The business case for durable leather and its lifecycle impacts

In Brugnoli’s presentation; “Sustainable quality and durability: The importance of a strategic interaction between environmental and technical performances of materials and products”, he will examine how the two performances must be jointly evaluated to understand and improve the long‑term sustainability of materials and products such as leather. Emphasis is placed on durability as a measurable parameter that significantly reduces environmental impact over a product’s full lifecycle. The presentation will examine how harmonised standards and emerging regulatory frameworks can formalise durability metrics and support the development of official methods for evaluating material performance.

Federico Brugnoli is an innovator and the CEO/Founder of SPIN360. Graduated with honours in Environmental Sciences and awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fashion Sustainability, he develops scientifically grounded, data‑driven methodologies to accelerate sustainable transformation across global industries. With deep expertise in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), carbon accounting and durability‑focused material performance, he leads projects ranging from supply‑chain analytics to new business models and low‑impact technologies. Under his leadership, SPIN360 authored UNIDO’s harmonised guidelines for Leather LCA and co‑developed primary‑data LCA datasets for the Higg MSI, enabling evidence‑based decision‑making and long‑term environmental improvement across the leather value chain.

How to register to attend this key event?

International Leather Maker (ILM) and APLF Ltd will host the half-day conference on March 11, 2026 (the day before the start of the APLF). It will feature six 25-minute oral presentations as well as the panel discussion mentioned above, focussing on the future trends and direction of the global leather supply chain. The conference will once again take place at the HKCEC, which is the same venue as the show. The APLF show takes place March 12-14, 2026. More information about the provisional conference programme and timings can be found here.

Click here to register.

The ‘Leather Supply Chain 2026 – The Great Leather Reset’ conference is co-organised by ILM and APLF Ltd. The lead sponsors are Mindhive Global and Bureau Veritas. The coffee break is sponsored by National Beef Packing Co. ILM and APLF will post more information about the conference programme in the coming weeks as more speakers and topics are confirmed.