The Leather Working Group was created in 2005 as a collaborative initiative between footwear, apparel, and upholstery brands and leather manufacturers, with a 9-person executive team made of primarily leather manufacturers and retail brands. Since then, it's grown to 2000 stakeholders in 60 countries. It aims to cover the entire supply chain and focuses on areas such animal welfare, deforestation, social responsibility, and chemical management and has 4 different standards - their OG for leather manufacturers.
Those manufacturers are voluntarily audited for 17 different sections like traceability, energy consumption, water usage, waste management, a social audit, and more. Make no mistake, these products are still using new animal skins and these skins are treated with chemicals like Polyurethane, but bio-material alternatives like leather made from cactus, bamboo, apples, etc. also are treated with (typically lower amounts of) Polyurethane as well.
