PEFCR: an official tool to demonstrate the environmental performance of leather
In the past, there were no simple tools for tanneries to promote the environmental performance of their processes and products. They had to choose from a confusing range of methods and standards in order to certify their products and communicate their green credentials. Sometimes it was necessary to use more than one, depending on where the leather was marketed.
This resulted in costs for companies and confusion both for clients and operators along the supply and value chain.
Luckily, there is good news! In 2013, the European Commission launched the initiative “A Single Market for Green Productsâ€, intended to develop a harmonised set of rules recognised at European level, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).
The leather industry applied and was selected to join the pilot phase of the initiative and to develop sectorial-specific Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). The aim was to define the criteria to evaluate the environmental impact attributable to the production of leather. When the pilot phase ended in May 2018, COTANCE’s efforts were crowned with the approval and publication of the PEFCR for leather, drafted with its members and many other stakeholders from the leather supply chain.
With the final release of the official PEF compliant datasets in July 2019, the tool is finally ready for use!
The outcome of a PEF study will be a quantification of fifteen environmental impact categories. According to our research work, the most relevant impact categories for the leather industry are:
- Acidification
- Climate change
- Terrestrial eutrophication
- Particulate matter
- Use of fossil resources
Upstream livestock breeding contributes a lot to this state of play. A Leather PEF assessment requires an analysis of the whole supply chain, starting from the cradle, i.e. animal breeding. In multi-functional processes like meat production, the impact must be allocated to the various goods generated, based on economic, physical or biophysical criteria. During the Single Market for Green Products initiative, the tanning sector supported a zero allocation for raw hides and skins, as they are by-products, i.e. waste recovered from another production process. The EU Commission, however, determined that any product with an economic value cannot be treated as “wasteâ€, rejecting temporarily the zero-allocation proposal and obliging the industry taking over a portion of the environmental impact of the upstream phases. Although very small in percentage terms, this has significant weight for certain impact categories.
The leather industry at global level calls for zero allocation, and COTANCE will defend this during the next phase of the initiative. In the incoming months, some horizontal topics, including allocation, will be discussed further. The current PEFCR will be rolled out on the market together with new ones that will be developed for other products. After this so called “Transition phaseâ€, the European Commission will implement the PEF in EU policy to enhance the circulation of green products in the market.
With the PEFCR, the European leather industry is moving forward, taking responsibility for being transparent!
For further information about the initiative, visit the website https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/