Leather Working Group
TEXTILES
CONFIDENCE MEDIUM · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
LWG is the most substantial environmental assessment the leather industry has, and on tannery process it is detailed: water, energy, effluent, waste, air emissions, restricted substances, chromium VI and chemical management are all critical scored sections, and subcontractor scores are pulled into the tannery's rating. Two structural points matter more than the medal. First, the scope stops at the tannery. LWG states that animal welfare precedes leather making and is therefore not in its audit standards, and there is no requirement covering cattle rearing, grazing or land conversion at the ranch, which is where most of leather's material impact sits. Deforestation is handled as extra due diligence reporting for Brazil and Paraguay sourcing, against a stated 2030 aim. Second, traceability and the social audit are non-critical sections, meaning they do not contribute to the medal. A Gold tannery is a Gold tannery on process control, not on knowing where its hides came from. And because LWG certifies facilities rather than material, a brand citing a Gold tannery is not making a traceable claim about the leather in a specific product.
What it covers
- tannery audit across 17 sections, 13 of them critical and scored
- medal bands Gold 85-100%, Silver 75-84%, Bronze 65-74%, Audited 50-64%, with the overall rating set by the lowest-scoring section
- water consumption, energy consumption, effluent treatment, waste management, air and noise emissions
- chemical management, restricted substances and MRSL compliance, chromium VI management
- environmental management systems, operating permits, production data and operations management
- health, safety and emergency preparedness
- subcontractor audit scores feed into the tannery's final medal rating
- incoming material traceability scored by depth (slaughterhouse, group of slaughterhouses, region) and method (physical or documented)
- deforestation due diligence evidence required for hides sourced from Brazil and Paraguay, and legality evidence for exotic material
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- scope stops at the TANNERY: cattle rearing, ranch land use, grazing and land conversion are outside the audit
- animal welfare is explicitly excluded on the basis that it precedes leather making
- no deforestation requirement at the ranch; only additional due diligence reporting for high-risk sourcing, and deforestation-free supply is stated as a 2030 aim
- incoming and outgoing traceability are non-critical sections, so they do not contribute to the medal rating
- the social audit section is non-critical and is met by recognising third-party social audits; LWG does not conduct them
- the Audited band starts at 50%, so a listed facility may have scored half the available points
- no mass balance mechanism and no chain of custody certificate for finished goods, because LWG certifies facilities rather than material; traceability is scored as a percentage, so a certified tannery may process untraced hides
- no farm or slaughterhouse certification; the slaughterhouse appears only as a traceability reference point
- no product content claim, so a Gold rating describes the tannery, not the hides in a given item
The scheme
| Issued by | Leather Working Group (LWG); assurance delivered by LWG Assurance Services |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | Global; over 2,000 audited facilities in more than 60 countries, covering approximately 39% of global finished leather production per LWG |
| Audit and renewal | Full audit every two years; certification valid for two years |
| Cost | Audit fee is paid by the facility directly to an LWG Approved Auditor and is not published; LWG takes a levy of GBP 300 per audit (GBP 150 for traders). Brand, retailer and supplier membership is GBP 3,000 to GBP 18,000 per year by turnover band. |
What we read
LWG Leather Manufacturer Audit P7 (launched 22 February 2021, mandatory for all audits from 22 August 2021), read via the LWG Audit Assessment Overview for P7; site record of changes runs to P7.2.2 Rev2, 29 November 2022
- what_it_covers - medal bands and lowest-section rule — Gold: 85 - 100%; Silver: 75 - 84%; Bronze: 65 - 74%; Audited: 50 - 64%... Each section is awarded a medal rating, and the overall medal rating is the lowest achieved.
- what_it_covers - 17 sections, 13 critical and 4 non-critical — There are 13 critical sections and Four non-critical sections.
- what_it_covers - section list and two-year validity — It covers 17 separate sections and certification is valid for two years.
- what_it_covers - traceability scored by method and depth; Brazil and Paraguay due diligence — Points are scored for the percentage (%) of material that is traceable, weighted by: Method of traceability... Depth of traceability (To a region, a slaughterhouse, etc.)... Evidence is required to support claim of due diligence measures ta
- what_it_covers - audit scope is leather processing facilities — The LWG Leather Manufacturer Audit Standard was designed to assess facilities processing leather from raw, crust, tanned material into pre-tanned, tanned, crust, or finished leather.
- what_it_omits - animal welfare explicitly out of scope — Animal welfare is a challenging topic. It exists prior to the leather-making process and is therefore not included in the LWG Audit Standards.
- what_it_omits - traceability sections are non-critical and do not affect the medal — Non-critical sections do not contribute to the final medal rating, but all tanners must be evaluated against them... [Incoming Material Traceability] Non-critical, scored section... This section is expected to become mandatory in future ass
- what_it_omits - social audit non-critical and outsourced to recognised schemes — Non-critical, scored section. LWG does not carry out social audits but recognises existing social audit certifications from approved third-party providers.
- what_it_omits - deforestation-free supply is an aim, with due diligence reporting for high-risk regions — Leather Working Group aims to achieve a deforestation-free supply chain by 2030... Leather Working Group requires additional due diligence reporting on sourcing from high-risk regions as part of the certification.
- independence_score - audits delivered by LWG Assurance Services — Audits and the Assurance process against Leather Working Group standards are carried out by independent not-for-profit LWG Assurance Services
- independence_score and cost_range - auditor paid by the facility; LWG funded by industry members — Leather Working Group is funded almost entirely by our brand, retailer, supplier and agent trader members... Companies that are eligible for certification... pay an audit fee to an LWG Approved Auditor. This revenue is not received by the L
- geographic_scope - facility and market coverage — Over 2,000 audited facilities in more than 60 countries world-wide. Approx. 39% of global finished leather production is LWG audited
What we could not establish
The leatherworkinggroup.com domain was returning HTTP 500 across all paths on the date of research, so LWG pages were read from Internet Archive snapshots dated November 2025 to January 2026, and the P7 standard PDF was retrieved from the archive at its original leatherworkinggroup.com path (cited above as the canonical URL). The document read is LWG's own P7 Audit Assessment Overview, which states it is not the technical protocol; the full scored questionnaire is issued to members and approved auditors and was not obtainable, so per-question requirements, any energy or emissions reduction targets, and the exact identity of the fourth non-critical section could not be verified. Confidence is therefore medium rather than high. Could not establish: whether any external accreditation body accredits LWG Assurance Services or its approved auditors; whether LWG publishes withdrawn or suspended certifications; per-audit fee levels; and whether P7 has been superseded since the November 2022 record of changes.
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.