Whose Skin Is In Your Car?
Every year, over a billion animals are killed not just for what’s on our plates, but also for what’s in our wardrobes, our homes, and our cars. The leather industry isn’t a by-product of meat; it’s a profit machine in its own right, worth hundreds of billions, feeding the same systems of exploitation that drive the climate crisis.
Automotive companies have long relied on animal skin to signal “luxury.” But behind that glossy showroom finish lies a chain of violence and destruction: slaughterhouses, toxic tanneries, deforestation, poisoned rivers, and human health risks for the communities forced to live alongside them.
The true cost of leather
Leather isn’t just a waste-product mopped up from the meat industry. It’s a core part of animal agriculture’s balance sheet. Cows are raised, confined, and killed for their flesh and their skins. Calves, often newborn males discarded by the dairy industry, are turned into “calf leather.” The question is blunt: are you sitting on a baby?
The environmental toll is staggering. Animal farming drives nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, and leather magnifies that damage. A 2016 report from Kering found that over 93% of leather’s footprint comes from land use and greenhouse gases tied to raising animals. In the Amazon, about 80% of deforestation is linked to creating pastures or growing feed for cattle. Entire ecosystems are destroyed so that car seats can be upholstered in skin.
Then comes tanning: a process of soaking animal hides in mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and even cyanide-based dyes to stop them rotting. Chrome tanning alone produces mountains of hazardous waste. The runoff pollutes water supplies, poisons workers, and spreads cancer and respiratory disease through surrounding communities. This is the “luxury material” that the automotive industry continues to sell us.
Enter the alternatives
The good news? Companies are finally starting to break with the past. Hyundai has announced a partnership with biotech startup UNCAGED Innovations to develop a plant-based leather replacement for car interiors. Their material, branded “ELEVATE,” is made by fusing grain proteins with other plant-based elements to replicate the structure of collagen, the scaffolding that makes up animal skin.
The results are striking: compared to traditional leather, ELEVATE cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 95%, reduces water use by nearly 90%, and slashes energy demand by 71%. It’s durable, stylish, and customisable, without the blood and chemicals. Hyundai joins a growing list of manufacturers waking up to reality: Renault has pledged to go fully leather-free by the end of 2025, and luxury designers like Stella McCartney have already embraced materials like mushroom, pineapple, and cactus leather.
Beyond branding: a shift in mindset
For too long, companies have treated leather as synonymous with quality. But that mindset is crumbling. Customers are demanding materials that don’t come at the expense of animals, people, or the planet. And innovation is rising to meet them: cork, mushroom, apple, corn, coconut, cactus, each offers a glimpse of a future where “luxury” is no longer code for death and destruction.
Hyundai’s step matters not just because of what it produces, but because of what it rejects: the idea that animal exploitation is unavoidable. When a multinational automaker admits you don’t need skin to sell cars, the leather industry loses one more excuse for its existence.
Your role in this change
Every purchase is a choice. When you reject leather, you reject deforestation, pollution, toxic labour conditions, and the killing of newborn calves. You reject the lie that comfort and style require someone else’s skin.
Alternatives are here. The question is whether we demand them loudly enough to end the cycle of exploitation. The leather industry is a pillar propping up animal agriculture. Pull that pillar down, and the whole structure starts to wobble.