Nakara: SLF audit ‘reassurance for customers’

Nakara production director Jaco van Eeden and MD Max Schaefer with their SLF compliance certification.

Windhoek, Namibia – I have been appointed MD of Nakara Tannery & Manufacturing as of January, and I am pleased to report that Nakara has been audited by the Sustainable Leather Foundation and that it is now an SLF compliance partner.
With regards to the benefits and learnings during the auditing process:
The SLF auditing process brought out several benefits to Nakara, in terms of environmental and social responsibilities, as well as potential economic advantages, and we have implemented various changes.
The SLF audit gave us structure and guidance to assess what Nakara has already accomplished in terms of sustainable leather production practices, but more importantly, to identify goals to work towards.

Below are some examples of key benefits from the SLF audit:

Resource Efficiency: The audit has identified areas where Nakara can optimize resource usage, such as water and energy consumption, leading to cost savings and reduced environmental impact. Furthermore, we assessed our waste management practices, which helped us to minimize our environmental footprint associated with leather production.

Supply Chain Integrity: Analyzing the entire supply chain helped us to identify potential risks related to non-compliance issues among suppliers and to address these accordingly.

Process Optimization: The audit has identified areas for process improvement that will lead to increased efficiency and reduced production costs over time.

Compliance with Standards: Many global markets and partners prioritize working with businesses that adhere to sustainability standards. Becoming a SLF Compliance partner will hopefully open opportunities for Nakara to enter new markets and form new partnerships.

Long-Term Resilience: As sustainability becomes more integral to business practices it is important to be proactive rather than reactive to this matter. Being an SLF compliance partner positions Nakara to adapt to evolving market trends and regulatory requirements, ensuring long-term business resilience.

Marketability/Positive Brand Image: Sustainability is increasingly becoming a key factor in consumer purchasing decisions. Becoming an SLF compliance partner allows us to market our products as environmentally and socially responsible, thus elevating our customers’ brand images because they buy their leathers from a tannery that follows sustainable practices.

Salted bovine hides

A whole hide splitting machine in operation.

Nakara processes various types of hides and skins, including kudu (swatches pictured).

The variety of raw materials we are processing has an effect on our sustainability status in a sense that we are embracing not only the cattle farmers and abattoirs but also all other farmers of the spectrum who shoot game on their farms for population control and own meat consumption. They benefit from having an additional source of income selling these skins to Nakara, which in return has a positive effect on our corporate social responsibility practices which are part of the sustainability audit.
It comes with challenges to process all these different raw materials from a green and salted stage. My team at the point of delivery are quite experienced to detect which skins are of good quality and which of inferior quality; the latter won’t make nice leather and hence are already being rejected at point of delivery. Over all the years of processing raw skins into finished leather, my team has a well-trained eye to only accept hides and skins across all the different raw materials that seem to be of good quality.  

Nakara’s audit certificate.