A systematic review of the life cycle inventory of clothing

The clothing industry is a significant contributor to environmental degradation. Many life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have been conducted to analyse its environmental impacts, however the majority of studies focus on either just one or a few stages of the product life cycle, and/or on a specific type of product. Therefore, easily accessible life cycle inventory (LCI) data that can be used in decision making by practitioners and researchers are lacking. This study addresses this gap. By collating data through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, it provides LCI data on energy use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions for a range of materials across all stages of the life cycle on a consistent basis. A framework is developed that groups each material at each life cycle stage according to the intensity of its energy and water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis revealed that the raw material extraction stage generally has the highest environmental impact. In this life cycle stage, flax is the virgin fibre with the lowest environmental impacts, recycled cotton is the recycled fibre which has the lowest environmental impacts and Indian silk is found to have the highest impacts. The review identifies the gaps in the availability of LCI data and provides recommendations for LCA studies to address these gaps, as without comprehensive data, robust decisions cannot be made. The results presented in this paper must be looked at in the wider context of consumption: the best way to reduce impacts is to reduce consumption. However, noting that production cannot be reduced to zero, the results of this study will aid pro-environmental decision making by stakeholders of the fashion industry, such as designers and consumers, as well as being of use to researchers.