Our Treehuggin' allies have the lowdown on the eco-friendly leather made by Schomisch GmbH (whose motto, „Feel the touch – its leather“ is not funny, and should not be said in a faux Schwarzenegger accent):

Leather is often thought of as a natural material. And such materials return to the soil easily, right? Not in the case of leather they don’t. ‘Cos to stop the animal’s hide from perishing and degrading it has been tanned to give it a long life. And this tanning usually involves heavy metals like chrome, which can have a toxic effect on our waterways. But Ecopell from Germany’s Bavarian mountains is different. It uses Rhubarb (yeh, that's no typo), plus Oak (seen in pic above) and Tara seed pods. Unlike other vegetable tanned leather the ingedients used here are sustainabily harvested.