bring about a solution to this illegitimate phenomenon.

Europe’s tanners express concern for developments in all their market segments from footwear to automotive, affecting equally Garments, Bags and pocket goods, and furniture. Through COTANCE they condemn in particular the practice to promote alternative materials by denigrating leather and soiling its environmental credentials. Fake news attributing the tanning industry responsibilities for the slaughter of animals or for polluting the environment adds insult to injury.

The leather industry has been forced to devote increasing resources to the defence of leather authenticity for fighting back the use of fallacious terms affecting leather in commercial communications and in the media in the absence of a clear regulatory environment. This constitutes a significant waste of resources that could be saved in this legitimate industry and value chain with appropriate authenticity and transparency rules.

Furthermore, COTANCE calls on the European Commission to take appropriate action in the case of Nike’s “Flyleather” campaign where the EU legal order disposes of rules for ensuring correct footwear labelling and impede unfair commercial practices . The “Flyleather” Campaign constitutes a challenge not only to EU labelling and fair trading rules, but also to the EU Environmental Footprinting initiative whose methodology has been ignored rendering futile the 3-year pilot phase for product category rules in the leather and footwear sectors.

The term “FlyLeather”, with which Nike promotes the product, is moreover illegal in several important EU member States’ consumer markets where legislation or standards prevent consumers from deceptive commercial practices and the leather industry from free riding its heritage.

COTANCE, in full alignment to ICT, reminds that in the European terminology standard EN 15987 one can read under 4.4.1
“leather fibre board, bonded leather fibre, recycled leather fibre and similar terms:
 material where tanned hides or skins are disintegrated mechanically and/or chemically into fibrous particles, small pieces or powders and then, with or without the combination of chemical binding agent, are made into sheets
Note 1 to entry:    If there is any other component apart from leather fibre, binding material and leather auxiliaries, then this should be declared as part of the description.
Note 2 to entry:    The minimum amount of 50 % in weight of dry leather is needed to use the term leather fibre board.
Note 3 to entry:    The term “leather” is only to be used for material with the original fibrous structure intact as defined under 4.1.1. Where the material has been disintegrated and reformed in some way, the appropriate generic term is “...X leather fibre”- for example,“ bonded leather fibre,” or “recycled leather fibre.” On this basis, the terms “recycled leather” or “recycling leather” are used incorrectly.”

For all these reasons the Council of COTANCE again requests the European Commission to respond to the leather industry call to use its power of legislative initiative for regulating leather authenticity labelling in the EU market

October 2017

New training programmes for the futures TCLF occupations soon to be ready under “Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 Blueprint”

30 March 2020

Skills intelligence and upskilling are essential to support and boost the European economy during times of rapid technological transformation of labour market needs. Upgrading education and training programmes relevant and attractive for young students and employees is the objective of the partners of the European funded project Erasmus+ “Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 Blueprint” since early 2018. The consortium is now proud to publicly announce the launch of the training programmes corresponding to the 8 new or updated occupation profiles defined during previous project phases. 

The 22 European partners, in particular the ten education providers, have worked intensively in collaboration with experts from other VET centres across Europe to develop 8 training programmes related to 8 new/upgraded occupations. The programmes include skills and competences required to embrace the latest technologies. They respond to the current drivers of change and correspond to level 5 of the European Qualification Framework (EQF). 

Some key concepts addressed in the courses are traceability, sustainability and “green” supply chain policies, environmental performance of the TCLF products and processes, web technology for e-commerce and online sales, and digital communications and management. The TCLF training programmes related to design have been shaped taking into consideration the latest machinery and design software available for the four sectors. 

Easily accessible, online training programmes

 Not all regions with TCLF industry representation in Europe can count on VET providers and up-to-date training programmes. Thus, with the aim of facilitating its access toa broader audience across Europe, the project partners have organised the training programmes in packages of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for the 8 TCLF qualification profiles (four of them sectoral and the other four cross-sectoral).The learning content of each MOOC is structured around learning units, which can be used in both presential, face-to-face teaching and online learning. Consequently, the training programmes are intended to be delivered to students as well as employees/ unemployed people. This gives TCLF students the opportunity to access the entire upgraded curricula as part of a study programme, complementing other scholastic topics required by each respective national VET regulations. In addition, workers or businesses in need of upskilling personnel could take advantage of sections of the curricula, by selecting the modules of interest to be delivered within companies or in VET centres providing such services.

Towards the best learning outcomes

In order to ensure the adequateness of the material and to achieve successful results, the project partners will pilot the training programmes after summer as both initial VET and continuous VET. Training sessions for students and workers will take place in VET schools to ensure that they will be fit for purpose for each specific group. Once the curricula have been tested and adjusted, project partners will move towards their recognition by the specific authorities within the TCLF industries.

More details on the Erasmus+ Skills4Smart European funded project are available here, and by following timely the developments on Twitter @Skills4TCLF.

^Disclaimer:

^{The European Commission support for the production of this publication does  not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.} 

COTANCE and industriAll-Europe review progress of their joint project on Social & Environmental Reporting

 The SER 2020 project that will produce the 2020 Social & Environmental Report of the EU Leather industry is steered by a committee comprised of representatives from Italy (UNIC-Concerie Italiane), Spain (ACEXPIEL), France (FFTM), Germany (VDL), UK (Leather UK), Hungary (AHLI), Romania (APPBR), Portugal (APIC), together with both EU Social Partners, industriAll- European Trade Union and COTANCE.

The exercise includes the collection of social and environmental performance data for the period, 2016-2018, from a representative sample of European tanneries for the production of the 2nd Social & Environmental Report of the European Leather Industry. This follow-up publication to the 2012 Report will not only analyse the progress in the social & environmental performance of tanneries, but also the new tools and instruments produced by the EU sector for advancing on the path of sustainability. This will include the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for leather and the updated OiRA tool (On-line Interactive Risk Assessment) for assessing workplace health & safety risks in tanneries.

The project will also stage Workshops in a number of countries addressing issues of joint interest to the Social Partners at national level.

The collection of company and country reports for processing by COTANCE has started. Completed questionnaires have been anonymised before aggregation for subsequent analysis. The aim is to gather a representative sample from each participating country, from which to extrapolate valid conclusions for the EU tanning industry.

The Steering Committee met in the premises of industriAll-Europe on 8 July in Brussels. The Committee is reasonably satisfied with the progress achieved so far but calls on the sector’s companies who have not yet returned their filled in questionnaires not to delay their submission. The project partners are prepared to assist companies needing support in providing the requested information.

The next Steering Committee meeting will take place on 18 November.

Website: http://www.euroleather.com/socialreporting/

COTANCE call on Helsinki Fashion Week to reconsider its decision to ban leather as of 2019

Helsinki fashion week founder, Evelyn Mora, announced that leather would be banned from her show as of 2019. The press reports that the decision was to take “an active stand against cruelty to animals and the damaging environmental impacts that the use of animal leather brings with it”.

COTANCE, the association representing the European leather industry, deeply regrets this decision and calls on the show organisers to reconsider this unfortunate choice, as it is based on false assumptions and conveys to the general public a manipulated view on the world’s oldest recycling industry.

By banning leather from the Helsinki Fashion Week, their organisers are pre-empting a lifestyle position for their followers, visitors and exhibitors without having consulted them. Such an initiative is rather typical for undemocratic and activist organisations. Fashion shows, promoting values such as multi-culturalism, freedom, beauty and creativity would be well-advised to dissociate themselves from such radical and misleading positions. People following Fashion Shows should be free to choose their own lifestyle and not be constrained by a minority view imposed on them without alternative. 

Red meat consumption inevitably produces a number of non-edible residues, such as the animal’s hides or skins. Accusing tanners to be responsible for their slaughter, worse to put on their shoulders any cruelty possibly inflicted to the animal, equals to incriminating the gravedigger for the death of the person. No slaughter animal is killed for its hide or skin. These are by-products! Thanks to their recovery and recycling, they don’t have to be otherwise disposed of to the detriment of the environment and human or animal health.

Leather is the first and most valuable example of a circular economy. What other recycling sector can claim nearly 100% efficiency in the recovery of this slaughterhouse residue and its recycling into a material whose versatility, properties and beauty have become cult across the globe?

Mrs Mora’s decision for the Helsinki Fashion Week is a profound mistake, as, according to the press, she herself also alerts the public on the questionable ethics and dangers for the environment of vegan leather alternatives. Indeed, most of such alternatives are fossil fuel based, or even worse a combination of plastic and other materials. The former is known today to be responsible for the pollution of the planet’s oceans, apart of the pollution generated during their production. The latter combine these sins with the fact that they can’t be easily separated and constitute thus a challenge for their recycling.

Leather - a fascinating material and a term that ought to be reserved strictly to tanned hides or skins of animals - is unjustly under attack on many fronts, but on none rivals would stand a fact-based and balanced discussion. Consumers should be cautious in front of products that are promoted against alleged faults of others and do not disclose their own bill of materials.

It should be noted that rival materials acknowledge the supremacy of leather by usurping its name (please note the myriad of oxymoron: grape leather, mushroom leather, pineapple leather, synthetic leather, vegan leather…) in an attempt to confuse the consumer and arrogate the appeal of the real thing.

Also, while the chemistry in the tanning industry is known and perfectly manageable under sustainable conditions, competitors to leather avoid disclosing the chemistry used, the environmental footprint of the product and its durability.

Moreover, consumers are lured in the belief that alternatives to leather could be produced sustainably in industrial settings so as to replace leather in the market, while in reality such alternatives occupy only very limited market niches.

Opponents to leather should come up with a sensible response to the question on what to do with the mountains of hides and skins generated for the production of red meat for human consumption if these should no longer be recycled into leather.

The signal sent by the Helsinki Fashion Week to the general public is unfortunate, populist and misleading.

COTANCE calls on the Nordic Fashion Week Group to reconsider the decision taken to eliminate leather as of 2019 and to rather promote the disclosure of Product Environmental Footprints for all materials and products presented in the show if it is serious with its ethical and environmental commitments.

Brussels, 27 August 2018

Fashion World's Challenges - Looking for Qualification, Occupations
…and the right skills in the TCLF sectors

“For many years our first priority was to win customers and to keep our mill busy. Now our first priority is to find (and retain) skilled employees”. This brief quote of Simon Cotton, CEO of Johnstons of Elgin, Scottish knitwear manufacturer sums up superbly the main challenge that European Textile, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (TCLF) companies are struggling to overcome every day.

The re- and upskilling of the existing TCLF workforce and the difficulty of finding new talents with right skills were the main topics discussed at the two first public events “Fashion World's Challenges - Looking for Qualifications and Occupations” organised within the 4-year Erasmus+ project Skills4Smart TCLF 2030 last week in Portugal. Both seminars brought together, national and international experts and industry stakeholders to discuss the future of the workforce in Fashion industries. On 22th January 2019, the first conference, focusing mainly on the Textile and Clothing sectors, took place at CITEVE premises (Portuguese Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing) in Vila Nova de Famalicão, while the next day, CTCP (Portuguese Footwear Technology Centre) hosted in S. João da Madeira the second event involving mainly companies, VET providers and stakeholders of the Leather and Footwear industries.

Both events drove to similar conclusions and highlighted the urgency of taking actions. We are living in an age in which the pace of change is incredibly rising, digitalisation and most advanced technology are affecting the way of working, the retirement wave of experienced workers is intensifying, traditional jobs are destroyed and at the same time replaced and recreated, the number of students in vocational training and educational system is continuously diminishing…and the TCLF sectors have still not found sustainable solutions for this complex situation. As speakers clearly explained in these last days, “Lifelong learning should be promoted in each company. We should make our sector more attractive and explain, above all to the younger generations, the opportunities existing in our sector (Miguel Pedrosa Rodrigues, Pedrosa & Rodrigues). “Robotics, automation, digitalisation are already a reality in our industries – why not using them to attract the youngsters? The technology is extraordinarily helpful in supporting the work of people, it will never replace the workers.” (Ricardo Cunha, ITA). “MOOCs, tutorials and other digital devices are also great teaching materials, but they will never replace training. For example, it is like learning how to drive a car, you will need always somebody showing and explaining you how to drive - you can not learn it directly from a book. People will always be at the core of the training” (Rui Moreira, AMF).

Nevertheless, “sectoral vocational education and training needs to be reinforced or redeveloped. The most difficult part is updating the curricula to match the different industry needs. All industry stakeholders, including trade unions and national associations should actively participate in the process” (Ana Maria Damião, National Agency for Qualification and Education). Indeed, “an intense collaboration among all sectoral stakeholders and exchanges of best practices should be promoted at all levels of governance” (Gonçalo Santos, APIC Secretary General). The Porto area benefits from a robust support by the community and political authorities. Fernando Freire de Sousa, António Leite and Adelaide Dias, respectively from Norte Portugal Regional Coordination and Development Commission, Institute for Employment and Professional Training, and Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão reconfirmed their willingness of continuing their programs and schemes related to the TCLF clusters, as for instance: training free of charge for TCLF workers, promotion of the transition from school to work and of the TCLF careers, as well as the active involvement of all parties of the community in the educational and working environment.

 
This is of course a clear example of best practice in the TCLF sector, and this is where our Skills4Smart project comes in - sharing knowledge and best practices in order to anticipate skills needs, improve the employability and the training of right competences are our main goals. In the coming months, the S4TCLF partnership will be busy at developing a new Sectoral Skill Strategy (WP5), a new attractiveness campaign of TCLF careers (WP6) and 8 new curricula for 8 TCLF occupations (WP7). So, let us get back to work and stay tuned!

28 January 2019

For more information about the project:
-    Visit the project website at http://www.s4tclfblueprint.eu
-    Write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
-    Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Project Details:

Project Title: Skills4Smart TCLF 2030
Project Reference: 591986-EPP-1-2017-1-BE-EPPKA2-SSA-B
Project Duration: 48 months from 01.01.2018 – 31.12.2021
Project Partners
1.    EURATEX, Belgium – Textiles & Clothing, Project coordinator
2.    CEC, Belgium - Footwear
3.    COTANCE, Belgium - Leather
4.    CIAPE- Centro Italiano per l’Apprendimento Permanente, Italy
5.    CITEVE- Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias Têxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal, Portugal
6.    CNDIPT- Centrul National de Dezvoltare a Invatamantului Profesional Si, Romania
7.    COBOT, Belgium
8.    CTCP Centro Tecnológico do Calçado de Portugal, Portugal
9.    HMA - Hellenic Management Association (EEDE), Greece
10.    Fundacion Estatal, Spain
11.    IVOC, Belgium
12.    INESCOP- Instituto Tecnologico Del Calzado Y Conexas, Spain
13.    OPCALIA, France
14.    PIN- Soc. Cons. A r.l. – Servizi didattici e scientifici per l’Università di Firenze, Italy
15.    Politecnico Calzaturiero, Italy
16.    SPIN360, Italy
17.    TUIASI- Universitatea Tehnica Gheorghe Asachi din Iasi, Romania
18.    Lodz University of Technology, Poland
19.    UPC- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
20.    PIRIN-TEX EOOD, Bulgaria
21.    Marzotto, Italy

The WORTH project makes the leather sector its priority

COTANCE calls for candidates in the leather sector to take advantage of the promotional (and financial) opportunities offered by the WORTH Project.

The European Commission has launched the second call of the WORTH project, making the leather sector its priority. Candidates from the leather sector may apply to compete for for 10.000 Euro and benefits for reputation and image. The call will remain open until October 24, 2018.

Information and application: http://www.worthproject.eu
Downloadable promotional material:
-    Abstract
-    Press release of the European Commission
 
During the first selection process Fish leather was a successful candidate, with WORTH now supporting Iceland and the Atlantic Leather company.