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Carbon Footprint Analysis for Clothing and Accessories
CleanMetrics now offers an integrated carbon footprint solution for the clothing
and accessories industry. Using our standards-based life-cycle inventory database and our life-cycle assessment software tools, we can
provide reliable and high-quality life-cycle carbon footprint assessments for
all clothing and accessory products, materials and configurations.
Why Carbon Footprints for Clothing and Accessories?
 Next to food
and beverages, clothing and accessories are the consumer products that are
purchased most frequently and replaced most often. At the same time, clothing
items can be long-lasting and the use phase -- consisting of washing and drying
-- is an important part of the product life cycle. The high turn-over, large
production volumes and energy-intensive use phases make this an important
product category in terms of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Are synthetic materials better or worse than natural fibers on a life cycle
basis? Are there any significant environmental impacts from "eco-friendly"
fibers such as bamboo and hemp? What are the environmental costs and benefits of
organic, conventional and GMO cotton? How much difference can recycled fibers
make? These are just some of the many questions that we can help answer with our
analysis, often resulting in recommendations for minimizing resource use and
emissions. A
life-cycle carbon footprint analysis of clothing and accessory products is a crucial analytical tool that can help advance
the cause of sustainable production and consumption.
What are Carbon Footprints for Clothing and Accessories?
The carbon footprint of a clothing or accessory product is the total amount of
carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases emitted over the life cycle
of that product, expressed as kilograms of CO2
equivalents. This includes all greenhouse gases generated in the manufacture of
the raw materials, fabrication of the product, transport of materials
and finished products, packaging, the use phase including numerous washing and
drying cycles, and end-of-life disposal.
Why CleanMetrics?
At CleanMetrics, we have worked on a broad range of commercial projects using
life-cycle methods and focused on carbon footprints. Our work has included
analyses of synthetic and natural fibers, garment production processes, and
resource uses in both production and consumption. We have also analyzed and
compared the impacts of conventional, organic and eco-friendly fibers in
clothing products. Our mission is to help your
business address the challenge of sustainable production and consumption with the best collection of
tools, data and expertise.
Our life-cycle inventory database includes cradle-to-gate and/or unit process data for everything
needed to perform a complete life-cycle carbon
footprint analysis of clothing and accessory products:
- Full range of virgin and recycled materials used in clothing and accessories --
including conventional and organic cotton, polyester and other synthetic fibers,
bamboo rayon, hemp, wool, leather, plastics, and metals.
- Transportation, warehousing,
fuels, water, and electricity by grid regions.
- All common waste disposal methods -- such as landfill, incineration, compost,
reuse and recycling -- including energy recovery options.
The database is fully integrated with our life-cycle
assessment software tools and can be easily customized for your specific
application. We are continually adding data for more products/processes to the
database. We also offer a low-cost rapid research option to add data for
specific products or processes that you may need for your application.
Our Solutions
We offer a range of solutions depending on your needs and in-house expertise.
- For organizations with internal expertise in life-cycle assessment and product
carbon footprints, we can license our software products with integrated
life-cycle inventory database. We can also license our
database separately if
you have other means of performing the analyses.
- For organizations that are looking for a turn-key solution, we can use our
software tools, database and technical expertise to provide a complete
end-to-end solution
and deliver analytical results tailored for your specific business needs.
You can use our solutions in a variety of ways:
- Provide
consumer information such as product carbon labels or purchasing guides.
- Provide investor information such as corporate environmental reports.
- Identify hot spots in the production, delivery and use of your products, and make your
products more carbon efficient on a life-cycle basis.
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