COTANCE withdraws from Technical Secretariat

The organisation suggests that the apparel and footwear rules actually encourage brands to deselect natural materials in favour of less sustainable alternatives.

The Confederation of National Associations of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community (COTANCE) has announced its withdrawal from the Technical Secretariat of the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for apparel and footwear. This action has been taken because, according to COTANCE, these durability metrics result in penalising natural materials and sending wrong signals in an ecodesign framework.

COTANCE claims that despite months of engagement in which the trade body presented arguments, proposed solutions and formed a global coalition of natural material stakeholders, no revision was permitted to the default durability values adopted in the apparel and footwear PEFCR. COTANCE suggests that the rules disproportionately impact slow-fashion products made with natural materials – such as leather, wool and cotton – ultimately encouraging brands to deselect them in favour of less sustainable alternatives.

Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, secretary-general of COTANCE, states: “We joined this process in good faith to build a fair and science-based environmental framework for fashion. Instead, we’ve witnessed a system that punishes durable, natural materials like leather – exactly the kind of products the circular economy should be encouraging. That said, we remain committed to dialogue and hope to convince the European Commission to review this aspect in the forthcoming revision of the PEFCR.”

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 3 of the May 2025 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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