The Danish shoe manufacturer and retailer has won the Popular Science’s magazine ‘Best of What’s New’ award for 2019 for its DriTan technology.
ECCO announced its DriTan technology has been recognised for innovation in the recreation category and has been awarded with Popular Science’s ‘Best of What’s New’ for 2019. DriTan is the company’s revolutionary new technology that tackles the issue of water scarcity. “ECCO started with a very simple question, how can we tan leather without water, and is it even possible? Since the company owns all of its tanneries, we recognised that we were in a unique position to make the first step in developing a more sustainable tanning process”, said Thomas Gøgisg, Head of Applied Research, ECCO. “After five years of extensive research and development, DriTan was introduced, and we’ve made the first solid step towards water-free leather manufacturing. Recognition such as this from Popular Science is an incredible honour.”
Implemented at its tannery in the Netherlands, ECCO says DriTan will save 20 litres of water per hide, equal to 25 million litres of water annually, and will also eliminate 600 tonnes of sludge. Using only the moisture already present in the hides, DriTan technology produces leather that is indistinguishable from traditionally tanned leather in terms of quality, characteristics and stability, according to the tanner. ECCO said that plans to share this water-saving technology with the leather tanning industry are already underway.
From ILM