Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a framework for measuring the environmental impacts of products or service. Life cycle assessment can be defined as the assessment of a product or service in terms of its environmental impacts through all life cycle stages such as manufacturing and use phase stages starting from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal stage.

As mentioned above, during a Life Cycle Assessment, the potential environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of a product (production, distribution, use and end-of-life phases) or service can be evaluated.

This methodology is based on ISO 14040 series. LCA study contains 4 stages shown in figure below:

• Determination of goal, scope, and system boundaries
• Preparation of input – output inventory
• Assessment of potential environmental impacts with the help of the inventory
• Interpretation of the inventory and the impact assessment results according to the aim of the study

LCA methodology has been widely applied in textile industry to evaluate various aspects and life cycle stages of the products, from cultivation and fiber production up until fabric processing and disposal of used products.

In the apparel, textile, and footwear industry today, LCA data is used as the primary means to understand the environmental impacts related to raw materials and finished products at a broad scale. It is used to calculate impact assessments for companies and the industry (including greenhouse gas [GHG] footprints), and, when used under specific conditions, it may also serve as the underlying data for sustainability claims related to products and materials.

To understand the full environmental impacts of a textile product requires a large amount of research and data analysis. LCA provides valuable insights to decision makers by identifying key impact areas – “hotspots” – and enabling environmental benchmarking to measure future progress.

LCA Application Purposes

Many countries have started to use the LCA many years ago and they direct their policies according to the results of these analyses.
• Reducing natural resource consumption,
• Reducing environmental emissions and thus the effects,
• Improvement and/or development of social factors,
• Describing and highlighting positive links between economic and environmental factors.
• Product Impact Measurement
• Eco Labelling
• Identifying Environmental Impacts
• Product Comparison
• Product Development and Improvement
• Strategic planning
• Decision making
• Marketing
• Optimization of procurement processe
• Providing confidence for stakeholders
• Other

REFERENCES:

• https://australiancotton.com.au/supply_chain/cotton-life-cycle-assessment
• HM_group_SustainabilityReport_2017_FullReport
• H&M; https://bigumigu.com/haber/hm-gezegen-icin-zamani-geriye-sariyor/
• https://ic-ce.com/case-study-levis/
• https://levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Full-LCA-Results-Deck-FINAL.pdf
• http://mistrafuturefashion.com/output/lca-five-garments/
• Çalık Denim Annual Report 2020; https://calikdenim.com/content/files/01-clk-den-c6666040.pdf