Austrian tanner Wollsdorf Leder has won the right to call itself a carbon-neutral producer of leather after it made considerable reductions to the carbon footprint of its facility in southern Austria and then bought officially recognised climate certificates in support of rainforest projects in Central America to offset the remainder of its emissions.
Chief executive, Andreas Kindermann, told World Leather at Tanning Tech in Milan that he was very pleased with the accolade and was proud to be able to declare Wollsdorf Leder a carbon-neutral company.
Wollsdorf Leder, the global winner of the fourth Tannery of the Year programme, said in a statement that it had worked hard to lower its carbon footprint by reducing its use of resources such as water, energy and other raw materials. It said its water and energy consumption are now "significantly below the benchmark of the leather industry".
Energy consumption reduction measures, including using energy from renewable resources such as wind and hydro, have resulted in a total annual saving of nearly 1 gigawatt hour of electricity.
It went on to say that new planned projects over the next few years will save a further 3.5 gigawatt hours per year (amounting to 10% of the tannery's current energy needs).