Leather industry experts provide sustainability perspectives

Together with World Leather and Leatherbiz.com, Buckman is excited to announce our inaugural virtual seminar focused on sustainability. Supported by leading industry experts, this free seminar considers key sustainability drivers with perspectives from the leather supply chain and what these mean as the world starts to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. With a focus on global trends, the seminar brings together tanners, leather product manufacturers and brands to provide insights on current sustainability strategies and how collaboration and innovation will accelerate change.

The seminar, which took place on Wednesday, 22nd July 2020, is now available in two sessions on-demand. You can view both from our webinars page.

Topics include:

• Leather Pipeline in a Post-Covid World – A review of leather pipeline observations, predictions for mid and longer term future. What will change.
• Sustainability in the Leather Supply Chain – Outlining global sustainability pressures, trends and a vision of the future leather industry
• Leather Working Group Overview
• A Tanners Perspective – Prime Asia – A review of the sustainability and innovation from a global leather supplier
• Traceability for Sustainable Supply Chains – Introduction to the UNECE project to enhance traceability of sustainable value chains
• Supply Chain Issues Post-Covid – Discussion on supply chain issues facing the global leather (product) industry Post-Covid including mold, warehousing issues, etc.
• Innovation Workshop – A review of collaborative innovation and the need for supply chains to work together.  Impact of Smart Digital on Industry 4.0. Explanation of how Innovation Workshops can mutually benefit.
• Wolverine Leather’s perspective of Sustainability:  Focus on and investing in sustainability as the only option to do things right and do the right things

Leather Sustainability Seminar Speakers

Matthew Abbott

Mat Abbott is the Technical Editor and Commercial Manager for World Leather Magazine and Leatherbiz.com. The current president of the UK’s Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists (SLTC), he has extensive industry experience including serving on the Technical Liaison Group that works with the University of Northampton’s Institute for Creative Leather Technologies – where he also attained an honours BSc Degree, in 1997, in Leather Technology.

Andrew Hudson

Andrew is Buckman’s Global Market Development Manager for Leather. He has extensive experience in the leather industry including serving as Global Technical Head at SGS Ltd. and in director level roles at Pittards PLC and Yarwood Leather Ltd. and Head of Sales and Marketing at e-leather Ltd. He holds a BSc in Applied Chemistry from the University of Huddersfield, a Diploma in Industrial Studies from the University of Huddersfield and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Dresden, Germany.

Christina Trautmann

Christina is the Operations Manager of the Leather Working Group (LWG), which is an industry-lead, not-for-profit organization that drives environmental improvement in the leather industry. She has recently joined the LWG from adidas, where she worked for the last seven years – most recently in the material sourcing team in Hong Kong, where she managed their leather portfolio. She holds a master’s degree in chemical and environmental engineering from the University of Cape Town and is passionate about sustainability in all forms.

Fernando Bellese

Fernando is the Chief Sustainability Officer at PrimeAsia Leather Corporation. As a marketing and sustainability professional, he is constantly working in projects to develop Cleaner Production approaches, looking at creating more efficient and sustainable outcomes. He has also been engaged actively in different national and international initiatives and organizations such as Leather Naturally, Leather Working Group, ZDHC, UNECE and the Brazilian Roundtable of Sustainable Livestock, participating directly in important discussions involving the worldwide leather industry about innovation, supply-chain, traceability, carbon footprint, environment, transparency, animal welfare, responsible chemical management and the global promotion of sustainable leather.

Deborah Taylor

Deborah is a passionate advocate of environmental sustainability and believes in encouraging individuals and businesses to make a difference.  Following 5 years managing the Leather Working Group (LWG) and working worldwide with tanneries, brands, chemical companies and other suppliers, Deborah is currently a consultant for the UNECE on the project to enhance transparency in the garment and footwear sector, working with cross industry stakeholders and experts with the aim of strengthening sustainable consumption and production.  Deborah also supports the Textile Exchange with their Leather Impact Accelerator (LIA).

Paul Bridge

Paul Bridge is the Deputy VP Consumer and Retail and Head of Footwear and Leather Services of SGS. He has over 40 years of experience in the footwear and leather industries. Originally trained at Northampton College in Footwear Design and Management, Paul’s experience covers Product Development, Footwear Design, Footwear Production Management and Business Development. Paul gained his extensive experience representing several footwear brands, tanneries and footwear component suppliers and has lived in Asia, USA, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Peter Wheeler

Peter is the General Manager of Operations for Buckman APAC. He holds a degree in pulp & paper technology and a master’s in business leadership and chemistry. Peter has been with Buckman for 22 years in roles ranging from project chemist and technology management for our paper business to his current role as GMO for APAC.

Sylvain Bussiere

Sylvain graduated from ITECH in 1983 (French Tannery School in Lyon) and became a contractor for prestigious French luxury houses until 1993 by handling the finishing department and later complete production at Tannerie d’Annonay^® (today division of HCP^® Hermes Cuirs Precieux).  In 2001, Sylvain seized the opportunity of expatriation with one of the best European Tannery & Shoe groups, ECCO^®, and for the following 10 years was based in Indonesia managing the ECCO^® Tannery in Surabaya.  In 2012, he joined Wolverine Worldwide^® where he manages their tannery division Wolverine Leathers^®.

Ashok Ramamurthy

Ashok has over 30 years of experience and holds a degree in leather technology. He has been with Buckman for 25 and has deep experience in sales and sales management leading both the Leather division and leather managers workgroup. Ashok was appointed as Business Unit leader in 2019 for Leather.

View these sessions on-demand