Being truly sustainable is hard to do – and sometimes even harder to prove – but bio-based leather supplier Brusarosco has both bases covered, while still managing to create beautiful and innovative end products for automotive seating, steering wheels and dashboards
The story starts with an Italian business which can trace its roots back to 1834 and a history of transforming natural byproducts into elegant, durable, and biodegradable leather for the automotive industry. Owned since 1998 by parent company Rino Mastrotto – whose other business arms supply leathers to the top tier luxury fashion and interior design brands – Brusarosco is in good hands and takes its sustainability pledges seriously.
The keys to its product offering are the dual pillars of innovation and sustainability. These pillars are built around a ‘Zero Waste Leather’ policy since 2022 – so nothing to landfill – with a 90% upcycling rate and the rest repurposed for energy recovery.
Aniline B-Foglia and semi-aniline B-Terra leather covers this tri-colour seat example
A great example of Brusarosco’s environmentally conscious processes involves using tannins extracted from locally sourced Italian chestnut trees to avoid chrome, glutaraldehyde (and air miles). Careful forest management means harvest rates of chestnut trees are kept lower than 10% – well below each forest’s regenerative limits – and so are infinitely sustainable.
Marco Spagnolo, Brusarosco’s product quality and R&D lead, explains that this tanning method is a historic one which has been resurrected and improved. “In the past, this type of vegetable tanning process made the leather a bit stiff and hard, so it was mainly used to produce leather for the soles of shoes,” Spagnolo says. “We have taken the heritage of that recipe and linked it to new technology to customise the tanning method to be suitable for automotive interiors and create a product with a nice haptic feeling.”
In terms of product offering, Brusarosco’s B-Foglia is its top model line, a soft and luxurious aniline leather. “It has a very low amount of finishing applied, in order to keep the feeling and natural beauty of real leather while still passing automotive quality standards,” says Spagnolo. “B-Terra is the semi-aniline sister of B-Foglia, but with more performance properties. It uses the technology of B-Foglia in terms of tanning, but the B-Terra has slightly more coating to meet tougher durability requirements.”
The dual pillars of innovation and sustainability are key to Brusarosco’s product offering
B-Natura is the third key Brusarosco product and is a bio-based nappa product that has a smooth and homogenous surface with consistent grain. “It takes some of the chestnut tanning technology of the B-Foglia but also uses the leaves and pruning of olive trees,” adds Spagnolo. This increases the use of bio-based product, saves water consumption and reduces synthetic chemical use, avoiding any ‘pickle phase’.
Brusarosco’s products are also internationally certified for automotive quality and environmental standards, gold-rated by the Leather Working Group, certified ‘Excellent’ by I.CE.C for traceability back to farm, while the wider company has reached the environmental standard ISO 14001.
As the movement to use genuinely environmentally friendly products gains pace throughout the industry, carmakers’ colour and trim designers are increasingly seeking such authenticity from suppliers to tell their stories, which makes Brusarosco well-placed. “It’s important that their storytelling does not become ‘Greenwashing’,” Spagnolo says.
“What we offer the market is proven, not only by ourselves, but measured by independent bodies and following the Ecotan model. Ultimately, it’s important to say something attractive, but which is also concrete.” To find out more about Brusarosco’s bio-based tanning sustainability story and literally feel and discuss the product quality in person, why not seek out the firm at its major roadshow called ‘Roots’ – meaning ‘going back to the roots’ – which is still touring Europe and the US throughout the rest of 2024.
During the Roots Leather Design Show, four chapters – ‘Flow’, ‘Bloom’, ‘Sprout’ and ‘Refine’ – zoom in on the ‘Zero Waste Leather’ mission central to Brusarosco and its sister business Elmo and reinforce the idea that every natural gift is precious and that nothing should be wasted. As the roadshow organisers put it so well: “We invite you to let the Flow of sustainable innovation inspire you, witness the Bloom of new designs, see creativity Sprout in every nuance, and to join us in Refining the future of leather.”
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