Is ISA Next-Gen Materials leather ECO2L (energy) certified?

ECO2L (Energy Controlled Leather) is a leather-specific energy and carbon certification from the German Leather Federation (VDL), with certificates issued by the FILK Freiberg Institute and audited by independent appointed auditors. An ECO2L audit produces two things: an energy efficiency classification for the tannery, and a corporate and product carbon footprint calculated with the ECO2L tool.

Can a brand put that number in its Scope 3 inventory? Yes, for the tanning stage. ECO2L measures the tannery’s own operations, so it gives supplier-specific, independently verified data in place of an industry average for the processing stage of Scope 3, Category 1. Under its DIN EN 16887 product category rules, ECO2L is cradle-to-gate, where cradle is the point at which the bovine rawhide enters the value chain after slaughter, including its transport from the slaughterhouse and its preservation, and gate is the finished leather leaving the tannery. It does not reach further upstream to the bovine livestock rearing stage, and it excludes CO2 emissions from the leather’s use phase and end of life. Our own life cycle assessment work covers the fuller picture, starting further upstream at the farm and extending through to the finished good.

ECO2L is the third-party counterpart to our own LITE energy work and LITE Index per-article energy data. Certification is site-specific.