Feb 23, 2023

Our Sustainable Practices

Everything we do here at pampeano is inspired by the beautiful natural world; from our celebration of the natural materials we use to hand craft our premium leather products, to the colour schemes of our vibrant Aztec-inspired designs, even down to the pampa diamond which makes up our logo, reflecting the breath-taking Andes mountain range. Therefore, it only makes sense that we as a company do our bit to work to protect the natural world by practicing sustainability within our production. Read on in this journal entry to find out more about how exactly we lessen our impact on the planet through our sustainability practices.

One of the biggest ways manufacturing companies negatively impact the planet is by using plastic in their packaging. It is estimated that the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste a year, and much of that is not recycled. In response to this, we at pampeano have made the commitment to remove all single use plastic from our packaging, making our packaging 100% plastic free. Instead, we use card, paper, and cardboard, to create an attractive and sustainable gift box, gift bag and labels. If more companies committed to being plastic free, that huge amount of plastic waste would go down. We believe that it is our duty to take part in the ongoing effort to becoming plastic free.

Another way we reduce our impact on the environment is by using a vegetable tanning process on our leather instead of the faster chrome tanning process. Chrome tanning is a chemical process which allows leather producers to tan their products very quickly - but it also produces some harmful chemical waste which negatively affects the environment. Our vegetable tanning process uses natural materials, and still produces sumptuously soft and durable leather which will last for many years to come. This is a no-brainer for us, and we have been proudly producing our leather with this traditional technique for many years.

We also try as much as we can to make products using scraps of leather that would otherwise be thrown away. A lot of our products - particularly our smaller products such as our keyrings, as well as smaller elements of our larger products like the belt loops on our famous polo-inspired pampeano belts - are often made with these spare scraps which would otherwise go to waste. This is embracing one of the key elements of sustainability: reducing waste.

We believe these changes and commitments we have made not only help the planet, but they also produce the same quality - or indeed better quality - of leather goods than if we cut corners and used more harmful processes.

Our work to improve our sustainability and lower our footprint is certainly not over, and we will continue striving to make the world a greener place in every way we can. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our sustainability practices, and we would encourage you to incorporate some of the elements of sustainability - reducing, reusing, and recycling - into your own lives as well.

belt and bracelet in front of flowers in a vase

If you have been inspired by reading about our process, do peruse our website where you’ll find the fruits of our labours: our broad range of premium leather accessories, including our vibrant and striking traditional pampeano belts for which we are best known.