Life Cycle Carbon Footprint Modular Analysis of Leather Products for Sustainable Manufacturing

Leather products are widely used in the fashion, furniture, automotive, and aviation industries due to their excellent versatility and functionality. However, the leather sector faces significant challenges in terms of resource consumption and carbon emissions. In this work, a modular life cycle assessment (M-LCA) method was employed to comprehensively analyze the carbon footprints of typical cow leather products (i.e., sofa leather, shoe upper leather, and automotive leather). The approach involved chemical usage, energy consumption, wastewater treatment, and transportation modules, which were performed to accurately identify high-emission stages based on our established carbon emission factor database for leather chemicals. Carbon emissions from sofa leather substantially exceeded those of shoe upper and automotive leather, and chemical inputs and energy usage constitute the primary contributing factors. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis on chemical consumption identified critical carbon emission sources from liming, tanning, retanning, and dyeing procedures, guiding us to propose optimization strategies for enzyme-assisted liming, chrome-free tanning, and integrated retanning–fatliquoring–dyeing technologies. Energy substitution analysis demonstrated feasible strategies for the partial replacement of steam with hot water and transition from coal-fired power to photovoltaic/hydropower. These findings aim to provide valuable insights for the sustainable development of the leather industry.