JBS Couros, the largest bovine skin processor and global leader in the leather segment, has just launched a pioneering protocol: Responsible Tanning Chemicals (RTC). The indicator aims to make leather production continuously more responsible, as it assesses the level of environmental impact of a chemical product to be used. This means that, from now on, the indicator will be used collaboratively between JBS Couros and its suppliers, who will have visibility of the impacts generated by chemicals in the company’s processes and the best ways to contribute to the environmental agenda. In practice, new chemicals proposed by suppliers will be evaluated based on four sustainability criteria: biodegradability, use of hazardous substances, existence of biogenic carbon and environmental impact categories.
According to Ramon Torres, technical director at JBS Couros, by establishing new indicators, the company is seeking to standardise the way in which environmental impacts relevant to the leather production process are assessed, enabling its technical team to focus on solutions that make today’s leather always better than yesterday’s, with respect for nature. ‘We are always dedicated to analysing and optimising production processes, generating indicators that seek to continually reduce the environmental impacts of the supply chain,’ he explains.
The indicators applied in Responsible Chemicals for Tanneries will align what contributions can be made to establish joint leadership in sustainability. The evaluation begins with the chemical industry, which, when presenting a new product, will provide environmentally relevant data based on the sustainability criteria that make up the RTC. The company evaluates these results, applying them to the RTC metrics, and presents its considerations to the Technical Council, which must approve the new chemical product or not.
‘There is no sustainability without collaboration, and it’s up to companies to build these bridges. When customers and suppliers work together, the results are exponential, and working together with the chemical industries towards increasingly sustainable products has huge potential. With the RTC, we hope to see concrete medium-term results in the continued reduction of the environmental impacts of the leather production chain,‘ adds Kim Sena, sustainability director at JBS Couros’.
Pioneering methodology
The methodology, made up of the four metrics, is applied to the chemical product considered for use. The evaluation compares the current recipe in which the new chemical will be applied and the previous one, i.e. the one without the presence of the new chemical. The evaluation is also carried out in the development of new items, and is compared to another reference used by the JBS Couros Research and Development team.
Each metric has a different weight in the final score: 50 per cent for environmental impact, 20 per cent for biodegradability, 15 per cent for hazardous substances and 15 per cent for biogenic carbon. Thus, for each metric, the chemical performance result is multiplied by its dosage in the recipe. If the result shows a negative value, this implies that the inclusion of the chemical has reduced the average environmental impacts of the recipe. On the other hand, if the result is positive, it means that the introduction of the chemical has increased the negative environmental impacts.
