How Leather Working Group helped PrimeAsia reduce its fresh water use by almost 50%

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When PrimeAsia Leather Company joined the discussions about forming Leather Working Group (LWG) almost two decades ago, it marked the beginning of a journey that would transform the leather manufacturer’s approach to sustainability.

What started as an industry-wide effort to measure and reward environmental performance has since helped PrimeAsia increase its reliance on renewable energy and drive improvements across waste management, chemical use, and worker safety.

Today, as LWG celebrates 20 years of impact, PrimeAsia’s story highlights just how powerful collaboration, accountability and innovation can be in reshaping the leather industry for a more sustainable future.
PrimeAsia has two LWG gold-rated sites in Dong Guan, China, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam.

Here, the company's Vice President of Procurement Ian Scher describes how PrimeAsia’s long-standing partnership with Leather Working Group has driven major sustainability gains, including a near 50 percent cut in freshwater use.

“In 2005, a small group of seven companies consisting of leading tanners and global brands met and discussed how they could find a way not just to differentiate tanneries within the industry, but more importantly, to measure environmental performance; to incentivise, recognise and reward improvement. Thus, Leather Working Group was born.

“From the beginning, our company has played and continues to play a key role in the structure and management of Leather Working Group with personnel from our Senior Leadership Team being actively involved in the Executive Committee, including two terms as Chair, and in the Technical Group responsible for creating and managing the Audit Protocol.

“The first audit protocol, V3.0, while only vaguely resembling today’s V7.2.4, called for measuring the use of natural resources and relating them to units of production. This was unique for its time, but it was the first step towards tanneries understanding their impact and encouraging the setting of targets as to how to reduce it.

“For our company, the effect of this has been dramatic. Between 2007 and 2024, we have reduced our usage of fresh water per foot of finished leather produced by 49.7 percent through analysing and understanding our inefficiencies, improving our processes, and investing in the technology to enable the recycling of water from our wastewater treatment.

“Energy reduction has been more challenging as product complexity has increased substantially. The reduction in total energy per foot of finished leather over the same time frame has been only 13 percent but in 2007 8.7 percent of our total energy was from renewable sources whereas 17 years later that number rose to 71 percent and by 2040 we target to be at 100 percent renewable energy.

“Across all the key sectors within our operations, the Leather Working Group Protocol has driven improvements in our environmental performance: reducing our waste streams, both hazardous and non-hazardous, limiting and controlling our air emissions, eliminating hazardous chemicals from our process, and most critically, dramatically minimising the risks to and improving the safety of our most important asset – our people.”

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Founding member Primeasia on driving change with 49.7% Water Reduction and 71% Renewables