Caleres sets environmental materials goal

All leather used in Caleres footwear will need to meet the Leather Working Group’s Gold or Silver standards.

A new report from footwear producer Caleres reveals that 75 per cent of the shoes manufactured by its partners in 2022 were made from what it terms ‘environmentally preferred materials’. The company has set a target of using 100 per cent of such materials in its products by 2025.

All the leathers that are used to make its footwear will reportedly be required to meet the Leather Working Group’s Gold or Silver standards. Any fabrics incorporated into Caleres’ shoes are to be ‘natural’, include over 20 per cent of certified organic content, or contain more than half of certified recycled content.

Whereas during 2022 the company’s consumption of fabrics increased substantially year-on-year and surpassed pre-pandemic levels, the report into its environmental, social, and corporate governance performance in 2022 noted that Caleres’ use of leather decreased during 2022 compared to the previous year and was considerably less than the figure for 2019.

Last year, Caleres used 24.2 million square feet of leather, a decrease of 11.9 per cent over the previous 12 months’ figure and, in comparison, the total for 2022 was down by 27 per cent over the 2019 pre-pandemic figure of 33.1 million square feet. The document also announced that 85 per cent of the leather it consumed during that year was in keeping with its criteria of using environmentally preferred materials.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 3 of the May 2023 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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