Sørensen Leather’s Environmental Policy

Sørensen Leather’s environmental policy focuses on how we best minimize any negative impact from our business.

Certified B Corp®

Unlike product-specific certifications, B Corp takes a holistic approach, evaluating a company’s overall impact across five different categories: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers.

As a B Corp, we are part of a global community of companies committed to meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Sørensen Leather is exceeding EU regulations and industry norms through deliberate choices and high standards.

Certified Leather

Almost 70% of our collections have an industry-relevant certificate and our goal is to have as much as 75% of our collections certified by 2027.

We offer leather collections that are certified according to the German Blue Angel, the Leather Standard by Oeko-Tex and ”Certified by Animal Protection Denmark”. Other collections comply with different VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) standards such as ANSI/BIFMA but also the Danish Indoor Climate Label.

Responsible production practices in the supply chain

A close collaboration with our production partners is key for delivering high-quality to our customers. We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with our production partners. We have been working with most of them since the early days, but all of them have been working with us for at over 10 years.

Our suppliers are carefully selected based on good working conditions, good social environment, the type of leather they produce, focus on the environment and their environmental footprint.

All our partners are requested to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct that is reviewed on an ongoing basis, and which sets requirements in regards to local work environment, environmental management, as well as animal welfare. Internal as well as external audits are conducted regularly and our partners are encouraged to continue improving their environmental performance.

Life Cycle Assessment
Most recently we have conducted a comprehensive analysis to map out the CO2-emissions from the leather production throughout the value chain. The analysis was done according to ISO 14040/14044:2006 and ISO 14067:2018 standards. The result was a third-party verified Carbon Footprint Report for Products (CFP) for 1 m2 of leather. This mapping provides us with quantitative information on where in the supply chain to most effectively work to reduce CO2-emissions, and we will work with the results to define carbon reduction targets.

High environmental and social standards in production facilities
Most of our suppliers are certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG), and more are in the process of becoming certified. This certification ensures suppliers live up to best practices for responsible leather manufacturing, including environmental management, traceability, chemical management, social responsibility, and governance.

Energy usage

At Sørensen Leather we purchase electricity from renewable sources, namely solar and wind power. Please find the associated certificate from our energy supplier here

In order to decrease our consumption, we have invested in LED lights in our office and warehouse. The switch to LED lights was done in the beginning of 2023, it has reduced our electricity consumption for lighting by around 66%, corresponding to a saving of approximately 3.600 kWh/year.

We have reduced the temperature at our warehouse while also establishing procedures to minimize heat loss, hence avoiding heat cannons.

Waste management at Sørensen Leather

The majority of the waste coming from leather production can be re-purposed. Our producers select companies specialized in waste disposal, whose aim is to recycle or re-purpose their raw-material waste. Most of this waste can either be used as fertilizer, or it can be used by other industries such as the medical industry, which is very interested in gelatin and collagen.

Sørensen Leather has been working with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2017, and in 2022 we achieved zero leather waste in our facilities, which cover our HQ and warehouse. This means that all our leather is either sold as first or second assortment, donated to different partners who can use our hides for educational purposes, for students and other creatives, or used to produce our marketing materials.

Packaging materials

Sørensen Leather stores hides on “horses” that are triangular constructions made of FSC-certified wood.

We have implemented a successful return system for these horses. Every time a horse is sent out, our customers pay a fee, which is credited once the horse returns back to our warehouse. We ship 200-400 horses each year, and our return rate is over 90%.

To protect the hides during transportation we use FSC certified cardboard and LDPE plastic, both of which are fully recyclable materials. The LDPE plastic is manufactured from 20-50% from post-industrial waste.

Different measures have been taken at our warehouse to ensure that we have as little waste as possible. By working with the European Pallet Association (EPAL), no pallets go to waste. Instead, every time we receive a new EPAL pallet, we give one back in return. Occasionally, we receive single-use pallets at the warehouse. Instead of disposing of them after one use, we reuse them until they no longer serve their purpose. Once they can no longer be reused, they are delivered at a collection point, where they are disposed of in a responsible way.

60% of our waste is already sorted for recycling and our goal is to have as much as 80% sorted by the first quarter of 2026.

We have a goal of reducing our paper waste from printing at the office 25% by 2025 from a 2023 base level. This means we will work to reduce printing from 38.000 pages to 28.500 pages. To minimize environmental impacts from the printing we cannot avoid, our paper is PEFC (i.e. from responsibly managed forests) and EU Ecolabel certified (i.e. printing paper with some of the lowest environmental impacts for the industry).

Employee transportation and shipping of goods

We have measures in place, to minimize transportation by car or truck. Microsoft Teams is used for online meetings with customers, suppliers and other business partners. We make an effort to have at least a full-day of meetings booked in connection with longer drives. We take the ferry to reduce CO2-emissions, when it is possible.Our sales team never drive an empty car. By packing the car with samples and hides we avoid shipping these materials at a later time.

We have updated our policy on company cars, and electric vehicles are now the default choice. In the rare cases where an electric car is not a viable option – for example members of the sales team that must cover very long distances in a single day – hybrid vehicles are the second choice. By 2024, 66% of our fleet was already electric or hybrid.

Transporation from our production partners to our HQ in Denmark, and further to our customers, are handled by our shipping partners who were chosen based on their sustainability profile. Our partners ensure that our goods are transported in the most effective way, and air freight is only used for emergencies, accounting for less than 0,1% of our shipments.