Leather Naturally

Leather Naturally is the not-for-profit industry members association that focuses on education and promotes the use of globally manufactured sustainable leather. It seeks to inspire and inform designers, creators, and consumers about its beauty, quality, and versatility. In 2022, various new educational factsheets were prepared in multiple languages, there was a strong growth in audiences on social media, and we participated in several educational talks. In April 2022, the METCHA campaign run by Leather Naturally came to a conclusion after building an audience of 4.5 million people worldwide: During the course of the campaign, METCHA made the word ‘leather’ reverberate over 1.3 billion times, gained 800.000 followers on its social media platforms and generated over 5.5 million sessions on its style-led website. #LeatherTruthfully is a resource from Leather naturally for journalists and consumers who want quick access to key information about leather. It is an easy-to-read summary of the facts that has been created to address the most common misconceptions around leather and leather manufacturing. It is up to the industry to step up and co-fund Leather Naturally for the future. Royal Smit & Zoon supports this initiative through membership, financial donations to the campaign, and providing time for our Global Director ESG to actively participate in the Managing Board of the association. In 2023, we will continue to educate the public about the beauty and sustainability of leather. We kindly invite all our partners to join Leather Naturally as members.

Leather Impact Accelerator

Smit & Zoon already signed the Charter of the Leather Impact Accelerator in 2018. The Leather Impact Accelerator (LIA) is a set of tools that helps the industry address the core challenges it faces around leather production, from farm to finished product. It uses benchmarks and protocols to set a minimum threshold for practices at the farm and leather production levels to meet, addressing animal welfare and deforestation/conversion-free at the farm level, the social and environmental impacts of leather processing, and expectations on traceability. Brands can use LIA to support best practices in the leather value chain and make credible claims about their actions. We supported this initiative by sharing our know-how and network by participating in various conference calls. In 2023, we intend to support the further development of the LIA tool.

Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)

Royal Smit & Zoon has been an active contributor to ZDHC since early 2018. In November 2022, the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) 3.0 was released. In 2021, we have already added our key product range from Codyeco to the ZHDC Conformance level 3 portfolio, the highest level possible. In 2023, many products and our Nanjing site in China will be subject to re-certification. We are preparing our production entities in India to obtain certification in 2023, which was delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions. We will continue to support ZDHC in developing its program by supporting task teams and the Sustainable Chemistry Lead team.

Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF)

Royal Smit & Zoon was one of the founding partners of SLF and has been chairing the Advisory Board. At the heart of the SLF is the integrated SLF Transparency Dashboard™, which is linked to an audit certification standard that assesses the compliance and performance of companies working within the leather value chain against the three pillars of sustainability: Environmental, Social, and Governance. Royal Smit & Zoon will continue to support this organization to enable collective improvement and education globally for more sustainable practices in leather manufacture and production.

Leather Working Group

Royal Smit & Zoon is an active member of the Leather Working Group (LWG). The LWG Leather Manufacturer Audit Standard is the Leather Working Group’s flagship auditing protocol, designed to holistically assess the environmental, social, and governance of leather manufacturers across the leather supply chain. In 2022, the LWG launched Version 7.2.2 and showed further growth in the number of leather manufacturers that have been audited. The LWG Tannery of the Future – Are You Ready for an Audit (Royal Smit & Zoon was one of the founding partners) is a self-assessment tool that supports leather manufacturers in their journey towards environmental excellence, prepare for an actual LWG audit and obtain accompanying LWG certification. The largest-ever lifecycle assessment study for leather launched is promising, as well as the increased focus on traceability (interlinked with ending deforestation and combating climate change), a chain of custody, environmental footprint, and social conformity.