As the place of agriculture in the leather industry:
Paul LUU“Transitioning from traditional agriculture to ecological and bio-dynamic agriculture”
At the Sustainable Leather Forum, which was held for the fifth time this year at the Palais Brongniart in Paris on Monday, September 11, Social Responsibility principles organized by the French Leather Industry were presented as the main topics of fashion and traceability in the sessions with speakers from the industry.
The conference, which turned into an international organization, took place in 4 sessions. Frank BOEHLY, president of the French international leather council, made the opening speech and included the solutions and sustainability of the problems under the guest speakers and the determined main headings on their agenda.
In the first session, certification standards and traceability processes in the leather industry were discussed. Gustavo Gonzales Quijano, secretary general of the national tanners’ confederation of the European community (COTANCE), gave examples of improvement in process quality upon the implementation of various certifications of all stakeholders in the supply chain, covering Corporate Social Responsibility. “It’s about providing information to consumers to communicate between consumers and brands,” said Katie KUTSKILL, technical lead at the Sustainable Leather Foundation.
On agriculture and livestock
As a speaker on the theme of expectations and solutions on Agriculture and Climate Change, Paul LUU emphasized the place of agriculture in the leather industry and emphasized that “There should be a transition from traditional agriculture to ecological and bio-dynamic agriculture”.
At a time when the limits of traditional agriculture were presented at COP21 and were recently addressed in European climate policies, the importance of new approaches such as regenerative agriculture in agriculture and especially in animal husbandry was highlighted, and the traceability of meat products was also brought to the agenda.
In the third session, Pierre MISCHEL, among the speakers in the Personal protective equipment sectors, protective shoes and protective gloves sectors, underlined that “Innovations and investments should attract attention”.
In the fourth session, Circular fashion, our professions have always been included in the circular economy; first with leather, which is an upcycled material for the first time, and then with shoes and leather goods, which are often designed to be both maintained and repaired. In addition to maintenance and repair, the durability and environmental impact of materials and products are essential conditions for the successful implementation of the circular economy. Speaker Nienke STEEN talked about the impact of the circular economy and said, “Circular economy is beneficial to human health and the environment.” It was emphasized that “the sustainability of products is an important part of their connection with repairability, and since they can monitor the formation process of the product, they can also measure its impact on the environment.”
Networking was created through the launch of an international matchmaking platform, allowing them to follow the conference remotely via live broadcast and personalized access. In addition to the speeches, the conference also included B2B meetings.
