FACTS
00:02:40
“[Fashion] is a trillion dollar industry, employing millions of people”
00:03:54
“Over recent years, the fashion industry has been confronted with environmental and human rights issues”
00:04:21
“People are becoming more conscious about how fashion pollutes the planet and contributes to the climate crisis”
00:07:22
“In fashion, the most common animal material is leather”
United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization
Common Objective (1, 2)
00:07:26
“Most leather we wear is actually produced in a few countries; India, Russia, Italy, Brazil and China”
United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization
Leather Council
(Note: the ranking of these countries varies across reported years, but the top five producers remain the same across the most recently available overviews shared by the UN and industry)
00:07:35
“A lot of leather shoes are made in India”
00:07:47
“Kanpur is called the Leather City of the world. It produces almost a third of India’s leather”
00:07:59
“Many international brands source their leather here at low cost”
00:08:39
“Tanning is necessary to transform a raw hide into leather and stop the skins from rotting”
00:08:47
“The stages before tanning involve salting, de-hairing, degreasing and soaking”
00:09:07
“Almost 90% of all leather produced today uses chromium sulphate in the tanning process”
00:09:14
“Chromium tanned leather is called wet blue, and wet blue gets exported all over the world”
00:09:19
“But chromium sulphate is highly toxic”
00:09:22
“In India, the discharge of solid waste and wastewater containing chromium is a major environmental issue”
00:09:49
“From 400 tanneries roughly 50 million litres of wastewater is generated each day in Kanpur”
00:09:58
“50 million litres of wastewater, that’s 20 Olympic swimming pools discharged every single day, in this area alone”
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
(size of Olympic swimming pool)
00:10:32
“The factories emit a smog which contaminates the air”
00:10:36
“The wastewater which is generated is not properly treated and is not safe. And this water is used for irrigating the farmlands”
00:10:57
“People are mostly afflicted with skin problems, kidney problems, cancers, the leprosy rate is very high”
00:11:50
“The most significant climate, water and land use impacts that are happening in the leather industry happen upstream of tanning”
00:12:00
“Before you even get to the tanning process, we’re already dealing with one of the most environmentally damaging industries”
Higg Index (data publicly available via Collective Fashion Justice)
Common Objective
The Environmental Profit & Loss
Earth Island Journal
00:12:07
“According to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, leather has one of the worst impacts on the planet. As a raw material before tanning, cow leather is worse for the environment than synthetic leather and polyester”
Higg Index (data publicly available via Collective Fashion Justice)
Global Fashion Agenda
Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy (additional LCA comparing animal, synthetic and bio)
(Note: this statement refers to the production of the material, not the full life-cycle of it)
00:12:27
“One cow hide alone has a water footprint of over 100,000L”
00:12:39
“One pair of leather shoes uses as much water as one person drinking the daily recommended amount for 10 years”
00:12:56
“Skins are very valuable. The leather industry is a profit-seeking industry that’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally. It’s not a waste diverting charity”
00:13:18
“Studies show that it would actually be better for the environment if we threw away those skins to rot in a dump rather than turning it into leather”
00:13:45
“The level to which our demand has risen for leather is playing a massive role in deforestation in the Amazon”
00:13:58
“The Amazon Rainforest is estimated to be 25 million years old. It is home to millions of species. It’s one of the world’s complex ecosystems, and it covers 40% of the South American continent”
Mongabay (1, 2)
WWF
Rainforest Partnership
(While the Amazon didn’t exist as a rainforest so many years ago, the Andes Mountains, which supposedly helped to create the Rainforest, rose up at this point, setting off a number of environmental shifts)
00:14:41
“Keeping forests standing is essential to our rainfall and water flows work, that’s essential for growing things like food”
00:14:45
“The Amazon is really close to reaching a tipping point where it switches to being a massive absorber of carbon to starting to emit carbon back into the atmosphere”
(Since this interview took place, unfortunately this tipping point was reached, as scientists first reported in mid-2021, via The Guardian)
00:14:57
“In terms of the impacts on Indigenous peoples and local communities, we know that that impacts their livelihoods, it impacts their food security and their physical security”
00:15:37
“Deforestation is happening in Brazil because of cattle ranching and livestock production. Out of all the deforested land in Brazil, a shocking 80% has been cleared by cattle ranchers”
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1, 2)
Global Witness
WWF
The Guardian
00:15:56
“Approximately one animal needs around 10,000 square metres to graze”
00:16:03
“Brazil has 213 million animals – and I’m talking here only about cattle – you can imagine the large space that must be occupied by animals”
Amnesty International
InfoAmazonia
Statista
(This is a conservative estimate, with some estimates ranging higher)
00:16:14
“The huge interest in leather also drives the deforestation”
00:16:31
“Between 2017 and 2019, three of the largest companies in the cattle supply chains, Marfrig, JBS and Minerva, had been buying in their supply chains, from lands that were connected to tens of thousands of hectares to deforestation”
00:16:48
“During that time they received $9 billion [from banks]”
00:17:57
“Because there are middlemen at every step of the supply chain and cattle and skins are moved constantly from one state to the other, there are no guarantees that the skins don’t come from deforested land”
00:18:09
“80% of Brazilian leather is produced for international markets. It is exported all over the world, including to Italy”
00:18:30
“Globally the market for leather goods is estimated to be worth $250 billion USD”
Business Wire
Grand View Research
(Again, this is another more conservative estimate, with others far higher)
00:22:13
“In Santa Croce sull’Arno hundreds of small to large tanneries produce over a third of Italian leather. This small town alone generates over a billion euros in sales for leather luxury goods, every year”
00:22:32
“Just like in India, chemicals are heavily used in Tuscany. Most Italian tanneries use chromium sulphate, and very few use only vegetable tanning”
00:22:52
“The list of chemicals that are commonly used in leather making are…”
00:23:29
“The European Union commissioned a comprehensive report on the leather industry in Tuscany. This report covers in detail the situation of workers in the Italian tanning sector”
00:25:53
“Foregin tannery workers have twice as many accidents compared with Italians”
00:26:59
“There are factories outside of Florence where people are paid $2 USD an hour, and they’re working on major handbags and fashion companies’ products… but they get the Made in Italy label, even though they’ve been made in a sweatshop”
00:27:12
“... the laws were loose enough that if a certain percentage of a garment was made in the last steps of its production, if it was finished in these countries, they could carry the Made in Italy, Made in France label”
00:28:30
“Some brands have stopped using fur… but many are still using it”
00:28:40
“There is a lot of green-washing [in fashion]”
00:28:59
“According to the fur industry, faux fur is unsustainable, chemical and plastic based, and leaks microplastics into the ocean. Meanwhile, the industry positions animal fur as sustainable, biodegradable and natural”
Truth About Fur (Youtube)
Truth About Fur
00:29:58
“Fur Europe… an interest group that spent half a million euros lobbying the European Union in 2019”
00:30:57
“Only about 25% of a fur pelt biodegrades”
00:31:04
“Compared with synthetic faux fur, animal fur produces 7.5 times more emissions”
00:31:10
“To prevent pelts from rotting, animal fur is processed using chemicals like formaldehyde and heavy metals”
00:31:20
“Garments that were intended for babies and children with fur trims showed that these dangerous and carcinogenic chemicals were rubbing off on people”
00:31:42
“Faux fur doesn't get washed often, and certainly not in machines”
00:32:50
“For mink, [they’re] put into a box with gas [to be killed]”
00:32:52
“For foxes, you use electricity and kill [them] like that”
00:33:24
“The standard killing method on fur farms approved by Fur Europe; ‘the electric current passes through a fox once one of the electrodes has been inserted in fox’s rectum and one electrode in to the mouth…”
00:34:04
“It’s been documented several times that animals are actually skinned alive on fur farms”
00:34:48
“9 in 10 people would not wear real fur knowingly”
00:35:32
“Over 100 million animals killed for fur every year”
00:35:40
“Babies are born in spring and grow confined in narrow cages. When winter comes and their fur is fully grown, the animals are then killed and skinned. Some animals are kept for breeding for the next year”
00:35:55
“To make one fur coat it takes up to 300 chinchillas, 50 mink or 15-40 foxes”
00:36:05
“Fur farms exist in European countries, Russia, the US and Canada. But the biggest fur producer in the world is China”
00:36:40
“The fashion market in [China] is worth hundreds of billions of dollars”
00:36:45
“The fur industry in China is worth $61 billion, way more than the rest of the world”
00:36:58
“China is actually the biggest [fur] producer in the world now, the largest consumer market, and at the same time, the largest manufacturer [of fur]”
00:37:20
“One of the major centres for the skin trade is just one hour out of Shanghai, Haining”
00:37:55
“China is intimately connected to the international fur trade. The largest fur farms [in China] often have western investments, for example, one mega farm in Dalian has over 50,000 mink, the breeding animals are imported from Denmark”
00:38:34
“I find wolf fur from the US, even though some wolf populations are endangered”
00:39:22
“Almost 20% of the people [in China] don’t know that fur comes from actual animals”
00:39:40
“The fur may come from dogs and cats, or even from wild animals”
00:40:15
“[Leopard cats] are a protected species”
00:41:55
“Changli is the biggest raw fur market in China”
00:42:40
“We talk about 100 million, 120 million animals killed for fur every single year”
00:44:45
“We know that humans are hardwired to empathise with others”
00:45:09
“Carnism is the invisible belief system or ideology that conditions us to consume certain animals but not others”
00:47:30
“There’s big money to be made by someone who commits to the trapping profession”
Trapping Today
Snap Trap Survive
ADN
(Note: the profitability of working as a trapper continues to decline as fur prices drop, in response to reduced demand for fur in America and other western countries)
00:47:58
“There are many indiscriminate kills from traps”
00:49:36
“[They] escaped by gnawing off their own paw. That’s what they do sometimes”
00:50:28
“The FBI is labelling non-violent animal rights and environmental activists as the number one domestic terrorism threat”
00:51:06
“Industries are contributing a lot of money to politicians”
00:52:06
“Many brands have been ditching fur from their collections”
00:52:09
“The cash cow for luxury brands is leather”
00:52:11
“Leather goods represent half of the revenue for a brand like Hermès”
00:52:17
“For French luxury group Kering… 72% of revenue comes from leather goods and shoes”
00:52:18
“1.5 billion animals skinned for leather each year”
World Statistical Compendium for Raw Hides and Skins, FAO
FAOSTAT
(Note: this includes the skins of cattle, buffaloes, goats and sheep. While there has not been a more recent analysis of animals skinned, there is more recent data on global herd populations, which show that certainly over 1.3 billion such animals are slaughtered each year)
00:52:30
“... that’s more than the entire population of Europe and North America combined”
00:52:38
“Some of the most sought after skins are those of lambs and calves”
00:52:48
“Some high end products like gloves use skins from foetus and stillborn animals”
Chichester Inc
Natural Exotics
The Midfield Group
(Note: the skins of unborn, stillborn and recently born animals are referred to as ‘slink’ skins)
00:55:05
“Animal rights and environmental activists, even though they have not harmed a single human being, they have radically harmed corporate profits, and now some of the most powerful industries on the planet have coordinated to try and silence their opposition”
00:55:30
“Undercover investigators are being criminalised”
00:56:06
“Australia is home to 70 million sheep, 38% of those are merino sheep”
Learn About Wool
Meat and Livestock Australia
Woolmark
(Note: despite an Australian Wool Innovation – AWI – representative stating that 38% of Australian sheep are merinos, AWI and Woolmark’s own information states that the correct percentage is 70%, if not more)
00:56:16
“Australia produces 80% of the world fibre supply of superfine merino”
00:56:55
“Australian Wool Innovation and its marketing arm Woolmark represent the interest of wool growers”
00:57:17
“Animal agriculture as a whole isn't sustainable, so any material that comes out of animal agriculture isn’t going to be sustainable”
00:57:39
“If you look at just one element of the wool industry, and you look at methane which comes from enteric fermentation… the methane that comes from that makes up one third of New Zealand’s entire greenhouse gas emissions”
00:57:45
“New Zealand has about 27-28 million sheep, Australia has around 70 million”
New Zealand Government
Meat and Livestock Australia
Woolmark
(Note: since recording, some estimates suggest the Australian sheep population has grown)
00:57:52
“This ‘natural’ system is not a sustainable one, it’s important we say ‘natural’ because sheep haven’t always been in Australia, they’re an introduced species, we breed them, they’re not supposed to be a part of this natural environment”
00:58:08
“When you shear wool off a sheep it’s greasy… In order for it to be a fibre that can be used in fashion, it has to be scoured, treated with detergents that are very chemical heavy”
00:58:23
“One wool scouring facility’s organic effluent load creates as much waste as sewage from a town of 30,000 people”
00:58:43
“Australia exports the majority of its greasy wool for finishing in China and other countries… further increasing the carbon footprint of wool products”
00:59:18
“Wool production ranks worse for the environment than synthetic materials”
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
Global Fashion Agenda
Collective Fashion Justice
(Note: for further information on the use of this material index, please see our FAQ)
01:00:04
“Synthetics are not given a ‘free raw material’ and this is not a term that is in use outside of the colloquial use in this interview”
(Note: this response came via email. The term ‘free raw material’ is used to claim that because synthetics are produced from fossil fuels which are naturally occurring, it is unfair to compare emissions from sheep with them. This is a flawed argument as emissions from the extraction of fossil fuels are calculated, just as emissions from sheep are.)
01:00:16
“We talk about 100 million, 120 million animals killed for fur every single year”
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
Common Objective
Collective Fashion Justice
(Note: this comment is referring to the production impact of these materials, rather than the full life-cycle)
01:01:19
“Mulesing is a procedure that is conducted on the vast majority of lambs in Australia. It involves cutting away at the wool-bearing skin on the backside of the lamb as well as the tail. This prevents flystrike and the fact that it’s legal to do without pain relief is of great concern”
01:01:24
“Lambs are just a few weeks old when they go through painful procedures such as mulesing, castration and tail docking”
01:01:32
“Once sheep can’t produce good wool anymore, they’re considered useless”
01:01:39
“This saleyard alone is holding more than 31,000 sheep”
01:01:56
“Sheep can live up to twelve years, but even merinos get to live only about half of that time. And not all lambs are kept for wool growing, many are killed around 6 months old for meat and sheep skin as well”
01:02:46
“The more wool on the skin, the more value it has”
01:04:53
“15 million lambs die in Australia a year within 48 hours of birth”
The Australian
ABC
Australian Wool Innovation
Willow and Claude
(Estimates range between 10 and 15 million)
01:06:16
“Lambs are viewed as property”
01:15:06
“Kuntal Joisher climbed Mount Lhotse, K2 and Everest in Save the Duck”
01:16:48
“Stella McCartney and Adidas are already adopting leather from mycelium underground layers”
01:16:54
“We can also make ethical leather from the waste of pineapple leaf fibre, or even from cactus in Mexico. We can even grow leather in a lab, directly from cells and without hurting animals”
01:17:07
“We can also make plant-based wool from flowers and regenerative cotton”
01:18:35
“There are materials combining [plastic] and natural elements, nothing is perfect yet, but we’re definitely getting there”
01:21:30
“In the time you watched this film at least 500,000 animals were killed for fashion”
(Note: This calculation is based on animals slaughtered for hides and skins – in fact, more animals are killed each day in feather down and other animal-derived material supply chains, too. This is a minimum estimate.)