DESIGN TO DECARBONISE
This report looks at potential best practices, critical perspectives, design approaches, and terminology significant to the important discussion of decarbonisation in the fashion and apparel industry. By providing resources and examples, our hope is to aid designers in their attempt to positively impact their design decisions. Globally, the words in every sustainability report are in regards to carbon and carbon emissions. One of the most recognizable data metrics, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are used as targets for not only reducing global warming but also a first sustainability initiative for large companies.
AUTHORS: Iris Blackwood, Ran Du, Renee Graff, Giselle McNamara, Lili Petkovics
DECARBONIZATION
A process of reducing the individual, organizational, national, and global carbon footprint (Condé Nast).
Globally, the words in every sustainability report are in regards to carbon and carbon emissions. One of the most recognizable data metrics, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are used as targets for not only reducing global warming but also a first sustainability initiative for large companies. In the fashion and textile sphere, the industry accounts for one of the most polluting, generating around 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent and being responsible for approximately 10% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (EP, 2020b) worldwide" (Key Drivers).
Graphic is author’s own, adapted from Mckinsey and Company (2020)
ADDITIONAL DATA
& STATS
There was an increase in emissions for major fashion brands (such as Lululemon) from 2020 - 2021, and only Levi's was on track to keep in line with the emissions goals
The industry has a "combined GHG emissions reduction potential of 2.5 Gt CO2 eq, of which 1.2 Gt (47% of combined solution categories) will be contributed by solutions already existing today, 1.0 Gt (39%) by innovative solutions, and 0.3 Gt (14%) by other solutions including materials efficiency and reducing overproduction." (Unlocking)
"Emissions in Scope 1 and 2 only account for approximately 3% - 5% of an organisation’s total GHG emissions." (Unlocking)
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE TO CONSIDER
Economic Impacts: When industries which are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas make a conscious switch to renewable resources, it's inevitable that industries will experience mass job losses, economic disruptions, and increased costs for consumers.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
"In December 2015, the historic Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus by all members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
To date, 197 countries have agreed to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions to reach net carbon neutrality by 2050 and keep global warming below 2 °C by the year 2100." (Vital Global)
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE TO CONSIDER
Governance and Policy Challenges: Decarbonization efforts direct a need for coordinated international action, which confronts regulatory barriers and also conflicting interests among different stakeholders.
Photo by Scott Evans on Unsplash
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE & PROCESS
PROJECT BRIEF
“BOLD AND LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO REDUCING CHG EMISSIONS IS NECESSARY TOWARDS AN ULTIMATE CHANGE IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TO STAY ON THE 1.5 - DEGREE PATHWAY”
sCIENCE-BASED TARGET SETTING
“Measure, report and set goals on GHG emissions during the whole process of product development.” In order to drive decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement, brands and retailers should prioritize transparency, set a realistic goal and timeline, launch pilots, collaborate with stakeholders, measure and monitor the impact, as well as communicate the roadmaps and results with the public. The targets should encompass scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Scope 3 must also be included if these emissions make up 40% or more of your company’s total emissions. Span a minimum of five years when setting the target.
Net Zero: Net zero means that all greenhouse gas emissions produced are counterbalanced by an equal amount of emissions that are eliminated (State of the Planet)
Greenhouse gases (GHG): gases in the Earth's atmosphere that absorb heat from the sun. The key greenhouse gases include water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) (Condé Nast)
Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi): Ultimately, high-quality primary data is necessary to calculate the emissions based on climate science. For the apparel industry, some of the existing suite of tools are by using lifecycle (LCA) assessment, Higg Index, and Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Slowing growth: Producing with purpose, de-grow, works in harmony with the natural world, respecting the planet and protecting those who sustain it.
Image by atlascompany on Freepik
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE TO CONSIDER
Rebound Effects: Decarbonization efforts could have unintentional rebound effects, where the benefits of reduced carbon emissions are offset by increased energy consumption.
CARBONFACTS
Is one fashion-specific Carbon Management Platform that helps brands discover the sources of their environmental impact and take actionable steps to reduce the footprint. Discover more by visiting Carbonfacts’s website here.
THOUGHT STARTERS
Consider your project brief and aims. Begin with an overview of your product development process - what/where are the major CO2 contributors?
Is that a way you can identify the CO2 impact on a single product and set a target for it?
What tools will you choose to monitor product lifecycle data in real time?
BEST PRACTICES
On June 27th, Allbirds just unveiled the world’s first net 0.0kg CO2 carbon footprint sneakers, compared with a standard sneaker about 14 kg CO2
For more info check Allbirds website here.
Along with the launch of sneakers, Allbirds also released their open-sourced toolkit of how they got to net zero - to the industry at large
NEW BUSINESS MODELS
Introducing new business models into everyday operations is essential for reducing GHG emissions and extending product life. These models include rentals, re-commerce, repair and refurbishment.
In an analysis conducted by Mckinsey and Company, it is estimated that re-commerce models can extend product life by 1.7x., based on average length of second-hand ownership. The rental model is assumed to extend product life by 1.8x, based on the average number of rentals during a product’s lifetime. In repair models, the lifetime extension is approximately 1.35x, assuming professional repairs, whereas in refurbishment models, the lifetime extension can be doubled, which reflects brand and manufacturer collaborations involving up-cycling.
To achieve these numbers, brands will need to reconsider and redefine their business models. New logistical capabilities and specialized garment-making skills will be needed to take advantage of these new opportunities.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
BEST PRACTICES
Rental: POOL
Repair: Veja’s new repair service, Sojo
Re-commerce: TheRealReal, ThredUp, Vinted, Stella McCartney and Levi’s resale websites
Refurbishment: Upcycling, mending and refurbishment sales and DIY platform
Photo by Thomas Lefebvre on Unsplash
BEST PRACTICES
500KG CO2 - When Upcycling meets Virtual Reality
The future of upcycling in a digital age? 500 CO2 offers upcycling service to help consumers create new garments out of their pre-loved clothing.
DESIGN
“SUSTAINABLE DECISION-MAKING AT THE DESIGN STAGE IS CRUCIAL TO BUILD A LESS EMISSION-INTENSE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE”
mATERIAL CHOICE
Materials often have the biggest impact on the environment. More than 70% of the emissions come from upstream activities, particularly energy-intensive raw material production, preparation and processing, according to Fashion on Climate. At a company like Nike for example, 60% of their impact comes from the material choices.
“Understanding fibers, selecting low impact materials & scaling the use of existing preferred materials” is key to reduce carbon emissions at the design stage and work towards a circular loop. Each of these choices and decisions along the material will have a significant impact on the total CO2 product emissions. Consider your brief or project aims: how could material choices be reconsidered to reduce the product’s impact? Actions to consider: embracing sustainable and recycled materials in product design, e.g. organic cotton, hemp & recycled polyester, investing in next generation materials & innovations, e.g. carbon-negative fabrics, collaborating with regenerative farmed materials, and working with innovative PLM suppliers for better choice of materials.
FAIRBRICS: INNOVATIVE CO2- NEGATIVE TEXTILE
The process of “capturing” CO2 by Fairbrics Technology
“CO2 is captured from industrial sources and then reacted with a catalyst and solvent to produce chemicals used in polyester synthesis. These chemicals are polymerized to form polyester pellets, which are spun into yarn and then into fabric.”
HELPFUL RESOURCES
New and alternative textiles directory
Useful info on conventional textiles
Preferred Fiber & Material Market Report (Textile Exchange)
Design for Low Impact Materials and Process
Future Fabric Expo’s online sustainable fabrics sourcing tool (The Sustainable Angle)
Unlocking the Trillion-dollar Fashion Decarbonisation Opportunity: (Existing and innovative solutions, Page 25)
Fashioning Carbon Emissions, an Interview with Nils Altrogge (Postcast)
THOUGHT STARTERS
Based on the environmental impact, how could material choices be reconsidered to reduce the product's impact?
How could you eliminate or minimize the use of materials and finishes that use toxic or hazardous chemicals?
How could your material choice increase the life cycle of the product?
Does the selected blend of materials limit or prevent further recycling with current technology?
BEST PRACTICES
CO2 negative fabrics:
https://fairbrics.co/
https://lanzatech.com/
https://www.rubi.earth/
CYCLABILITY
With up to 80% products’ environmental impacts are determined at the design phase, the current fashion system requires an urgent and radical rethink of how we design the garments.
“Design with the end in mind and picture how a product will be cycled at end of use.” Design has the power to be transformational. Make them circular and stronger by better methods of producing and material choices, enabling the products and materials to be re-used, recycled and regenerated in the process of low-carbon circular economy. Make them last to align with the circular business model like rental and resale, contributing to the material having “infinite value”.
HELFUL RESOURCES
Circular Design for Fashion (Ellen MaCarthur Foundation)
The Jeans Redesign (Ellen MaCarthur Foundation)
WASTE AVOIDANCE & DISASSEMBLY
For fashion designers, the decarbonization challenge should lie upstream, before waste and pollution are even generated. We see the waste that we create. What do we do to avoid that waste? What happens to a garment at the end of its lifespan?
“Minimizing or eliminating waste in the product creation process.” At various stages of the apparel production process, textile waste is generated on a large scale, such as during cutting, sewing, and so on. By identifying and understanding these processes, we can foresee and avoid waste-generating activities from the design stage. At the same time, digital tools are changing how clothing is designed, manufactured and serviced. Technologies like zero waste pattern-making and digital prototyping can accelerate the journey to “zero waste”.
THOUGHT STARTERS
What prototype approaches are you planning to use? Can you use alternative approaches that avoid waste (E.g. digital samples, reducing/repurposing samples and prototypes)?
How will your selected pattern method align with the manufacturer’s method of making to avoid waste?
DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY
Under design for disassembly, any product should be capable of being easily broken down into its constituent materials at the end of its useful life cycle, thereby enabling it to enter existing recycling streams. One method is to focus on mono-materials rather than a blend. Designers could also identify the amount of components (buttons, zippers) on the garment, and try to minimize the use of components where possible can help during future disassembly; the potential deconstruction of the garment at the end use of the life cycle. This not only ensures that a garment’s environmental footprint can be kept to a minimum, but also pushes designers to think outside the box, resulting in more creative and future-proof solutions.
Deadstock: textiles and garments manufactured and never sold, by recycling and donating or selling them at discount (C2ES)
Carbon Footprint: the estimated volume of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), especially CO2 emissions, produced both directly and indirectly to meet the requirements of an individual, an organization or a population. It is usually calculated as an equivalent of carbon dioxide (CO2) in tons (Condé Nast)
HELPFUL RESOURCES
BEST PRACTICES
VERSATILITY
"Investing in trend research, forecast & analysis in order to design products that easily adapt to growth, style, trend, gender, and purpose, a.k.a. timeless and durable. Design with a curious mindset.” More and more consumers are becoming conscious of their spending choices, taking sustainability and longevity into consideration when making purchases. The capacity of a garment to be used in various scenarios, the garment transformation, can largely lengthen the product’s life cycle, contributing to the decarbonisation of the fashion ecosystem. Specifically, we propose that overproduction will be avoided more effectively with better forecasting skills.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
BEST PRACTICES
PRODUCTION
Fibres, yarns, fabrics and garments undergo multiple steps during the processing stage to achieve the performance and aesthetic properties desired by the industry. There are four fundamental steps in this process: pretreatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing. While these processes are not carried out at the design stage, designers have the opportunity to choose materials processed with solutions that drastically reduce energy and water consumption. These steps are traditionally performed in very large tanks or baths filled with water constantly maintained at a high temperature, which contributes to high GHG emissions at this stage of the supply chain. These processes also rely heavily on (petroleum-derived) chemicals, such as synthetic dyes.
Moving away from wet processing to almost dry processing with technologies that require very little to no water and therefore also less energy will be necessary for the industry to drastically reduce emissions. Fashion for Good identified the most important dry processing technologies in the phases of pretreatment, dyeing, printing and finishing.
DRY PROCESSING
HELPFUL RESOURCES
BEST PRACTICES
Pretreatment:
Dying/Printing:
Finishing
DISTRIBUTION
In most cases fashion brands manufacture their collections a long distance from where they are eventually sold, making the supply chain inherently unsustainable. CO2 emissions are greater as journeys are longer and usually expedited. As most companies work short timeframes, goods are often transported on planes, increasing the use of fossil fuel and energy.
Shortening supply chains and using greener transportation methods, such as sea freight, trains, and biodiesel trucks help to reduce carbon footprints drastically. Increased use of sustainable transport could deliver 39 million tonnes of GHG emissions savings.
Designers can also contribute to lowering the carbon emission in the transportation phase. Sticking to milestones and deadlines can reduce the necessary logistics and rushed fleets.
Photo by Rinson Chory on Unsplash
sUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT
HELPFUL RESOURCES
BEST PRACTICES
Packaging waste is generated throughout the entire fashion supply chain. The most common packaging materials are petroleum-based, nonbiodegradable polymers. Packaging alone constitutes a large and rapidly growing segment of municipal solid waste as most parts are discarded immediately after purchase. In order to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste, the fashion industry must reduce single-use plastics and increase the use of recyclable and biodegradable materials. Improved packaging could deliver 5 million tonnes of GHG emissions savings.
Photo by Klára Vernarcová on Unsplash
IMPROVED PACKAGING
BEST PRACTICES
Rethinking packaging solutions
Reducing the packaging size
Refusing to use plastic packagin
Reusing
Recycling
Repurposing package/its components
Rotting or composting
tHE 7RS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING FRAMEWORK
Presents the most common sustainable packaging approaches industry-wide.
oVERVIEW
This report looks at potential best practices, critical perspectives, design approaches, and terminology significant to the important discussion of decarbonisation in the fashion and apparel industry. By providing resources and examples, our hope is to aid designers in their attempt to positively impact their design decisions. Globally, the words in every sustainability report are in regards to carbon and carbon emissions. One of the most recognizable data metrics, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are used as targets for not only reducing global warming but also a first sustainability initiative for large companies.
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash
GLOSSARY
ECOSYSTEM. A system of all living organisms within an area and the way in which they interact with their environment and with each other (Condé Nast)
FOSSIL FUEL. Fuels generated from fossilized hydrocarbon deposits such as remains of plants and other organisms. Fossil fuels include coal, crude oil and natural gas. All of these, because of their origins, have a high carbon content (Condé Nast)
GLOBAL WARMING. The long-term increase in global temperatures in comparison to pre-industrial levels (currently defined as 1850-1900). Global mean surface temperatures (GMST) are averaged over a period of 30 years and they have been rising at the fastest rate in recorded history since the mid-20th century, primarily due to human actions such as burning of fossil fuels (Condé Nast)
GREENHOUSE GASES (GHG). Gases in the Earth's atmosphere that absorb heat from the sun. The key greenhouse gases include water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) (Condé Nast)
CIRCULAR ECONOMY. Decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources and designs waste out of the system (C2ES)
NET ZERO. Net zero means that all greenhouse gas emissions produced are counterbalanced by an equal amount of emissions that are eliminated (State of the Planet)
NONRENEWABLE RESOURCE. Natural resources that do not have the capacity to regrow or replenish their original levels after exploitation, within a human timescale (ie coal, oil, natural gas) (Condé Nast)
RENEWABLE RESOURCE. Natural resources that have the capacity to regrow or replenish their original levels after exploitation, within a human timescale (ie solar, water, wind power or also wood, food, water) (Condé Nast)
CAPTURING EMISSIONS. Net zero means that all greenhouse gas emissions produced are counterbalanced by an equal amount of emissions that are eliminated (State of the Planet)
CARBON. Element combined with hydrogen atoms forms hydrocarbons, whose fossilized deposits such as remains of plants and other organisms generate fossil fuels including coal, petroleum and natural gas. (Condé Nast)
CARBON FOOTPRINT. The estimated volume of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), especially CO2 emissions, produced both directly and indirectly to meet the requirements of an individual, an organization or a population.(1)It is usually calculated as an equivalent of carbon dioxide (CO2) in tons (Condé Nast)
CARBON OFFSETTING. A compensatory action that offers individuals, businesses, and other organizations the option to balance their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits (carbon offsets) that fund projects focused at reducing emissions in developing countries (Condé Nast)
GREENHOUSE EFFECT. Greenhouse gases, clouds and (to some extent) aerosols absorb radiation from the surface of the Earth and emit infrared radiation in all directions.(1) Because of their high concentration caused by human actions and industrial emissions, greenhouse gases restrict the passages that allow infrared radiation to escape into space (Condé Nast)
CLIMATE CRISIS. Climate crisis, or climate breakdown, describes the devastating effects of climate change on people and planet (Condé Nast)
DEADSTOCK. Textiles and garments manufactured and never sold, by recycling and donating or selling them at discount (C2ES)
DECARBONISATION. Aprocess of reducing the individual, organizational, national, and global carbon footprint (Condé Nast)