Mobius Screenshot - T-Shirt Example LifeCycle

Measure & improve the footprint of your apparel.

Whether it’s a single T-Shirt or your complete portfolio of 100 products.

Measure credible environmental footprints of your products. Zoom into any part of your products, processes, or value chain. And reduce environmental impact where it really matters.

Quantify the environmental performance of your products -
on two different scales:

Factory
Complete product portfolios & manufacturing sites.

Ecochain Helix

Helix is the efficient portfolio footprint tool.
T-shirt
Individual products & sustainable product design.

Ecochain Mobius

Mobius is the easy product footprint solution.

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Goodbye, expensive experts & slow measurement processes.

Impact measurements, made for business

Our easy product footprint tools are built to deliver strategic sustainable business insights - not academic research. It's footprinting for business.

Full control over your environmental data

Your business constantly changes. Don't waste time hiring expensive consultants. Implement every change with our tools - and always access your most recent data.

Credible environmental insights

Our tools follow the credible scientific method Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Understand where your impact comes from - and claim it to the world.

Specialist Guidance & Tutorials

Our team of experienced environmental specialists work with many companies in textile & apparel. They can assist you in implementing our software and answer all your questions.

Get inspired by our customers in apparel:

Helpful resources

Foundations of environmental footprinting (LCA)


Using environmental data to make sustainable apparel

Frontrunner & Expert stories

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Beginner's Guide

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – Complete Beginner’s Guide

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Life Cycle Assessments & the Fashion Industry – The good, the bad, the potential.

Big fashion brands are under fire, receiving fees- or even sued for greenwashing claims. In this commotion, a lot of well-deserved attention goes to the credibility of environmental data. Where does this data come from? How reliable is it? How reliable are the measurement methods? In this article we go through the good, the bad and the potential of Life Cycle Assessments as environmental impact measurement method for the fashion industry.

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The data behind Patagonia’s no-logo decision (and why it might be wrong)

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By now it’s pretty obvious – but the fashion and textile industries are one of the BIGGEST polluters of all. We need transparency and sustainable product improvements to happen and fast. Whether it’s to answer consumer demand or keep up with new legislation (Such as the EU Textile Directive), fashion is in a state of transformation. But change is not always easy. Supply chain data collection, particularly in the fashion & textile industry, can be a bit of a pain.

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Yumeko CEO Rob van den Dool on the Future of the Textile Industry

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What's the environmental impact of your apparel?

This is the average impact based on our apparel customers.

Start Scrolling

Step 1

Fiber Production

For any piece of apparel, the first step is to produce the fiber that is used to create the product. This could be synthetic fibers, cellulose, cotton, or other natural fibers. It’s a stage that can take up to 12% of your product’s total footprint.

Cotton is sometimes referred to as the dirtiest fiber in the world – more than 16% of global insecticides are used for its production. Growing cotton for one jeans and one t-shirt takes 10.000 liters of water on average.

Organic cotton and other natural fibers can be a solution, but they account for less than 1% of global cotton industry.

cotton

Step 1

Step 2

Yarn Preparation

Processing the raw fibers to yarn is a process that requires a lot of energy. A lot of different machines are involved to process the unstable, irregular fibers and filament to a durable yarn. Processing yarn can take up to 23 % of your product’s total footprint.

yarn

Step 2

Step 3

Fabric Production

The knitting and weaving of yarn into fabric is a step in the production chain that takes a comparably little amount of energy. However, we often see that almost 10% of the impact of the apparel occurs in producing the fabric.

Fabric production_Apparel_Impact

 

Step 3

Step 4

Dyeing & Finishing

Dyeing and finishing accounts for more than 28% of the footprint of the apparel. It is the most energy intensive stage, as dyeing has a high energy demand due to wet processes which require large amounts of heated water. Many chemicals, such as bleach, are used in this step.

yarn

Step 4

Step 5

Assembly

We see that assembling apparel usually accounts for only 5% of the footprint of the apparel industry. It is labor intensive, but a lot of the labor is still conducted manually, and the energy requirements of the machines are more moderate. However, the social implications of manufacturing clothing are a prominent subject of dispute.

Assembly phase_Apparel_Impact

 

Step 5

Step 6

Distribution

The distribution and retail of the clothing we wear usually accounts only for 1% of the total footprint.

Distribution

Step 6

Step 7

Use Phase

The consumer use phase is where the product is handled, washed, repaired, and possibly passed on. The magnitude of this phase’s impact involves assumptions about consumer behaviors, which vary widely in the real world. However, many sources- including our own customers; show this can make up to 23% of your product’s total footprint! The main drivers are the energy and water consumption from washing, as well as energy-intensive drying.

 

Apparel: Use phase_impact

 

Step 7
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