Developing Skills towards a Sustainable Leather Production

Sustainable development is a core principle of the EU Treaty and a priority objective for the EU. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN and the European Green Deal, represent...

The SULEAP project aims to: - remedy the detected lack of knowledge on sustainability implementation in the leather industry and broaden the knowledge of target groups about the practical implementation with innovative training tools and platforms - raise the awareness of the direct beneficiaries and target groups (professionals, staff and manager in Leather making SMEs and policymakers), as well as indirect beneficiaries (associations, authorities, staff and managers from other relevant industries) about the risks and benefits of sustainability in the leather production - present the opportunities that are emerging for the sector and support them in the transformation of the leather industry into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive industry.

Various activities have been implemented and carried out in accordance with the objectives and results sought, including the following: The development and implementation of a “Quality Plan” to describe the Quality Management procedures that should be followed by the project team during the Suleap project lifecycle, and in particular, to clearly define the content, format, review and approval process of the project deliverables, to define the responsibilities of the project partners regarding those deliverables, to identify all the different tools and means to be applied throughout the project duration, to provide guidelines for adequate implementation and thereby assure that certain quality standards in the performance of our tasks are fulfilled, and also to define the quality requirements that must be obtained throughout the project lifecycle, those that the deliverables, actions and results must conform to. It was discussed and approved a specific project logo branding, and created brochures, leaflets, roll-ups and posters, a set of graphical templates and official project website. CTIC was the Project Coordinator and responsible for the overall operation of the project and its smooth running, financial and administrative management including the preparation of budget and reports. The project monitoring has been carried-out through the regular transnational face-to-face meetings, which are the better way for closer sharing of ideas and fine-tuning of the lines of work, and in the middle time, by a strict monitoring of the partners, mainly through e-mails and online meetings, with which the exchange of information was carried out; the works, as they were developed and the final works related to the various activities, were kept and shared in a dropbox exclusively created for this purpose. For the purpose of creation of a “sustainability in the leather production training package”, it was initially defined the profile of the sustainability-minded leather professional in an SME, followed by mapping the existing leather eco labels and schemes for certifications operating in the area of leather sustainability, then the design and development of the training package itself, that was then evaluated and the training content finalized and translated to all partner countries’ languages, English, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish and Spanish. An online training course was designed and implemented, which involved defining the characteristics and setting-up of the e-environment, defining and creating self-assessment tools, evaluation and fine tuning of the multilingual MOOC. For the creation of a multilingual resource toolkit, the activities included the development of several deliverables including guides to environmental and social compliance to leather standards & legislation, and factsheets for sustainability in leather, evaluation, translation to all partner countries’ languages, and publication. For the creation of a common policy recommendation paper, was carried out the collection of policies, legislation, gaps and needed steps ahead in policy updating and enforcing on EU and national level, then the compilation in a policy recommendation document, the revision and also the translation to all partner countries’ languages, and publication. A special training activity was carried out in Italy, by the CGS partner with the attendance of trainees and trainers from the different countries. The dissemination activity included the organization and holding of multiplier events in the several countries of the partners, as well the creation and publication of newsletters and news in social media.

As concrete outputs and results of the project were the design, development and implementation of a training course, that was uploaded in an open access e-learning platform, complete with a Self-Assessment Tool to guide users to the appropriate learning modules; for those completing the Training Course, primarily professionals, staff and managers of leather SME businesses, but also any person interested to know about sustainability in leather, will be able to better understand what sustainability is and what is asked of them in order to be compliant with the various requirements of the industry and their customers. This training material that was produced also served as the supporting tool for an intensive training summer activity that was carried out and during which the course was evaluated, and which has enabled a selected group of learners to acquire knowledge and skills through digital tools and reflective learning, as well to work in transnational groups and to get in touch with practical and real examples. All these training contents were translated to all partner countries’ languages, so that are available in English, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish and Spanish, and will provide the needed knowledge to leather professionals and businesses, regarding the requirements and the implementation of measures for the transition of leather businesses to sustainability compliant business operation. Also, a multilingual 'Sustainability for the Leather Industry' resource toolkit, was designed and developed, to be used to support further improvement and scaling up of leather production towards sustainability, which contains a set of practical tools and methods adapted to the specific needs of the target groups, and includes several reports, one as a “Guide to Environmental and Social Compliance to Leather Standards”, other with the “Available certification schemes applicable to leather and relevant requirements”, and other with the “Eco labels applicable to leather”, that will provide users a direction on their path towards sustainability, as well several Factsheets for Sustainability in Leather, documents that have a unified format, each one dealing with a separate topic of interest, to motivate and persuade about the benefits, risks and solutions available regarding sustainability. Moreover, a report consisting in a “Policy recommendations report” including sections with good examples of policies from each partner country, successes and challenges and finally, recommendations for a course of action based on the information, experiences and lessons learned in the course of the project to policymakers and high-level stakeholders in each partner country. All these toolkit documents were translated to all partner countries’ languages and are freely available to all, through the official website of the project that was also specially created. By the organization of several multiplier events in different countries, the promotion of the project was carried out, and during these events the projects’ aims & objectives, activities and results already achieved were presented to participants from relevant stakeholders active in the leather sector, like from public authorities, SMEs, businesses, associations, chambers, VET providers, managers and employees. Also, during the project, several newsletters and publications were prepared and published in all partner countries’ languages.