Expert Q&As

We caught up with Vahe Imasdounian to talk about eco-friendly leather from Danfield Inc.

Where are you located?
Los Angeles.

Danfield, Inc. uses an eco-friendly process to create environmentally-friendly leather called EcoHides^TM. Can you tell us about it?
During the years, the leather industry has used heavy chemicals to make commercially available products. In order to preserve the hides and convert them into a durable raw material, we used heavy metal materials and acids. One of the things that we used is chromium, which is a carcinogenic substance. We now use natural extracts from farm grown, sustainably harvested Mimosa trees instead of harmful chemicals. Our systems produce practically no VOCs, and we obey all of the Los Angeles laws regarding water treatment. We also use natural colorants such as vegetable dyes.

It sounds like a much more eco-friendly way to produce leather. Why don't more companies do it?
More companies should do it. There's some difficulty to it. There are certain requirements and investments that are necessary to get things set up. The system involved is very expensive.

Who do you supply?
I‘ve supplied the seating industry in California for the past 30 years, and I'm really the only one left on the West coast with a modern plant. We also supply the automotive and airline industries.

Could you see sustainable hides having a market in those larger commercial industries?
The auto industry is difficult at this time because we don't have the proper technology, but we are going forward in the seating industry. It's much better than regular material. At home, it's much more comfortable to sit on EcoHides^TM. I don't see why people shouldn't use this material versus the regular one. For the consumer, if you were to compare conventional leather to EcoHides^TM, you should feel the difference. As time goes on, hopefully we can also convert the material into all kinds of small leather goods or even garments. As far as small leather goods are concerned, EcoHides should work quite well because it's a very pliable material that can take any shape or form. It's a little more expensive at this time because of the new technology we're using, but down the line, the prices will be a lot more competitive.

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