Vegan Interior Vs. Leather Interiors: Is Real Leather Actually Better For The Environment? – SlashGear

Although automobiles that feature genuine leather interiors are generally luxury vehicles, the process of creating leather for automotive seats is intrinsically connected to agriculture, believe it or not. This is because cows are not raised specifically for leather, and instead most of the leather used in vehicles is a by-product of the beef industry. According to One 4 Leather, each year, the beef industry creates over one billion hides, and from those hides, comes 2,200 square kilometers of leather. 

However, turning hides into leather usually involves quite a process, and some of these steps can involve carcinogenic and toxic chemicals. This is exceptionally profound, considering that newer regulations have closed many leather tanneries in both the United States and Europe. Creating leather also contributes a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, with one report from the Leather Panel stating that the act of converting cow hides into the material results in 110 kilograms of CO2 emissions per square meter.

Despite some aspects of leather creation taking a terrible toll on the environment, some leather companies actually focus on more sustainable options. Electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar’s head of sustainability Fredrika Klaren explained to Car Expert, an Australian outlet, “[The automotive industry is] keeping leather to a very high degree. And I think that is because they know that if you just replace it with synthetics, you’re moving the negative impact to another area. And it can be even worse.”   

{Featured image by Ralf Steinberger via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0}