A NEW LIFE FOR CUTTING WASTE
isku-yhtymä
Excess leather from furniture production
Waste put to use with cooperation
Isku is one of our partners in giving furniture leather a new life. Grown from a small garage into a modern factory, Isku has been producing quality furniture in its hometown of Lahti since 1928. A strong focus on sustainability is shown in all of Isku’s actions, from the raw materials, design and production, all the way to the ready furniture pieces. A new way to utilise trash began to take shape, when the cutting waste from Isku sofas was looking for a new life. Before our collaboration, smaller amounts of the excess leather had been put to use, but most of the high quality material still wound up in the bin. Now, Isku furniture cutting waste is collected and transformed into Lovia bags.
EST. 1928
EMPLOYEES: 750
LOCATION: LAHTI, FINLAND
How does sofa leather transform into durable bags?
You may be wondering how sofa leather and bags are related. We want to open up the history of the materials we use openly, so you can have true insight into the origin of our bags and how the process actually works.
From the making of sofas, cutting waste is created when cutting out the patterns from larger hides. Due to their smaller size, this material can’t serve its original purpose in furniture making. However, it is perfect for Lovia bags. Our designs are made on the terms of the materials in order to give even the smallest pieces a chance at new life. The leather meant for furniture is crafted to endure decades of everyday use, making it the perfect starting point for long-lasting bags!
But where does the leather originally come from? In their furniture Isku utilises mostly cattle hides, delivered by partners in the EU area and New Zealand. The material is tanned into leather in Galzignano, Italy. Tanning is the process that makes the leather hides durable, modifiable and well preserving. When the furniture is upholstered in the Isku factory in Lahti, the excess leather pieces are gathered and sent to us in Helsinki, where they are sorted and cleaned for the next stage. Then the material ends up on the design table of our creative director Outi, where they transform into sketches for new bags.
Greetings from the Lahti factory
We want to give our partners a chance to have their voice heard because without them the actual utilisation of the trash material would not become reality. Here we gathered greetings, bits and pieces from everyday life at Isku.
“We always strive to give the side products from our production a new life. We want to recycle the excess leather as material and we are so happy with the collaboration with Lovia. In the hands of a responsible partner the leather gets a new life in the shape of bags.”
- Kaisa Vuori, Sustainability Director, Isku
We do a lot of good but nowhere near perfect
Our collaboration with Isku diminishes the environmental burden compared to producing bags out of brand new material made specifically for that purpose. Still, there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to sustainability. With Isku we share the vision and dream of creating a new purpose for even the smallest shred of excess material. We receive lots of different sizes and colours of material from Isku to utilise further, but there are still scraps left over that are at the moment too small for our use. IOur goal in the future is to create a sort of kibble from this resource, that could function as a raw material for a newly produced recycled material for our bags.
We are also currently trying out a new model for our collaboration, where we give out the measurement requirements for pieces to Isku and they already do some baseline sorting in their production. These materials are then delivered straight to us without us going down to the Lahti factory to examine. This makes for less emissions in logistics and of course saves us time, that we can put to use to create the next trash treasures.
isku-yhtymä
Excess furniture leather
Waste put to use with cooperation
Isku is one of our partners in giving furniture leather a new life. Grown from a small garage into a modern factory, Isku has been producing quality furniture in its hometown of Lahti since 1928. A strong focus on sustainability is shown in all of Isku’s actions, from the raw materials, design and production, all the way to the ready furniture pieces. A new way to utilise trash began to take shape, when the cutting waste from Isku sofas was looking for a new life. Before our collaboration, smaller amounts of the excess leather had been put to use, but most of the high quality material still wound up in the bin. Now, Isku furniture cutting waste is collected and transformed into Lovia bags.
EST. 1928
EMPLOYEES: 750
LOCATION: LAHTI, FINLAND
How does sofa leather transform into durable bags?
You may be wondering how sofa leather and bags are related. We want to open up the history of the materials we use openly, so you can have true insight into the origin of our bags and how the process actually works.
From the making of sofas, cutting waste is created when cutting out the patterns from larger hides. Due to their smaller size, this material can’t serve its original purpose in furniture making. However, it is perfect for Lovia bags. Our designs are made on the terms of the materials in order to give even the smallest pieces a chance at new life. The leather meant for furniture is crafted to endure decades of everyday use, making it the perfect starting point for long-lasting bags!
But where does the leather originally come from? In their furniture Isku utilises mostly cattle hides, delivered by partners in the EU area and New Zealand. The material is tanned into leather in Galzignano, Italy. Tanning is the process that makes the leather hides durable, modifiable and well preserving. When the furniture is upholstered in the Isku factory in Lahti, the excess leather pieces are gathered and sent to us in Helsinki, where they are sorted and cleaned for the next stage. Then the material ends up on the design table of our creative director Outi, where they transform into sketches for new bags.
Greetings from the Lahti factory
We want to give our partners a chance to have their voice heard because without them the actual utilisation of the trash material would not become reality. Here we gathered greetings, bits and pieces from everyday life at Isku.
“We always strive to give the side products from our production a new life. We want to recycle the excess leather as material and we are so happy with the collaboration with Lovia. In the hands of a responsible partner the leather gets a new life in the shape of bags.”
- Kaisa Vuori, Sustainability Director, Isku
We do a lot of good but nowhere near perfect
Our collaboration with Isku diminishes the environmental burden compared to producing bags out of brand new material made specifically for that purpose. Still, there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to sustainability. With Isku we share the vision and dream of creating a new purpose for even the smallest shred of excess material. We receive lots of different sizes and colours of material from Isku to utilise further, but there are still scraps left over that are at the moment too small for our use. IOur goal in the future is to create a sort of kibble from this resource, that could function as a raw material for a newly produced recycled material for our bags.
We are also currently trying out a new model for our collaboration, where we give out the measurement requirements for pieces to Isku and they already do some baseline sorting in their production. These materials are then delivered straight to us without us going down to the Lahti factory to examine. This makes for less emissions in logistics and of course saves us time, that we can put to use to create the next trash treasures.
