Leather is good for the environment and does little harm to the planet, its people, or its animals.
Right?
Maybe not. According to the advocacy organization Collective Fashion Justice, the leather industry has been engaged in a false campaign to make itself look good and promote leather as an environmentally sound and humane material for clothing and other goods. The report is titled "Fabricating the Truth," and that's exactly what the industry has been doing.
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The leather industry as a whole is engaged in greenwashing. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, greenwashing is what happens when organizations or industries make themselves look like they are more environmentally aware and sound than they actually are. They can do this by engaging in a wide range of activities. Some of them are illegal, while others involve twisting the truth or only highlighting certain aspects of what they do while hiding others under the rug.
Contrary to what the leather industry claims, it isn't actually doing the environment any favors. Per the World Wildlife Fund, it is responsible for 80% of the deforestation happening in the Amazon rainforest, and it wastes up to 17% of the hides it produces, which then get burned or sent to landfills. Both of those options are bad for the environment.
Journalism is part of the problem here. Articles like this one in Harper's Bazaar set up vegan leather as the industry doing greenwashing while downplaying the environmental effects of the leather industry. It's disturbing that media outlets are buying into the leather industry's efforts to make itself look better than it is because the media then passes that message on to thousands of people.
If this disturbs you or you feel like you've been lied to, you can start turning it around by learning more about greenwashing. You can also do some investigating on your own to decide whether vegan leather might be a better option for you or learn how you can support innovations in making leather-like materials. Knowing the truth about the leather industry allows you to make informed choices in the future.
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