Sustainable Production:

Our tannery is a member of SEDEX, one of the world’s leading ethical trade service providers. We’re also independently audited yearly by SMETA for health & safety, treatment of workers & more. 

Energy:

We work hard to use sustainable forms of energy to drastically reduce our emissions. This includes:

• We use solar power to heat up 2 million litres of water in our tannery every week.
• Heat recycled from drying rooms produces hot water; with cold air reused for air conditioning.
• We have replaced our coal boiler with natural gas, significantly reducing our carbon footprint.

Water:

Water plays a huge part in our production process. Over the last 5 years, we’ve been able to reduce our water usage by an average of 15% annually! This has been achieved by:

• Reusing and recycling 70% of used water back into production.
• Installing a new water treatment plant which has resulted in outputs being reduced well below regulatory requirements.
• Treating 100% of water on-site before secondary treatment by the local city council. 

Recycling:

We recycle and reuse as many materials as possible during our production process. This not only saves energy and resources but saves us money. Highlights include:

• 95% of salt used in the curing process is recovered for reuse.
• Biowaste and grease recovered from our dry-clean plant.
• Wooden pallets, empty drums, plastic and cardboard waste are on sold or recycled.

Minimal Chemicals:

We’ve developed efficiencies in our tanning process that significantly reduce our use of chemicals. Highlights include:

• New enzyme technology is used to reduce the use of detergents and surfactants by 30%.
• Chemical recycling enables an annual reduction in our use of chemicals of 15%.
• Lower chemical levels in our process water enable us to achieve significantly lower outputs in our waste water than are required by environmental regulations.
• With low levels of safe chemicals we are able to achieve the OEKO-TEX LEATHER STANDARD for the safety of our products in close contact with human skin.

Emissions:

One of our key sustainability aims is to reduce emissions into our natural environment. We use solar to heat our water and prioritise sea freight over air.

• Solar energy produces zero emissions.
• We use solar energy to heat up to 2,000,000 litres (approximately 530,000 gallons) of water per week.
• Sea freight emits approximately 33 times less carbon dioxide than air-freighting.
• We use sea freight to ship all raw materials and a majority of finished products.

Scrap/Damaged Skin Utilisation:

Wherever possible we use damaged skins and skin offcuts in our production. We craft beautiful, long lasting products from what would otherwise be thrown away. By making sure nothing is unnecessarily wasted, we’re doing our part to save resources.