Deborah Taylor

Deborah is the Managing Director of the Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF), a not-for-profit Foundation, set up in July 2020, specifically to support the leather industry to become more sustainable. The Foundation works across the whole value chain from farm to finished product and promotes the A.I.M. Approach to sustainable improvement – Accessible, Inclusive and Modular. Having created the innovative SLF Transparency Dashboard™, the first of its kind in the leather industry, Deborah is passionate about providing the right environment for transparent and verifiable information that gives confidence to consumers while protecting the commercial integrity of the individual organisations along the value chain.

Prior to setting up SLF, from 2015 to 2020, Deborah managed the Leather Working Group (LWG), an environmental stewardship programme that supports the reduction of environmental impacts caused by tannery operations around the world. During this time, Deborah saw membership and audited tannery numbers double, managed the creation of the increased number of audit tools now available and created greater collaborative effort and formal links with other initiatives in the sector.

Since April 2020, Deborah has also worked as a Consultant for the UNECE on the project to “enhance traceability and transparency for more sustainable value chains in the garment and footwear sector”.
A practitioner member of the Chartered Quality Institute and a certified SA8000 lead auditor, she also serves as a Council Member for the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists.