At a personal level, what are the most striking changes that you have seen over the years? That would lead to a follow-up question: what is it that you believe ought to have changed, but still has not?
The most striking difference is the understanding of the importance of partnerships between the different value chain links. At this moment, Royal Smit & Zoon is involved in various projects including brands and leather manufacturers. In these projects, we try to gain insights from each other’s processes to understand where the value for society is. To give you an example, our recent innovation Zeology, the alternative system for chrome and aldehyde tanning. In one of these projects with Puma and their Re:Suede sneaker, we need to have full transparency within the leather manufacturing processes and the composting process after re-collecting the shoes from the consumer. This transparency in projects is really something that is seen from only the last couple of years.
What still needs to change—although I am seeing small changes already—is the fact that the leather industry should be communicating about leather with more pride. Most of the leather value chain partners do not sufficiently understand that they need to invest more in education and promotion of leather. An image does not come for free and if we will not tell society about the positive impact of leather towards a circular society, then we risk that society is going to make regrettable choices by using more plastic materials. One of the larger industry-supported initiatives to focus on education of leather is the Leather Naturally association.
You offer a range of products and solutions. But science often gets lost in translation, especially in an industry made of countless small businesses who are probably not that tech/science-savvy. How would you explain the benefits of your products to such a person/entity?
Royal Smit & Zoon is a company focusing on next generations and as such we feel responsible to do good in everything that we do. For a leather manufacturer or brand who would like to work with us and our products, I would like to say, check out our online ESG report that you can find on our homepage. It explains to you how we deal with our challenges, and it will give more insights on how our sustainable product lines support the creation of a socially and environmentally sustainable leather value chain. I feel very proud that our clientele consists of leading leather manufacturers and many brands who realise the value in working with us.
Your website has a section called Tannery of the Future, with Royal Smit & Zoon being one of the founding partners of the Foundation. My question is not about the initiative (which has merged with the Leather Working Group), but the concept itself. What will the Tannery of the Future really look like? Will countless small units exist? Or will we see consolidation into collectives or networks? Also, tanneries are way too scattered, and it would probably be a better idea of some kind of spatial-physical consolidation?
What will the tannery of the future look like? That is a very good question, and it is good to realise that many tanneries are working very hard towards this goal with great success already. It is also good to realise that in order to make change you need engagement within the value chain, including governments and consumers to collaborate for a common goal.
In the future, tanneries will get their hides as the by-product from regenerative farming and tanneries will use mostly fresh hides to start making leather. Tanneries are either working in clusters with a common effluent treatment or will be having access to their own modern treatment facilities. Tanneries will need to have a certain minimum size to be able to make all the necessary investments. There will be a very limited use of water in the process and the water is coming from a closed loop that can be used endlessly. It would be even better if we would be able to develop economic and efficient processes where zero water is used. Chemicals used come from bio-based origin that do not compete with the food industry or they will be made of materials that are endlessly available in the earth’s crust with a minimum impact. There is zero or hardly any yield loss (cutting waste) and if there is waste, it is a fertile source for plants to grow on.
People work safe with machinery and chemicals and are proudly understanding that they do important work, with young generations having a desire to work in the leather industry understanding that it supports the creation of a circular society by making leather that can be used over-and-over again and ultimately can be recycled easily.
Safe chemicals are one thing, and bio-based alternatives are a different thing altogether. How do you see things developing in the future?
Responsible chemical companies and initiatives like the Leather Working Group and the ZDHC are supporting the creation of safe chemistry as well as the development and usage of bio-based alternative chemistry. Especially, the creation of bio-based chemistry is having a strong focus in our company. At this moment, approximately 40% of all chemistry is based on renewable raw materials and we have several projects in the pipeline that will increase this percentage within the next few years. It is good to realise that brands also increasingly seeing value in a desire to better understand the renewable content of material (like leather) by doing carbon-14 analysis. A recent study by ARS Tinctoria presented in Dubai this March, showed that so-called vegan materials containing fibres from mushroom, cactus, apple, pineapple and so on have very high levels of fossil fuel derived carbon from petrochemicals (in the range of 60–80% content) and only 20–40% of bio-based carbon from the natural fibres. This was compared with a typical vachetta-style leather produced in Tuscany which contained 96% bio-based content and there were many other examples to support leather’s high bio-based content compared with fully or part-synthetic materials mixed with plant fibres.
What percentage of your turnover goes into R&D? Could you share something about how big the team is, and what they are working on?
Research & development (R&D) is key within our company’s strategy, with the current global team of approximately 30 people connected to R&D. This team of experts is focusing on bio-based chemistry, on reducing the usage of water, on shortening leather making processes, on optimising waste stream to name some general topics. More specifically, we have a dedicated team that is only focusing on the most important leather making stage, being tanning, where we introduced Zeology, the truly sustainably alternative to existing leather tanning agents. It is chrome-free, heavy metal-free and aldehyde-free. We feel proud that the industry is embracing this new innovation, which is a huge stimulation and recognition for our R&D teams to continue in supporting a global society where nothing is wasted, everything can be re-used and ultimately can be recycled.
