Braspelco ahead in environmental matters

Braspelco were established in 1986 by Brazilian entrepreneurs, who gathered together their experience from working for decades in the leather industry and formed a new company. With a 1,195.7% growth between 1988 and 2003, today, the company have one of the biggest leather producing capacities in the world. Braspelco specialise in the production of wet-blue, crust, finished leather, cut parts, cut and sewn for the upholstery, furniture, car and aircraft, footwear and leather garments industries. The company have a large infrastructure, able to produce 4.8 million hides/year. Braspelco incorporates eight manufacturing branches, worldwide sales agents, besides outsourced tanneries specialised in wet-blue production. As a socially responsible group, Braspelco invest in social and environment preservation projects. They constantly invest in their relationship with employees through initiatives which contribute to their quality of life and encourage their ethical and responsible conduct. In the western world, they were one of the first companies in the footwear leather industry to become SA 8000 certified. Braspelco contribute to the positive change in the country's social reality through their social projects, health programmes and by encouraging professional development. In the leather processing industry, Braspelco were one of the pioneers in making their manufacturing units environmentally-friendly. This was before any legislation had even been written on the subject. After long years of research and development in the application of residue for soil correction, Braspelco were granted an environmental licence to use solid residue in field areas. One example is the technology called 'Couro Valorizando o Meio Ambiente' (Leather values the Environment), implemented in one of the manufacturing units (Goiás) which re-uses water from industrial effluents in irrigation through a pivot system.