Textile LCA: measuring a garment’s real impact

What is a textile LCA?

Life cycle assessment is an environmental evaluation method standardised by ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. It quantifies inputs (materials, energy, water) and outputs (emissions, waste, effluents) associated with a product across its entire life cycle.

For a garment, that cycle is usually split into five stages:

An LCA always refers to a functional unit: for example "wearing a size 4 girls' dress for two years". That unit is what makes two products comparable — and it is the first thing to check whenever someone shows you an impact figure.

Why brands ask for it

Three regulatory drivers explain the rise in LCA requests to manufacturers:

1. The CSRD directive requires a growing number of European companies to publish environmental indicators covering their value chain, including scope 3 — which, for a fashion brand, is where most of the footprint sits: at its suppliers.
2. The French textile environmental labelling scheme relies on an LCA-type methodology to score garments placed on the market.
3. The European ecodesign regulation (ESPR) and the digital product passport foresee structured product data, including impact data.

In that context, the question asked of a manufacturer changes in nature. It is no longer about demonstrating social compliance or a material certification, but about supplying measured activity data: kWh per piece, m³ of water, energy mix, cutting waste rate, real transport distances and modes. That is data collection work, not a sales pitch.

Also read: textile traceability for European brands and guide to textile certifications.

What LCA measures in garment making

The garment-making stage rarely accounts for the majority of a garment's impact — fibre production and finishing usually weigh more. But it is the stage where a manufacturer holds direct, actionable data.

What we can document workshop by workshop:

• Energy: electricity consumption per line, share of on-site solar generation, thermal consumption of pressing and washing equipment.
• Water: volumes used in washing and dyeing, rainwater harvesting, effluent treatment.
• Material: cutting waste rate at marker making, offcut valorisation (upcycling, patchwork), quality reject rate.
• Transport: actual modes and distances between port of shipment and customer destination, share of air freight.
• Consumables: threads, trims, packaging, polybags and cartons.

These indicators then feed the LCA model. Independently of any LCA, they also support concrete reductions: optimising a cutting marker to gain material yield has a measurable effect from the very first order.

See also: garment ecodesign and our sustainability approach.

Primary data vs generic databases

This is what separates a useful LCA from a decorative one.

An LCA can be built on secondary data: averages drawn from databases (Ecoinvent, Base Empreinte, PEF). It is fast, inexpensive, and produces a result reflecting an average factory in an average country — so not yours.

It can also integrate primary data: real measurements collected at the production site. That takes longer, it assumes the manufacturer keeps meters and agrees to share them, but the result becomes representative and defensible before an auditor or a supervisory authority.

In practice, a serious textile LCA is hybrid: primary data on the stages under control, documented and justified generic data elsewhere. What matters is that the report explicitly states the origin of each data point and the associated uncertainty level.

Limits to be aware of

An LCA is not an absolute truth, it is a model. Four limits are worth knowing before communicating results:

• Scope drives the result. A cradle-to-gate LCA and a cradle-to-grave LCA are not comparable. The use phase, washing in particular, weighs heavily on some products.
• Use assumptions are conventional. The number of wash cycles, the assumed lifespan and the reuse rate are chosen parameters, not observations.
• LCA does not cover social aspects. Working conditions, wages and safety fall under social audits (BSCI, WRAP, ICS), not LCA.
• A carbon-only view is reductive. A garment can show a low carbon footprint alongside high water use or ecotoxicity. A complete LCA report presents several indicators.

The communication rule that follows is simple: publish the methodology, scope and functional unit alongside the figure. A figure without methodology is not usable — and, since the green claims directive, it exposes the brand.

Our approach with OffCarbon

Running an LCA is not a garment maker's job. It belongs to a specialised consultancy able to build the model, select relevant emission factors and document assumptions in an auditable way.

For that we work with OffCarbon, a French consultancy specialised in life cycle assessment and carbon footprint measurement. The split of roles is clear:

• LOI Confection collects and supplies primary production data: energy consumption per workshop, solar share, water volumes, material waste rates, real logistics data.
• OffCarbon builds the LCA model, applies the standard methodology, computes indicators and produces a report the client brand can use.
• The brand then holds data consistent with its reporting obligations and environmental labelling.

This approach builds on levers already in place in our workshops: on-site solar generation, rainwater harvesting, textile offcut valorisation. The point of an LCA is not to produce a marketing argument, but to identify where the gains actually are — and often to confirm they sit upstream of garment making, at the material choice stage.

If you are working on impact calculation for a collection, we can set up a three-way discussion with OffCarbon to frame the scope and the list of data to collect.