1. Make it properly and don't cut corners with cheap chemicals and badly maintained machinery. Hides and skins may be renewable - up to a point - but they are a costly, valuable resource.

2. As a tanner the environment is your responsibility, not your government's, UNIDO's or any one else's whose name comes to mind. A good tannery treats the environment properly and has complete waste treatment and solid waste disposal. No sneaking partially treated waste water into a river in the night. If in doubt read Cradle to Cradle.

3. Don't view every scratch and damage as something that needs to be covered in paint so it looks like plastic. Be creative and innovative: remember two things. Leather is natural and consumers understand that even if some brands and retailers do not. Also Santa Croce in Italy made its big profits in the twentieth century by making top class leathers from what were considered low grades of raw material.

4. Don't sell your leather as a commodity or let the raw material that passes through your tannery be downgraded to just another material. All materials tend to slide towards commodity pricing over time but when it happens to leather it's our fault. Think about what you are selling and its place in the market. In some sectors such as furniture leather has been overdistributed and is losing its value and image with consumers.

5. Don't greenwash. Making claims about leather from an environmental point of view must be done with care. Involve your technical staff and be truthful. Is your "chrome free" leather really chrome free? Have you used dyes containing chrome or drums with chromium residues? And are you sure your process is better anyway. Most claims for "organic leather" involve leather that has been treated with lime, sulphide and all sorts of other inorganic material. You are doing the industry a big dis-favour if you are being careless with your terminology.

6.Work with the designers and engineers at your customers so that they understand leather as a material and how to use it. With knowledge they will design products that better accommodate the natural characteristics of your leather but still meet the consumers' expectations. It will also help you decide how to develop new leathers and commercialize the full range of grades.

7. Help your customers educate brands, retailers and consumers. Your material deserves it and you will see the benefit.

8. Understand that customer expectations change over time. The consumer group buying a lot of leather products today is moving to the emerging nations, especially the East, getting younger, more urban and they consume media differently than any group before.

9. Join LeatherNaturally!