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EDIPTEX - Environmental assessment of textiles 1 Introduction
In their daily work, enterprises meet environment requirements at many levels. This could be in connection with preparation and documentation of environmental approvals; purchasers' and end-users' demand for environmental documentation; certification in accordance with environmental management standards; or documentation for approved ecolabels. The message in both the Danish EPA's report on product-oriented environmental efforts (Danish EPA, 1998) and "Industri og miljø" (industry and environment, published by the Confederation of Danish Industries, 1997) is that there is a need to be able to environmentally assess the products using a recognised assessment method and a data basis that makes such environmental assessment possible. The EDIP method is a nationally as well as internationally recognised assessment method, developed under the five-year programme Environmental Design of Industrial Products. A PC calculation tool and a database support the methodological basis. The EDIP database contains approx. 250 unit processes that form the data basis for modelling a product's lifecycle and the associated environmental impacts during the entire lifecycle – from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, the EDIP database did not initially contain data specifically about textile production processes. An EDIP database supplemented by data for significant parts of the lifecycle of textile products will be of great value for enterprises wishing to use the environment actively in dialogue with their customers, suppliers and other important stakeholders. However, as a basic requirement for the environmental information given about a product is that the information be objective, well-documented and live up to the international consensus about lifecycle assessment – i.e. cradle to grave considerations – it takes a long time to establish such a database. The main part of the lifecycle is common for many textile products, e.g. energy generation, transport processes, production of raw materials, certain production processes, washing and ironing in the use phase and incineration during disposal. Therefore, sector-specific environment data in the EDIP database may help the enterprise. Such basic data have been established during the EDIPTEX project. All data are now also available in the PC tool GaBi-EDIP – the successor of the EDIP PC tool. 1.1 Background for the projectAt sector seminars in 1996 and 1997, enterprises in the textile sector expressed great interest in being able to apply the EDIP method in their environmental work. However, at that time the EDIP method's calculation tool and the associated unit process database did not contain data for processes in the lifecycle of textile products. 1.2 Objective of the projectThe overall objective of the project was to collect data for significant processes during the lifecycle of textiles. The project also had to demonstrate the usefulness of the EDIP method when preparing lifecycle assessments for six selected textile products. 1.3 Project organisationThe project group members were: Søren Ellebæk Laursen and John Hansen, Danish Technological Institute (Textile); Hans Henrik Knudsen, Institute for Product Development (IPU) at the Technical University of Denmark; and Henrik Fred Larsen, DHI Water & Environment (now at the Institute for Product Development). Moreover, the following people participated in the project: Henrik Wenzel, Marianne Wessnæs, Stig Irving Olsen, Rasmus Friche and Lene Gottrup, all from the Institute for Product Development; and Frans Møller Christensen, Danish Toxicology Centre. During the reporting phase, Christine Molin from the Institute for Product Development participated in the work on preparing and editing the report. Niels Frees, Institute for Product Development contributed with quality assurance of the chapters that specifically deal with unit processes. The steering group and, in particular, the EDIPTEX enterprises have participated significantly in the creation of the project results. 1.4. Report compositionChapters 1-5 of the report deal with data collection and preparation of unit processes, supplemented by background papers in the annexes on management of chemicals in EDIPTEX (including calculation of equivalency factors) and data on cotton cultivation, spinning and buttons/zippers. Background knowledge about other materials and processes in connection with textile production was already available at the participating institutions, and it has been reported and described in a number of projects carried out for the Danish EPA over the years. Chapter 6 introduces the data basis for the six environmental assessments. The six textile case stories are in annexes and can be read separately.
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