Method
Life Cycle Assessment
To improve you need to measure. The best measurement tool we have found is Life Cycle Assessment. LCA provides the best and most thorough means to drive improvement.
Brands we work with
Mission
Say “No” to waste
Eliminate waste in all areas of the supply chain.
Leather has tremendous value when utilized correctly.
Asiatan is a tannery committed to changing the narrative behind leather.
Leather is the ultimate up-cycle material, so long as we do the right thing. Leather products last longer, have higher value and just work better than any other oil-based, synthetic material.
Foundation
Asiatan/TecTuff was founded with three important principles.
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01
Add value to materials
The first principle was to add value to materials. Competing only with price was not value. Material interest, performance, variety of raw material, servicing customers was the basis of adding value.
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02
No business has the right to pollute
The second principle was that no business has the right to pollute. All businesses have a responsibility to the environment. Reduction of waste, energy, water, chemistry and carbon footprint needs to be the number one priority of our companies.
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03
Improve society
The third principle was that the business of business should be to improve society. How we act and what we do should always be measured by the highest standards. We have a responsibility of best practice to our employees, our community and the world we engage with.
Asiatan Kind Leather
We have spent years optimizing and innovating ways to minimize waste. The culmination of that effort is Asiatan Kind Leather.
Asiatan Kind Leather principles
We have spent years optimizing and innovating ways to minimize waste. The culmination of that effort is Asiatan Kind Leather. We have looked at ways throughout our supply chain and processes to minimize everything from trim, water, chemistry and time. The result is Asiatan Kind Leather!
How do we achieve this?
We examined the key areas of waste in our suppliers, our own and the factories to find ways to reduce every aspect of what waste is. The result is that we optimized the raw material that we receive, we minimized the amount of chemistry we use and we now provide the world's most cuttable material to our factory partners with 33% less cutting waste than traditional leather.
The benefits
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By trimming in the raw hide and lime, we can divert waste that would have gone to landfill to a valuable protein supply chain for fertilizer, food products, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
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No waste is created or transported.
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Raw material shipped to the tannery needs no trimming or splitting.
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Through maximized chemistry and water, we reduce hazardous waste, transportation emissions and pollution.
Sustainable processes need to look at all aspects of the supply chain. You can't just focus on one aspect and feel like the job is done. At Asiatan, we are assessing all inputs throughout the entire re-tanning and finishing process to measure the water, energy and chemical consumption and solid waste generation per square meter of finished leather.
Sustainable philosophy
- Eliminate waste before it becomes waste
- Use as little water, energy and chemicals as possible while maintaining the highest leather quality
- Maximize the usability of the material at the shoe factory
- Minimize the handling time shoe factories need for the material
- Make compelling and long-lasting products for the consumer
- Continuous improvement
- Measure everything
The closer we get to zero, the better
The government sets standards, the industry sets standards, and when they are not good enough NGOs set standards. With the government there is corruption, with the industry the bar is too low, and with NGOs there is a verification problem because they lack power. This improvement is not internal, but external. We believe in constant improvement.
Higg FEM
Seven impact areas
The Higg Index helps us assess performance across seven environmental impact areas. From water use to chemicals management, we can use the Higg FEM to measure impacts holistically and make annual improvements.
Higg FSLM
97.8
Current health & safety score. We set a target to improve this number by 5% by 2025. In 2023, our facility improved the section score for health & safety management by 18% compared to baseline 2021.
Traceability and Tracking
Asiatan leather is 100% guaranteed to come from reputable and responsible sourcing.
To that end, we and our suppliers work to ensure that our raw material can be traced all the way back to the group of farms where animals were raised, and those individual hides can be tracked all the way to the shoe factory.
There's no doubt where the hides came from
Our supply partners employ cutting-edge technologies to safeguard the origins of our hides to ensure that they come from areas that:
- Don't contribute to deforestation
- Come from reputable and legal suppliers
- Have the highest animal husbandry practices
Secure sourcing through technology
Our strategic sourcing leverages cutting-edge technology to ensure environmental and sustainable best practices.
- GPS tracking
- Blockchain traceability
- Animal welfare
Hides can be traced using the JBS online tracking tool JBS360 to find the farm group, batch and date of each hide.
Skins are stamped using an alphanumeric code that tracks the skin from the slaughterhouse/tannery all the way to the shoe factory.
Material Development
Execution is our greatest strength.
It is not only fashion and performance. It is consistency, delivery, and service.
Society
Supporting communities where we work.
Wherever we make money, we give money back.
Asiatan and TecTuff are committed to giving back in the communities where we work. Charitable giving is part of the business itself, not something we add on at the end.
Office teams, technicians, factory staff, buyers, and sellers all take part. Whoever makes the money gives the money back, so the giving stays personal and meaningful.
ORFL stories
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China Project
We support the community where our Jiangmen factory is located, working with local managers and the government to identify those most in need.
Find out more