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Domestic Energy Saving Potentials for Food and Textiles: An Empirical Study
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... Figure 1 gives a summary of previous literature reviews, from studies that report the lifespan length in years of use [4]. These studies are mainly based on consumer surveys [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] but include some wardrobe and inventory studies [18,19]. Average lifespan including all the garment categories was four years, but it varied greatly between different garments types. ...
... Independent variables are introduced in 4 blocks based on the theoretical background. The first block represents garment specific properties (variables 1-3), the second is the demographics of the user (variables 4-9), followed by garment use (variables [10][11][12][13][14][15], and finally the general clothing practices of the user (variables [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. For categorical variables, dummy coding was used to be able to compare each level of a variable to the omitted (reference) level. ...
... 18. Wardrobe size (number of garments, varied from 35 to 663). 19. Fashion interest (measured based on the level of agreement to the statement "I change fashion by season"-from 0 = completely disagree up to 4 = completely agree). ...
Increasing the length of clothing lifespans is crucial for reducing the total environmental impacts. This article discusses which factors contribute to the length of garment lifespans by studying how long garments are used, how many times they are worn, and by how many users. The analysis is based on quantitative wardrobe survey data from China, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the USA. Variables were divided into four blocks related respectively to the garment, user, garment use, and clothing practices, and used in two hierarchical multiple regressions and two binary logistic regressions. The models explain between 11% and 43% of the variation in clothing lifespans. The garment use block was most indicative for the number of wears, while garment related properties contribute most to variation in the number of users. For lifespans measured in years, all four aspects were almost equally important. Some aspects that affect the lifespans of clothing cannot be easily changed (e.g., the consumer's income, nationality, and age) but they can be used to identify where different measures can have the largest benefits. Several of the other conditions that affect lifespans can be changed (e.g., garment price and attitudes towards fashion) through quality management, marketing strategies, information, and improved consumer policies.
... Uitdenbogerd et al. (1998) studied domestic energy saving potential for food and textiles in the Netherlands. The material is based on oral survey and interviews of 104 households with children in 1997. ...
... Respondents over the age of 40 were slightly more likely to air woollen textiles than younger respondents . A Dutch consumer survey showed 26% of households said they aired textiles often, and these households washed on average 90 cycles less per year than the households that never or only sometimes aired (Uitdenbogerd et al., 1998). This confirms that airing is likely to reduce laundering frequency. ...
... In the Netherlands, the households report on average use of 3.3 different types of laundry products. For the detergents, 85% of the households have available heavy duty, 57% specialty, 41% colour, and 27% wool/silk detergent (Uitdenbogerd et al., 1998). ...
This report presents a literature review of clothing use phase. The purpose is to support improved methodological development for accounting for the use phase in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of apparel. All relevant textile fibres are included in the review. However, the main focus is on wool. We ask whether the use of wool has different environmental impacts than clothes in other fibres. The report builds on a review of literature from the past 20 years.
The review showed that clothing made from different materials are used, and reused in different ways. Wool is washed differently as it has about ten degrees lower washing temperature than the average laundry in Europe. Wool is also more likely to be
either dry-cleaned or washed by hand than other textiles. Moreover, when dried, it is less likely to be tumble-dried. When comparing the number of days between the washes of different types of clothes, we found that respondents were likely to use their woollen products about twice as long between washes compared to their equivalent cotton products. We also found that woollen products had a longer average lifespan and were more likely to be reused or recycled.
There is a lot of research-based information available concerning the use and re-use of clothing, and we believe there are sufficient results available on which to base LCA studies. Furthermore, we believe that environmental tools that compare different fibres but exclude use phase provide misleading results Including the use phase in fibre ranking benchmark tools will improve the rigour and accuracy of these tools for all fibres, compared to reporting results for fibre production only. However, we have also shown that there are several methodological, conceptual and empirical knowledge gaps in existing literature.
... In doing so, households draw upon resources from the environment/natural ecosystem. Household activities take place through the interface of available technologies, societal changes and household demands and habits (Uitdenbogerd, Brouwer & Groot-Marcus, 1998). These processes impact on the environment in several ways. ...
... These figures are based on the whole life cycle of foods, from the " cradle " to the shelf in the shops. Since as much as two thirds of the energy consumed for food supply is indirect, attention should be paid to food choices (Uitdenbogerd, Brouwer & Groot-Marcus, 1998). Most life cycle assessments (LCA) stop in the retail phase, often referred to as the end of the chain. ...
... Focusing on quantitative data alone would have helped this study with consumer experience analysis but relying on just surveys was not sufficient to showcase the business model. A collective workspace for the shared economy such as this case study of rental fashion industry might still be gaining its popularity but, looking at its rapid profit margin and increasing entrepreneur involvement in this sector it is certain that rental fashion can become even larger in the next decade [12]. Measurement of project satisfaction using fundamental criteria (time, cost, and quality) is still a challenge because SME platforms are one of the only places to find consumer reviews. ...
The influence of industry 4.0 have branched to the core of every circular sector including textile and fashion, even-though
the trend is constantly shifting in the fashion industry, the idea of consumers and manufactures responsibility check to man-made activities contribution to environmental waste is in huge debate. Regardless, of who takes the blames on fast fashion or
planned obsolescence products, certain entities have started taking advantages of industry 4.0 in product designing and product
lifespan extension to contribute to environmental sustainability. Willingly or otherwise, the idea of resource conservation does not
only apply to the environmental sustainability solely but also to managerial decision making and investment profitability. Many
surveys have pointed out how industry 4.0 empowered consumers through accessibility, which then materialized to open market
source, from business to consumer interaction platform with aid from AI and Big Data. Nevertheless, the new wave of social media
entrepreneur and philanthropies are changing the perspective of how fashion accessibility in the community can restructures a
subset of the industry if given a change. The article is particularly focus on how transitioning to Industry 4.0 promotes circular
product lifetimes M Ertz et al. in relation to textile-fashion industry, how community led outreach concepts like that of Rent-The Runway, Liquidity services, Green-closet, Style Theory etc., can provide economic sustainability and empower secondary market.
This shared economic platform emergence is promoting consumer experience through self-sustainable accountability, style,
practical and affordable options and is also encouraging second hand social buying experience.
... Respondents over the age of 40 are slightly more likely to air woollen textiles than younger respondents (6). A Dutch consumer survey showed 26% of households said they aired textiles often, and these households washed on average 90 cycles less per year than the households that never or sometimes aired (23). This confirms that airing is likely to reduce laundering frequency and reduce the environmental impacts of wool laundry. ...
This article discusses laundering practices around the world including alternative methods such as washing by hand, airing, steaming, and dry-cleaning. These methods, which have received little attention in research, are often more suited to products made of wool, silk or other materials able to be cleaned using gentler techniques than more commonly used fibers such as cotton and synthetics. The material is based on an extensive review of literature from the past 20 years and reanalysis of previously unpublished survey data. The results show that washing by hand is common and that is the main laundering method in most rural areas of developing countries, but also significant for a smaller proportion of laundry in developed countries. Dry cleaning is less common, and mainly used for specific clothing items. Simple method such as airing can reduce the washing frequency, and thus reduce the environmental impacts resulting from the cleaning of clothes. Full text available at: http://www.teknoscienze.com/tks_article/global-laundering-practices-alternatives-to-machine-washing/
Purpose
Garment production and use generate substantial environmental impacts, and the care and use are key determinants of cradle-to-grave impacts. The present study investigated the potential to reduce environmental impacts by applying best practices for garment care combined with increased garment use. A wool sweater is used as an example because wool garments have particular attributes that favour reduced environmental impacts in the use phase.
Methods
A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare six plausible best and worst-case practice scenarios for use and care of a wool sweater, relative to current practices. These focussed on options available to consumers to reduce impacts, including reduced washing frequency, use of more efficient washing machines, reduced use of machine clothing dryers, garment reuse by multiple users, and increasing number of garment wears before disposal. A sixth scenario combined all options. Worst practices took the worst plausible alternative for each option investigated. Impacts were reported per wear in Western Europe for climate change, fossil energy demand, water stress and freshwater consumption.
Results and discussion
Washing less frequently reduced impacts by between 4 and 20%, while using more efficient washing machines at capacity reduced impacts by 1 to 6%, depending on the impact category. Reduced use of machine dryer reduced impacts by < 5% across all indicators. Reusing garments by multiple users increased life span and reduced impacts by 25–28% across all indicators. Increasing wears from 109 to 400 per garment lifespan had the largest effect, decreasing impacts by 60% to 68% depending on the impact category. Best practice care, where garment use was maximised and care practices focussed on the minimum practical requirements, resulted in a ~ 75% reduction in impacts across all indicators. Unsurprisingly, worst-case scenarios increased impacts dramatically: using the garment once before disposal increased GHG impacts over 100 times.
Conclusions
Wool sweaters have potential for long life and low environmental impact in use, but there are substantial differences between the best, current and worst-case scenarios. Detailed information about garment care and lifespans is needed to understand and reduce environmental impacts. Opportunities exist for consumers to rapidly and dramatically reduce these impacts. The fashion industry can facilitate this through garment design and marketing that promotes and enables long wear life and minimal care.
Several tools have been developed to compare the environmental impact of textiles. The most widely used are Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI) and MADE-BY Fiber Benchmark. They use data from production to evaluate the environmental impacts of textiles differentiated by fiber type. The use phase is excluded from both tools. This article discusses whether there is evidence that the use of textiles differs systematically between different fiber types and examines the consequences of comparing the environmental impacts of clothing based on differences in production of fibers alone without including differences in their use. The empirical material in this paper is based on analysis of rating tools and a literature review on clothing use. It shows that fiber content contributes to the way consumers take care of and use their clothing. When use is omitted, major environmental problems associated with this stage, such as spread of microplastics, are also excluded. This one-sided focus on material production impacts also excludes the importance of product lifespans, quality, and functionality. The consequence is that short-lived disposable products are equated with durable products. Comparing dissimilar garments will not help consumers to make choices that will reduce the environmental burden of clothing. We need an informed discussion on how to use all materials in the most environmentally sustainable way possible.
Past studies have considered opportunities and barriers to sustainability in the fashion industry, or consumer perspectives and disposal behaviour, but few studies have explored a circular economy approach as a chance for business extension. There is a lack of research that examines luxury fashion, circular economy and entrepreneurship, showing how a circular economy could look. This study used a case study approach to observe and analyse the circular economy business model of Eileen Fisher (EF), New York. This study explores how the company has developed its take-back programme and how this programme led to the development of recycling operations at EF. In 2017, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from EF, representing different departments and operating at various functions in the company. Their responses were analysed according to a content analysis method to outline EF’s approaches to both luxury fashion and a circular economy additional data from the company was obtained. Results were summarized in an analysis of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to show advantages and challenges the company faces when introducing the circular economy concept. To better understand the operational processes, while visiting the recycling factory, a variation of a multi-moment recording procedure was conducted assessing the procedures of a particular operation occurring at a specific place over a specified duration to capture how the work was completed and in what ways (REFA-Methodenlehre 1978). The goal of this procedure was to compile a detailed description of the actual processing steps of all the work in the recycling facility, to discover challenges and risks. This chapter describes the effect of developing and implementing a circular economy approach at EF. The results indicate that a circular economy approach in the luxury fashion industry is possible and is beneficial to extended business, can generate revenue and reduce environmental degradation. This chapter explains that a circular economy approach in luxury fashion requires a company to produce luxury products that are timeless, high quality, durable and retail at a high price.
Sustainability is a major challenge for Riyadh City. Nearly all indicators tend to reveal a bleak future for the city if the current trends of resource consumption are allowed to go on. Forecasting methods that have been extensively used in urban planning research have shown little success to come up with sound policies to tackle sustainability issues. The problem with such technique lies in the fact that these forecasts are being built upon the current trends. Current trends and actions are part of the problem. Projecting them into the future would simply mean amplifying the problem and rendering it even worse and more complex. The backcasting approach is, therefore, required to deal with the issue of planning for sustainability. This approach consists of having an informed vision about the city's desired future in order to strategically deal with potential trade-off from different decisions. It shifts away from current trends and their associated problems to proceed towards a transitional state where a change in behaviors and lifestyles is needed to move society in the direction of sustainability. The results show excessive use of energy and land for residential use and car movement which may exert a huge burden on the city environment. When household categories were compared, those with higher socioeconomic status tend to be more spendthrift than their counterparts of lower SES. Income was found to account for much of the variance in energy requirements and also for food, water and washing expenditures. To tackle the issue of Riyadh sustainability, a visionary image for the city in the year 2020 must be set up. The target is to achieve a Factor 30 in environmental efficiency for the city to curtail the overgrowing environmental stress. To achieve this target, policies must be geared towards changing households consumption behaviors and lifestyles. Automobile trips must be kept to a minimum. For that, the physical plan layout of the remaining areas of the city must follow design principles that encourage pedestrian movements, promote means of public transport and reduce incentives to use the private car.
This paper presents results from a literature review on use phase of clothing with focus on wool. The aim of the review is to study if there is empirical grounding for assuming that the use phase is different for clothes made of different fibres, and if this information could be used in modelling the use phase. We will answer this question based on studies on wool, and see if use of woollen garments gives different environmental impact than use of garments made of other fibres.
The results show significant differences in how garments of different materials are maintained and used. Woollen garments are more likely to be either dry-cleaned or washed by hand than other textiles, and if washed in machine, the temperature is commonly about ten degrees lower than average washing temperature in Europe. Woollen garments are less likely to be dried in a clothes drier. Even the washing frequency differs, as woollen products are used about twice as many days between the washes than similar cotton products. The studies indicated that woollen garments had longer than average lifespans.
We conclude that fibre content contributes to the way consumers take care of and use their clothing, and should be taken into consideration in tools developed for comparing the sustainability of garments of various textile materials.
The environmental impact of laundering is dependent on the laundry methods used by households. This study investigates the relation between laundry methods (frequency, load size and wash temperature) and the composition of wash loads. Three definitions for the composition of wash loads are used: the respondent's classification and two objective definitions. These are constructed in two different ways from three specific characteristics of the textiles: colour, textile fibre and the type of article. The data are from a survey with a 2-week diary about laundry practices of 1026 Dutch households in 1990. The results show that all three definitions of the composition of wash loads can explain one factor of the laundry method, wash temperature; frequency and load size, however, are not influenced by the composition of the wash load.
Qualitative interviews were conducted with 25 users and 24 non-users of ecological foods to investigate cognitive schemata concerning ideal, regular and ecological foods. Data were collected and results analyzed from the perspectives of means-end chain theory and the theory of universal value domains. Hierarchical maps were constructed for both consumer groups by each of the three types of food
Weergave van de betekenis van internationale ontwikkelingen voor de toekomst van Huishoud- en Consumentenwetenschappen in Nederland