What does the 'LWG Gold Rating' that appears in every leather product description mean?

Even if you open just a few leather product descriptions, the same sentence is repeated. The leather of ALTER CUSHION received the highest GOLD RATED rating in the LWG company assessment^[1], and the same rating label is attached to the leather of BLANK DAYBED SOFA as well^[2]. When it comes to NOIR CUSHION, the supplier name Crest Leather accompanies this^[3].

LWG stands for Leather Working Group, an international organization that assesses and rates the environmental performance of tanneries that make leather. It scores criteria such as water and energy consumption, chemical and wastewater management, and whether raw hides can be traced back to their source, dividing them into Gold, Silver, and Bronze. What is different is that it is not a grade that assesses the feel or thickness of the leather, but a score assigned to the manufacturing process.

Crest Leather, whose name appears repeatedly, is a leather brand founded in 1996, and its headquarters are in London, UK^[4]. Looking at the AUSTEN leather used in ALTER SWING SOFA, the raw hide is European cowhide, the grade is full-grain with a semi-aniline finish, and post-processing takes place at Crest Leather in Italy^[5]. Full-grain refers to a state where the surface layer of the leather has not been buffed away, leaving its original grain and pore marks intact, and semi-aniline refers to a finish where only a very thin protective film is applied over transparently dyed leather.

hmmm, rather than explaining differences in materials across individual products, this repetition is closer to an indication that no matter which product you look at, the source from which the leather is obtained and that source's assessment rating do not change.