A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Denim Jeans and a Cotton T-Shirt: The Production of Fast Fashion Essential Items From Cradle to Gate Master of Science in Merchandising, Apparel & Textiles As a result of harmful textile production, sustainability has become the movement by which the apparel industry explores solutions to improve procedures in fashion design to maintain a healthy environment. However, the issue is consumers trust the sustainability claims and marketing materials of apparel products at face value without knowing its environmental impact. The overall purpose of this research was to compare the environmental implications of widely produced and owned apparel products through a life cycle assessment approach. This life cycle assessment study examines key environmental impact categories of the materials and production phase (cradle to gate) of a pair of jeans and a cotton t-shirt. The specific purpose of this study was to identify if the production processes make a sustainable product at the point of purchase.

Furthermore, this research study compares the environmental impacts of a denim jean and dyed cotton t-shirt utilizing the ReCipe 2008 LCA tool.Free Small Puppies Charlotte NcIn order to build on the first LCA conducted by Gildan in 2010, in 2013, we commenced the process of conducting a Company-wide life cycle assessment of Gildan’s products. Adidas Golf Shoes ChinaIn 2014, not only did we complete this assessment, we also completed product life cycle assessments for 24 products. Fabric Car Seat Covers MumbaiOnce again, this analysis was conducted with the assistance of Quantis Canada (now Groupe AGÉCO), an independent third party specialist that provides businesses and governments with tools, guidance and knowledge for pursuing more sustainable practices  by mastering their life cycle and reducing their environmental impact.

The first phase of this assessment consisted of measuring Gildan’s overall footprint linked to its operational activities and supply chain management through the use of a multi-indicator approach, including the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, water resources, etc. The second phase of this LCA involved allocating our Company-wide results to the respective product lines for comparison, in order to identify best practices and determine which product lines could most be improved through eco-design. The data collected for this first and second phase pertained to the 2012 year. As a third phase, Gildan conducted the aforementioned phases for the 2013 and 2014 year, allowing three years of data for comparison and benchmarking. The Company-wide LCA allowed us to compare our manufacturing facilities efficiencies and identify the least performing ones. This will help the Company develop programs to improve the efficiencies of the targeted facilities. The study also confirmed the main environmental impact hotspots over the life cycle of our apparel products was the after-use phase (mainly washing of garments) followed by cotton production (use of pesticides and fertilizers, as well as land occupation).

Third highest in environmental impact was the production phase, stemming from the fact that electricity production in the United States and Honduras comes from either coal or oil. Several conclusions resulted from this assessment: 1) While the overall impacts are increasing over the years, the relative contributions of the different life cycle stages remain constant. The raw material supplies and the production stages have the most impacts across all indicators. However, the production phase decreased its footprint (for the climate change and resources indicators) over the years, mainly due to the reduction of electricity and fuel consumption per kg of production. The implementation of biomass steam generation at the Rio Nance complex facilities is the main project which contributed to this decrease over time. 2) Water use by textile facilities also decreased over time 3) Cotton use impacts are increasing over time. As a vertically-integrated manufacturer, Gildan is able to influence or control impacts in almost all areas of its supply chain except for cotton production.

However, the vast majority of the cotton used by Gildan comes from the United States, where sustainable agricultural methods are increasingly used and thus we are expecting a positive spillover effect on our own environmental performance. In addition, in 2014, Gildan also contributed to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s pilot for testing the Product Category Rule (PCR) for a T-shirt LCA. The Gildan style 2000 T-shirt was selected to test this pilot and an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) was produced in accordance with the PCR guidelines. The pilot included a number of companies which are member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and the results will be used by the organization to refine the PCR as well as evaluate how it can be used in relation to the organization’s Higg Index, an indicator based assessment tool for apparel and footwear products. In addition to measuring the environmental impacts of the individual product assessed, the product LCAs also help compare the environmental performance of similar products, which contributes to a better understanding of  ways to achieve improved performance.

The main conclusions of the product LCAs include: 1) The environmental impacts are directly related to the performance of the facilities in which the products are produced since there were no changes in the apparel designs between the years assessed. 2) The mass of a product also has a direct impact on the product environmental impacts. The increased use of fabric for a specific style results in higher impacts from the greater use of raw materials, which come mainly from cotton cultivation. 3) The products assessed either had a similar or lower impact for climate change and resources indicators in 2014 compared to 2012. This impact reduction is mainly due to the fact that the facilities in which the products were manufacturing had a better performance in terms of sustainability.e-mail: tobias.walser@ifu.baug.ethz.ch.AbstractA cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed to compare nanosilver T-shirts with conventional T-shirts with and without biocidal treatment.

For nanosilver production and textile incorporation, we investigate two processes: flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) and plasma polymerization with silver co-sputtering (PlaSpu). Prospective environmental impacts due to increased nanosilver T-shirt commercialization are estimated with six scenarios. Results show significant differences in environmental burdens between nanoparticle production technologies: The “cradle-to-gate” climate footprint of the production of a nanosilver T-shirt is 2.70 kg of CO2-equiv (FSP) and 7.67–166 kg of CO2-equiv (PlaSpu, varying maturity stages). Production of conventional T-shirts with and without the biocide triclosan has emissions of 2.55 kg of CO2-equiv (contribution from triclosan insignificant). Consumer behavior considerably affects the environmental impacts during the use phase. Lower washing frequencies can compensate for the increased climate footprint of FSP nanosilver T-shirt production. The toxic releases from washing and disposal in the life cycle of T-shirts appear to be of minor relevance.

By contrast, the production phase may be rather significant due to toxic silver emissions at the mining site if high silver quantities are required. Detailed descriptions of methods applied, calculation procedures, and more results. .View: ACS ActiveView PDF | PDF w/ Links | Citing ArticlesRelated ContentCitation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by LinkingFor a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder. Considerations of Environmentally Relevant Test Conditions for Improved Evaluation of Ecological Hazards of Engineered Nanomaterials , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and 2016 AbstractPDF w/ LinksUnraveling the Complexity in the Aging of Nanoenhanced Textiles: A Comprehensive Sequential Study on the Effects of Sunlight and Washing on Silver Nanoparticles , , , and 2016 AbstractPDF w/ LinksPotential Environmental Impacts and Antimicrobial Efficacy of Silver- and Nanosilver-Containing Textiles , , , , , , , , , , , , , and 2016 Abstract

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