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Erschienen in:
04.03.2023 | LCA FOR AGRICULTURE PRACTICES AND BIOBASED INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
Product environmental footprint of New Zealand leather production
Erschienen in: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment | Ausgabe 4/2023
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Purpose
The leather industry is facing global challenges in terms of its sustainability profile and in providing transparency in its supply chain. In particular, provision of information on the environmental profile of leather production will likely become of increasing strategic and economic importance for leather manufacturers as the marketplace becomes more environmentally conscious. The objective of this research was to analyse the environmental impacts of the New Zealand tanning system, for the first time, and provide information to enable leather tanning company managers to calculate environmental performance indicators in order to support more sustainable production practices.
Methods
A “gate-to-gate” life cycle assessment was performed for finished shoe leather, following the recently published leather Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), using primary data collected from a New Zealand tannery.
Results and discussion
The New Zealand tannery consumes 2.83 kg of chemicals, 126.17 l of water and 25.3 MJ energy and emits 8.54 kg CO2 eq. throughout the production process to generate 1 m2 of finished shoe leather. Tanning, retanning and finishing are the most burdening phases across the different impact categories, mainly due to use of chemicals. For climate change, a majority of greenhouse gas emissions are associated with production of the chemicals (predominantly dyestuff, thermoplastic polyurethane and chromium oxide) used in these processes.
Conclusions
The results of the study highlight the significant environmental impacts related to the production of chemical compounds used in the tannery, and improvements to the New Zealand system should therefore focus on reducing chemical use and optimising processes. Further studies that extend the analysis to include both livestock farming and slaughtering processes in New Zealand are recommended.