The study 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 provided detailed explanations, definitions and terminology pertaining to leather’s carbon footprint.

It also contained specific suggestions on how to proceed in addressing this issue. Subsequently, it was not only extensively discussed by eminent international leather specialists, but it has triggered a series of activities involving different regional and global establishments.

The essence of that paper, reactions to it and some other views were reflected in a special chapter in UNIDO’s comprehensive study The Framework for Sustainable Leather  Manufacture, a chapter dealing with carbon footprint aspects of leather processing.

That chapter is now here presented as separate paper for the benefit of readers primarily interested in the carbon footprint considerations. 

In addition to earlier content, the paper also presents the main features of the European 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 is quite likely that the European norm will prevail globally.