Is Leather Ethical? The Key Considerations, and Who Says What

Leather can be more or less ethical, but it is never free of trade-offs. It is made from animal hide or skin, and its record depends on deforestation, tanning chemicals and how tannery workers are treated. Ethical leather is best treated as leather whose tannery, tanning and traceability you can check, not as a label you can trust on sight.

This page is part of our guide to leather sourcing and sustainability.

The considerations at a glance

Animals: is leather a by-product?

Leather is made from the hide or skin of animals, and almost all of it comes from animals raised for meat, according to Textile Exchange, a non-profit. The FAO calls hides and skins mainly by-products of the meat industry. Europe's tanners' confederation, an industry body, says the hide is a residue tanners recover. It adds that raw hides are about 1.5% of a cow's value at the abattoir.

Veganuary, an advocacy group, disagrees. It argues leather is a profitable trade in its own right and says ostrich skin is worth four times the meat. Both sides agree an animal died. They disagree about whether buying leather adds to that demand.

Certification does not settle animal welfare. The Leather Working Group lists it as a focus area, but its FAQ describes no requirements. Its audit does not include farms. If no animal product is acceptable to you, our sister site covers alternatives to leather and their trade-offs.

Forests: cattle and deforestation

Greenpeace, an advocacy group, says cattle pasture expansion caused 42% of agriculture-driven deforestation from 2001 to 2022. The Leather Working Group's goal is for all leather in certified supply chains to be deforestation-free by 2030. It is a goal, and deforestation data is not yet in the standard.

The law is in flux. The European Commission's deforestation page lists leather as a covered product. Europe's tanners say a delegated act adopted in July 2026 removed hides, skins and leather from the regulation. Greenpeace called that exclusion a loophole. Check the current EU text before relying on either claim. The wider footprint is covered in how environmentally friendly leather is.

Tanning: chemicals and water

Chrome tanning accounts for about 85 to 90% of leather, and vegetable tanning uses plant tannins instead. The chromium used in tanning, chromium III, is much less toxic than chromium VI. Chromium VI can still form when waste is poorly treated. The EU bans skin-contact leather with 3 mg/kg or more of chromium VI because it causes skin allergies.

Where waste treatment fails, the damage is local. A 2022 peer-reviewed study found nearly 230 tanneries polluting groundwater in Kasur, Pakistan, where the treatment plant had been out of service since 2012. Our guide to leather from Pakistan gives the fuller picture, including newer treatment zones.

People: tannery workers

The best-documented case is historical. In 2012, Human Rights Watch, a human-rights NGO, reported that about 150 tanneries in Hazaribagh, Bangladesh, released 21,600 cubic meters of untreated effluent a day. It found workers as young as 11 with skin and respiratory illness. A 2023 Pakistani news analysis described child-labor and workplace-safety protections in the country's leather sector as weak.

Tanneries audited by LWG are checked on social and health-and-safety sections, among others. That covers the tannery, not the workshop that sews your jacket.

What certificates cover, and what they don't

The Leather Working Group's manufacturer audit covers 17 sections. They include traceability, chemicals and chromium VI, energy, water, waste, effluent and a social audit. Medals run from Gold (85% in every section) down to Audited (50%).

Three limits matter for ethics:

• It rates the tannery, not the product.
• It stops at the slaughterhouse, so farms and animal welfare are outside the audit.
• It is run by an industry body whose members include brands and tanneries.

A certificate is a useful filter, not a verdict. How to use it when you buy is in how to choose ethically sourced leather.

Deciding for yourself: by what matters most to you

Ask the maker

Orders from Leather Collection are made to order at the company's facility in Pakistan. As with any maker, ask which tannery supplied the hide and what audit that tannery holds before you order.

FAQ

Is there such a thing as ethical leather?

There is more and less responsible leather, not risk-free leather. A named tannery with a current audit and traceability to the slaughterhouse is a better bet. It still says nothing about the farm.

What is ethically sourced leather?

Leather whose tannery, tanning method and hide origin can be named and checked. The step-by-step version is in our guide to choosing ethically sourced leather, linked above.

What are some ethical leather brands?

We don't rank brands as ethical, because brand claims are rarely verified past the tannery. Ask any brand for the tannery name and its LWG status, which you can look up on LWG's supplier directory.