Footwear group Caleres has said in a new report that 75% of the shoes its partners produced for it in 2022 were made from “environmentally preferred materials”.

It has set itself the target of using 100% “environmentally preferred materials” in its shoes by 2025. Report by Leatherbiz.

Under the criteria Caleres has laid out for this, it says the leather its partner manufacturers use should be “certified recycled material”, or meet the gold or silver standard of the Leather Working Group.

If shoes are made from fabric, the fabrics have to be natural with more than 20% certified organic content, or contain more than 50% certified recycled content.

In the report, which it has called a summary report of its environmental, social, and corporate governance performance in 2022, it revealed that 85% of the leather it consumed in 2022 was in keeping with its “environmentally preferred materials” criteria.

However, the report also made it clear that Caleres’ use of leather decreased last year compared to 2021 and was a long way behind the figure for 2019.

In 2022, Caleres used 24.2 million square-feet of leather, a fall of 11.9% year on year. Compared to pre-pandemic levels of consumption (33.1 million square-feet in 2019), the figure for 2022 was down by 27%.

In contrast, its consumption of fabric and synthetics increased substantially and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.