Introduction

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most commonly used tools to analyze the
environmental impacts of a product from its cradle-to-grave stages. Variants of these
stages include cradle to gate and cradle to cradle. LCA is also used to analyze the envi-
ronmental impacts of processes and services. The International Organization for Stan-
dardization (ISO) has a dedicated series of standards for LCA. LCA is a four-step
process, namely goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact
assessment and life cycle interpretation. LCA is gaining momentum these days and
its applicability keeps increasing in many industrial sectors. With LCA, one can mea-
sure any environmental impact indicator such as carbon footprint, ecological footprint,
water footprint, eutrophication, acidification and human toxicity. In addition, as a
methodological point of view LCA is constantly growing and to date there have
been numerous important developments. LCA has crossed many milestones and
now is a well-defined tool.
While I was writing my previous book for the Woodhead Publishing Series in
Textiles entitled Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Textiles and the Clothing
Supply Chain, I had this idea of bringing out a dedicated handbook for LCA in textiles.
Though the previous book dealt with the environmental impacts of textiles keeping
LCA as a crux, still there is a dire need to have a dedicated handbook on LCA of
textiles and clothing and hence the reason for this book. Textiles and clothing
products having a lengthy supply chain demand LCA to assess the environmental
impacts made by them in different phases of their life cycle. However, due to the
complexity of a lengthy supply chain and accounting for all the elements pertaining
to life cycle inventory, data collection, modelling aspects, etc., it is a bit challenging
to conduct an LCA study for a clothing product taking into account the entire supply
chain and again the entire life cycle. There are many other difficulties added to the
above such as the availability of data and databases dedicated to textiles, know-how
on LCA models to apply in textiles, and so on, which were all discussed in detail in
my earlier book. Notwithstanding all these, LCA practitioners still make earnest efforts
to conduct LCA studies in textiles.
There are a lot of product sectors under the umbrella of textiles and even with each
product sector, there are umpteen numbers of developments happening day by day.
There are numerous process innovations and product innovations constantly evolving
in the field of textiles. One can see an ample amount of new fibres, new materials and
innovative processes to attain sustainable development in the field of textiles. Consid-
ering the volume of all these innovations day by day and counting even the existing
xxii Introduction

(traditional) materials, processes and product sectors, the current number of LCA
studies in the world of textiles and clothing is minimal and there is a long way to
go. In my view, every innovation should have an LCA element to appreciate the dif-
ferences in terms of environmental impacts from the conventional ones.
As I have been constantly saying in all my publications for the past 7 years, there is
a dearth of LCA studies considering the entire spectrum of the textile world and I am
sure I need not obviate the need to have an LCA study for clothing products here.
Some of the challenges pertaining to data availability and so on will be addressed if
there are a plenty of studies on the shelf on LCA of textiles. This book in my list of
books is also an attempt towards it. When I framed the contents, I framed with still
more chapters than this book presently has. However, due to the difficulty in locating
the experts to write chapters, many chapters were dropped. This again indicates the
scarcity of experts/researchers working in this important area. Albeit this difficulty,
this book is sprouting out with very important elements of LCA in textiles with
detailed chapters split into two parts namely Key indicators and processes in LCA
and Applications of LCA in the textile industry. Each chapter is detailed enough
and covering all the aspects pertaining to LCA of textiles and clothing.
The first part of the book presents key indicators and processes in LCA, consisting
of methodological, modelling aspects of LCA in textiles. The main areas covered
include carbon footprints in the textile industry, energy footprints in the textile
industry, ecological footprints in the textile industry, measuring the reusability of
textile products, environmental impacts of the use phase of the clothing life cycle,
open- and closed-loop recycling of textile products, life cycle assessment and
certification of textiles and clothing and environmental impact assessment methods
for textiles and clothing.
The second part of the book presents applications of LCA in the textile industry,
consisting of case studies of LCA in many textile products/textile sectors. Chapters
deal with the applications, methodological issues, challenges and future outlook of
LCA in different sectors of textiles and clothing. There is also discussion of LCA of
cotton textiles and clothing, LCA of woolen textiles and clothing, LCA of silk textiles
and clothing, comparative LCA of natural and synthetic textiles, LCA of cotton
shopping bags, LCA of fibre-reinforced composites, life cycle assessment and the
environmental and social labels in textile and clothing industry, and clothing disposal
phase – environmental benefits of reuse and recycling.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the contributors who have made this
handbook an important reference in this field. I hope that this book will be of great
benefit to all the students, researchers, industrialists and others who work in LCA/
sustainability of the textiles and clothing sector.
S.S. Muthu
Global Sustainability Services, SGS Hong Kong Limited,
Hong Kong