On Tuesday 27 June the cluster held its 2023 Ordinary General Assembly. Chaired by its president, Bernat Vilarrubias, and led by Jordi Vidal, executive director of the cluster, and Mònica Santamans, project manager, the assembly reviewed the activities and projects carried out during 2022.

As regards activities, those reviewed included the adhesion of Leather Cluster Barcelona to the “Pact for Skills“ for the European textile, clothing, leather and footwear industries, the session on the biodegradability of leather at the Adoberia Bella, the organisation, together with the Bioenergy Cluster of Catalonia (CBC), of a session on energy and sustainability, the networking work with international bodies of the leather industry such as Leather Working Group and Leather Naturally in support of World Leather Day and of the Leather Manifesto on the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the holding at the cluster’s headquarters of the assessment session of the RSE.Pime programme of Respon.cat, the presentation of the report prepared by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce on the socio-economic impact of the leather sector in Catalonia, the visit to Ubrique by an Igualada delegation with Leather Cluster Barcelona to forge training alliances and explore synergies, the cluster’s participation in REC.0 Experimental Stores, the ACCIÓ creativity and sustainability session within the framework of the Districts of Creativity, and the organisation of the “Dialogues on leather” to present initiatives for projecting the image and communication of the leather sector.

As regards projects, those highlighted were the collaboration of Leather Cluster Barcelona in the international Erasmus Mundus master’s degree in Innovative Leather Technology, which has pre-registrations from more than 40 students of 15 different nationalities; the presentation of Re-Genera, a global Circular Economy project for the leather sector, currently focused on the valorisation of fleshings; the positive results of the first phase of the project “Vision and Artificial Intelligence for hide sorting”; the project to commission a pilot plant to regenerate and give a second life to the treated water at IDR; and the highly significant environmental improvements arising from the INNPELL research project.

The financial report was then presented, after which its management was approved along with the accounts for the 2022 financial year. The actions and projects planned for 2023 were also approved, with the corresponding annual budget, as well as the guiding lines of the strategic plan: circular economy, sustainability, talent, innovation, good practice (including animal welfare and traceability), and communication, on the basis of shared value.

This assembly highlighted the consolidation of Leather Cluster Barcelona as an ecosystem of business cooperation for jointly facing the future and exploring strategic opportunities for the leather sector. In this regard, the cluster is optimising the energising of collaborations and synergies between the various stakeholders that form part of it, such as ANAFRIC, A3 Leather Innovation Center of the Igualada-UdL University Campus, La Gaspar – School of Design and Art, the Igualada Leather Museum and the IDR treatment plant.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.