The leather industry is at a pivotal moment on its path towards sustainability. Although many bio-based leather alternatives can reduce environmental impact, we need clear definitions of such alternatives to guide materials innovations that truly bring them into the mainstream, sustainable market, as highlighted in a recent court ruling.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22478264) and the International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation project of Sichuan Province (25GJHZ0078). This work was performed in part at Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering of Ministry of Education of Sichuan University, which is partially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SCU2025D014).
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Zhang, F., Zhou, J., Xu, H. et al. Integrating materials innovation and policy challenges for leather alternatives. Nat Sustain (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01759-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01759-7
