British department store John Lewis is taking a collaborative approach to making its leather chairs and sofas more sustainable and ethically sourced, announcing that all leather used for the store's own-label furniture will come from UK farms that supply beef to supermarket chain Waitrose.
Both Waitrose and John Lewis are part of the John Lewis Partnership, which is the largest employee-owned business in the UK. The partnership is leveraging its dual operations to make full use of resources at hand, thereby reducing waste, supporting British producers and offering consumers leather products from higher-welfare farms — Waitrose's farming supply chain was awarded Best Retailer for farm animal welfare by Compassion in World Farming four years in a row.
The sofa-leather initiative builds on an earlier innovation in 2021, which saw John Lewis mattresses use wool from local sheep farms that supply meat to Waitrose. Since wool is a low-cost commodity with substantial supply worldwide, those natural fibers would otherwise have gone to waste.
