Western beef & leather demand leading to intensified deforestation in the Amazon: http://bit.ly/3PtVi The big issue which is dominating the leather discussion of the moment is the recent report by Greenpeace on ranching in the Amazon. See (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/slaughtering-the-amazon) Its arrival was accompanied by a good PR promotion which included very good articles in the Financial […]
Dangerous Words
I have always argued an industry has to defend its product and its brand, and the brand leather is certainly under attack from many sides. Look at the article in today’s (15h February 2009) Observer Magazine:.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/lucy-siegle-dilemma-eco-friendly-green-living/print This article “Is there a viable eco alternative to leather?” is supposed to be an “environmental” article. It has […]
The start of Leather Naturally triggered by bad science in Hong Kong
POSTED ON OCTOBER 5, 2008 The danger of bad science in good hands It was only a week ago that we were listening to Dr Heinz-Peter Germann give a very clear and straight forward Procter Memorial Lecture about the current technical status of tanning from an environmental stance at the SLTC conference in the UK. […]
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower
(First published by APLF, Hong Kong, in my Cool Hunting Column) One of the famous characters of the 20th century leather industry was Bert Childs, a hide and skin trader from Liverpool. His wife used to collect sand as she travelled around the world and after staying with them in the early nineteen eighties I […]
Traditional Tanneries of Marrakech
Marrakech Traditional Tanning In 2000, when I was giving a couple of talks as part of the Meet in Africa symposiums my wife and I stayed on in Morocco and visited the traditional tanneries of Fez. Even spending quite a lot of time down in amongst the pits it was quite hard to get a […]
Sichuan University and more
POSTED ON MAY 22, 2008 Sichuan and our good friends Over the last year China has frequently been the focus of these columns, and it was only six weeks ago that we were in Chengdu and Deyang. Both are in Sichuan Province at Chengdu is about 50km from the epicentre and Deyang, although a little […]
Clever Footwear and APLF 2008
Two posts from my Northampton blog posted on the the 10th and 27th No blow with BASF It’s Sunday and the sun is shining and we are just back from Lineapelle. I am sitting in the garden blowing through a tube sent to me by BASF. One moment it is easy and the next impossible […]
The start of the Circular Journey
POSTED ON MARCH 3, 2008 Monday 3 March, 2008 It’s Monday and I am in Rotorua in New Zealand enjoying the hot springs, mud baths and geysers. I am not carrying my copy of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. That has been left in Auckland […]
Paris and Chengdu
POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 (more than one item; one of many put here from my original blogs for the University of Northampton) Paris in September Paris in September was for many decades an essential part of life in the leather industry. A trip to the Semaine du Cuir, the world’s most important leather show, […]
Shredding Paper; all about China
POSTED ON AUGUST 22, 2007 Shredding Paper Kneeling on the floor in the pantry using the sharp end of a lacquered chop-stick to un-jam the paper shredder is clearly a good moment to reflect on what is going on in the leather world. This is, after all, the new “age of interruption” where blackberries, SMS, […]
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