Leather Naturally

Royal Smit & Zoon is an active member of Leather Naturally, a not-for-profit industry association that focuses on the education and promotion of the use of globally manufactured sustainable leather. It seeks to inspire and inform designers, creators, and consumers about its beauty, quality, and versatility. In 2023, Leather Naturally developed several new initiatives, such as the “Get the Facts Icon” to provide access to straightforward and easy to understand information about leather. World Leather Day was created to bring the leather industry together and celebrate the benefits of leather. “It’s a long story”, a global digital exhibition supported by leading designers and makers, was launched to showcase the ensuring design, repair, beauty and circularity of leather. A Member Dashboard was created for easy access to downloadable content such as factsheets, presentations, labels, logos and more. Acknowledging the growing demand for fact-based and data-driven insights into the environmental and social impact of leather, Leather Naturally is steering its focus towards gathering and publishing such information in 2024. The recent publication on regenerative agriculture and conducting an LCA study in 2023 mark the organization’s first steps in this pathway. 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 and providing time for our Director ESG to actively participate in the Managing Board of the association. In 2024, 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. We take on an active role by participating in multiple task teams to drive the industry forward. Together we empower the global textile, leather, apparel and footwear value chain to substitute hazardous chemicals for safer ones in the production process. Our product development strictly adheres to the ZDHC specifications, whereby we continuously strive to grow the volume of products certified by an independent third party. Already in 2019, our first products were certified according to the ZDHC Conformance Level 3 (the highest level possible). In 2020, we added our key product range from our Chinese subsidiary and in 2021, the key product range from our Italian subsidiary Codyeco to the ZHDC Conformance level 3 portfolio. In 2023, we renewed our certifications through the standard bi-annual procedure. Also in 2023, ZDHC released the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) 3.1. We are preparing our production entities in India to obtain certification in 2024. We will continue to support ZDHC in developing its program by supporting task teams and actively participating in the Sustainable Chemistry Lead team.

Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF)

Royal Smit & Zoon was one of the founding partners of SLF. At the heart of the SLF is the integrated SLF Transparency Dashboard™, to demonstrate sustainable practice throughout the leather value chain from farm to finished product. The tool is linked to an audit certification standard and assesses the compliance and performance of companies working within the leather value chain against the three pillars of sustainability: Environmental, Social, and Governance. In 2024, Royal Smit & Zoon will continue to support this organization to enable collective improvement and education globally for more sustainable practices in leather manufacturing and production.

Leather Working Group

Royal Smit & Zoon is an active member of the Leather Working Group (LWG), a global multi-stakeholder community committed to building a sustainable future with responsible leather. 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 2023, the LWG launched Version 7.2.4 including a dedicated section for Chemical Management, aligned with ZDHC chemical management objectives. 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 LWG leather lifecycle assessment study under way 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.