A normalização é uma importante etapa da Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida, uma vez que fornece uma unidade comum, permitindo a comparação das diferentes categorias de impacto. A referência de normalização mais utilizada considera o impacto das atividades totais da sociedade num certo período de tempo. Estes dados são inexistentes no Brasil para impactos regionais e locais, de forma que este trabalho objetivou iniciar o preenchimento dessa lacuna, com os fatores de normalização para as categorias \"acidificação\" e \"eutrofização\", no estado de São Paulo. Tais fatores foram calculados com base em um inventário das estimativas anuais de aporte ao meio ambiente de substâncias contribuintes para estas categorias, cuja realização possibilitou a análise do estado da arte desses impactos em São Paulo e dos setores responsáveis pela geração das substâncias contribuintes. Conforme esperado, os fatores (ou referências) de normalização encontrados foram diferentes daqueles por hora utilizados no Brasil, baseados em dados europeus. Entre as razões que explicam esta diferença estão a baixa emissão de \'SO IND.X\' devido a matriz energética brasileira, o uso de etanol com combustível e o despejo de esgoto sem tratamento (ou tratamento inadequado). / Normalization is an important step in Life Cycle Assessment as it provides a common unit, allowing the comparison of the different impact categories. The normalization reference most widely used considers the \"background\" impact from the total activities of society in a chosen reference period. These data are inexistent in Brazil for regional and local impacts so that this work aimed to begin filling this lack, first developing normalization factors for the categories \"acidification\" and \"eutrophication\" in the state of Sao Paulo. These factors were calculated from an inventory of the annual load to the environment of substances contributing to these categories; the production of this inventory allowed the analysis of a) the state of the art of these impacts in Sao Paulo and b) the sectors responsible for the generation of contributors. As expected, normalization factors (or references) were different from those currently used in Brazil, based on European data. Among the reasons for this difference are lower \'SO IND.X\' emissions due to the Brazilian energy matrix, the use of ethanol as fuel and disposal of sewage without treatment (or mistreatment).

The improvement of environmental impacts from production and consumption is an important sustainability target for Belgium, defined in federal and regional strategies for sustainable development. In order to monitor the implementation of sustainability targets a framework that can consistently link production and consumption and assess multiple environmental impacts such as climate change or resource use is needed. The most recognised method for the quantification of environmental impacts of product systems is life cycle assessment (LCA). Most LCAs focusing on production and consumption activities are carried out at national level. However, when regional differences in production and/or consumption structure exist, which is the case for Belgium, the use of more regionalised datasets and assessments seems more appropriate. This PhD thesis develops a multi-regional environmentally extended input-output model (EE-MRIOM) that can account for regional variation in production and consumption patterns and analyse environmental impacts of products from life cycle perspective. The model analysis three Belgian regions (Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia with a special focus on the latter) and their connections via trade flows with the rest of the world. The regional input-output tables (IOTs) of Belgium were linked to a global input-output database (EXIOBASE) and integrated into the LCA framework. The initial regional environmental data on major air emissions were extended by resource use and other emission data, so that a wide spectrum of potential environmental impacts can be analysed. The model represents all economic activities in 2003, 2007 and 2010 with a higher resolution in environmentally important sectors (e.g. energy, construction products, waste).The analysis of environmental impacts from production and consumption perspective confirms the relevance of the life cycle thinking approach, as, for example only 10 % of Walloon household environmental impacts are direct impacts and only 20 % of the Walloon production-related impacts occur on the regional territory. The results show that certain environmental impacts of production have decreased due to the economic crises and structural changes, while environmental impacts from household consumption have increased during the same period. Therefore, we conclude that only the joint improvement from production and consumption perspective will effectively reduce environmental impacts and particular efforts from the consumer side are needed. The regional comparison of impact intensities indicates significant regional variation for production, at economy scale, but also at product level. However, the results do not suggest a systematically lower or higher environmental impact intensity for a certain region. From the household consumption perspective, the results indicate low regional variation when comparing environmental impacts on a per habitant basis. Based on the results from the regional comparison of impact intensities, we conclude that there is no universal concept that could be transferred from one region to the other to improve environmental impacts. Instead, product-specific best cases at a regional scale must be identified in order to propose improvement options. For the Walloon region ‘priority products’, i.e. products or services that contribute significantly to a certain impact category in terms of total impact and impact intensities, are identified with the developed EE-MRIOM. Further model applications are demonstrated in this work such as comparative assessment within a priority sector, detailed sector analysis and scenario analysis to support the policy-making process. The developed model helps to identify most efficient measures to reduce environmental impacts from production and consumption perspective and suggests further methodological developments. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

As the pressure on the chemical and process industries to improve environmental and economic performance increases, the need to move away from narrow system definitions and concepts in environmental system management is becoming more apparent. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been a gaining wider acceptance as a holistic tool that enables quantification of environmental interventions and evaluation of the improvement options throughout the life cycle of process, product or activity. The stringent environmental legislation, especially in developing countries has warranted the need for intensive research in this field. Moreover, the capital cost for mitigation of emissions have put enormous pressure on the industries to reduce the overall process economic performance. This has not exempted the Pulp and Paper industry, being the producers of highly variable emissions quality and quantity are the prime candidates for the application of the technique. The application of the LCA in process selection has been necessitated by the fact that sometimes a technology intended to reduce wastes has created unanticipated impacts in other media and/or stages of the life cycle. Thus, LCA has been developed as a means to identify and deal with these impacts before they can occur. It differs from other pollution prevention techniques in that it views all the resource and energy inputs to a product (Life Cycle Inventory), as well as the associated wastes, health and ecological burdens (Impact Assessment), and evaluates opportunities to reduce environmental impacts (Improvement Analysis) from cradle to grave. LCA is often confused with other assessment tools, such as life cycle cost (LCC) or sometimes referred to as "environmental life cycle costing." This study was conducted at Mondi Packaging South African-Piet Retief Mill, a producer of linerboard, since this site has ample opportunity to minimse the environmental burden presented by operation of both Copeland Reactor and Boilers with significant emissions of SOx and NOx, and water effluent. The current mill strategy that is based on tight procurement specification of raw material is unsustainable. The environmental and economic performance analysis for this study followed from a mass balance of the pulp plant, power station, and paper machine as well as black liquor incinerating plant, and it was found that the most significant emissions come from pulp and steam generating processes. These emissions can be reduced by improving the mill energy efficiency and optimizing the Copeland scrubber absorption efficiency. The optimization of the Copeland scrubbing system will surely lead to improved environmental performance, however, the furnace stacks have to be modified to include the scrubbing system for absorption of SOx and NOx. / Dissertation (MEng (Chemical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

Climate change is connected to several negative effects on local environments around the globe such as, longer, and more intense droughts, less freshwater supplies, ocean warming, sea level rise, polar ice melting, more intense storms, and rainfall (NASA, 2021).  These problems are mainly due to the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as other greenhouse gases (GHG) which cause a similar or stronger climate change effect (WWF, 2021). Practically all climate researchers agree that climate change is caused by human activities (WWF, 2021), as such human activities will have to change to reduce their climate impact. One possible approach to achieve sustainable products is the concept of a circular economy (CE). The proponents of a circular economy describe it as an economic or industrial system which is restorative by its design (EMF, 2010). Currently there is a substantial body of knowledge on how LCA can be used to guide product design in a sustainable direction.  However, as of yet there are limited academic research focused on how environmental assessment can impact the design of Vertical Access Equipment (VAE) and of similar products. This thesis aims to support the VAE sector’s transition towards a CE. The objective of this study was to understand and provide improvement suggestions for the environmental performance and energy use of VAE. This Involved a case study where a LCA was conducted to establish a baseline of four VAE products, a construction hoist, a service lift, an industrial elevator, and a BMU. The results of the initial LCA varied greatly depending on the different products and their use case. Guided by the LCA results, semi-structured workshops were held to find feasible improvement suggestions whose impacts were investigated using LCA once more. Feasible and substantial improvements focusing on the products high impact areas were found for all products. For the construction hoist improvements regarding eliminating waste in the lifting work was most impactful, whilst the service lift required optimizing of maintenance and use of sensors to reduce the maintenance time. For the industrial elevator and the BMU, measures which focused on reducing virgin material extraction showed most promise, such as lifespan extension, remanufacturing, and use of recycled materials. / Mistra REES

Today global warming mitigation, natural resource conservation and energy saving are some of the significant concerns of different industries, such as cement and concrete industries. For that reason, a streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) model of one ton of a Portland cement, CEM I produced in Cementa AB’s Degerhamn plant, has been developed by using the LCA software KCL-ECO. LCA is a tool that identifies in which stages of a product’s life cycle the most environmental burdens occur. The environmental analysis was limited to identify total energy consumption and total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton of Portland cement. Results show that the most significant energy consumption and CO2 emissions are related to clinker kiln, due to the process of calcination of limestone and fuel combustion in the kiln. Of total CO2 emissions, 52 % and 46 % result from the calcination process and fuel combustion respectively.  One of the applications of CEM I is in construction of concrete bridges. Therefore an LCA model of a concrete bridge located north of Stockholm was developed in KCL-ECO. Environmental indicators calculated are: total CO2 emissions and energy consumption through the entire life cycle of the bridge. CO2 uptake or carbonation of the concrete during the service life of the product and end of life treatment is one of the advantages of concrete products. During the carbonation process, some of the total CO2 released from calcination will be absorbed into the concrete. Results indicate that production of raw materials and transports during the life cycle of the concrete bridge, are main contributors to total CO2 emissions. Among raw materials, cement production has the highest CO2 emissions. Energy consumption is mainly related to concrete and concrete products production. CO2 uptake during the use phase of the bridge is small compared to total CO2 emissions from calcination. Furthermore, the results show that different waste handling practises result in different CO2 uptake behaviours. The total CO2 uptake from crushing and storing of the demolished concrete (scenario 1) and landfilling of the demolished concrete (scenario 2) is 10 % and 5 % of the total CO2 emissions from calcination respectively.  Since comparison of different construction materials from an environmental point of view is always desirable, the LCA tool was used to compare the total energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from a concrete bridge and a wooden bridge. The functional unit was defined as 1 square meter of bridge surface area, since the bridges were of different sizes and shapes. In this comparison the total emissions and energy consumption were much higher for the concrete bridge than for the wooden bridge.  In order to show how different assumptions could affect the results, a virtual concrete bridge with the same shape and size as the wooden bridge was designed and compared with the wooden bridge. The functional unit selected for this case was one bridge. In this case the virtual concrete bridge requires less energy, while the wooden bridge emits less CO2 to the atmosphere. For the wooden bridge, CO2 in growing forests was included, which could be debated. Overall, a comparison of the environmental performance of the wooden bridge and the concrete bridges was more complex than initially expected and great care is recommended in choosing material and application. With concrete, the design (and quantity of material used) seems to be a very sensitive parameter and may result in much larger energy used and CO2 emissions than a wooden bridge. On the other hand, the virtual bridge comparison showed that concrete advantages such as higher durability and lower maintenance may be theoretically combined with a comparable energy and climate performance as a wooden alternative.

Concrete structures represent a huge investment in terms of materials and energy and they lead to significant environmental impacts. Thus, there is a need to choose the most sustainable and eco-friendly alternative. From this perspective, this report aims to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with the construction of two fictitious structures: a bridge and a tunnel. To fully assess and fairly compare the environmental burdens of those two structures, the life cycle assessment (LCA) has been chosen. Prior to the case studies, the LCA process is described and a literature review related to LCAs of road structures is performed thus revealing the key facts and key figures of such studies. Based on this literature review, a simplified LCA is performed; it relies on public databases and only takes into account the construction phase. Because of data constraints, the indicators that are considered are NOx, SO2 and CO2 emissions, and the categories that are taken into account are energy consumption, global warming potential and photochemical oxidant formation. Characterization factors come from the REciPE method. Three different stages are considered and compared during this LCA study; the production of materials, the construction processes and the transportation phase. Results show that the environmental impacts of the bridge are higher than the ones of the tunnel and that the amount of concrete has a strong influence on the final results and consequently on the interpretation phase. This study also emphasizes the importance of assumptions and describes their potential influence on the final results by considering two different alternatives related to the concrete’s manufacturing. Making the concrete directly on site instead of bringing it by truck significantly decreases the environmental impacts of both structures; indeed, for the bridge structure, it leads to a diminution in CO2 emissions, global warming potential and energy consumption by more than 60%. The main constraint of this study has been the data collection for the life cycle inventory; indeed, many data were missing or coming from different public databases which result in a lack of thoroughness and precision (e.g. different geographical representativeness). Results of this study strongly depend on the various assumptions and on the data that have been collected, and technical choices, methodologies of construction or structural design mainly depend on the project’s location; consequently, results and conclusions cannot be generalized and should be handled carefully.

In this thesis a future-world case was undertaken of the life cycle assessment (from cradleto grave) of a single-family house. The house is expected to be constructed by the end of2021 in Borlänge, a city located in Dalarna County. The aim of this study is to investigatewhether the building materials in external walls and roof surpass in terms ofenvironmental impacts compared with other building materials suggested by the authorsof this thesis.Six scenarios were evaluated in terms of the environmental impacts for two buildingelements, external wall, and roof. A base case scenario is taken into consideration foreach building element, considering the fact, that the thermal performance characteristicsof the building materials are comprehensively provided. Consequently, four scenarios aredetermined by the authors.One Click LCA program was used to calculate the environmental impacts of thebuilding materials through the lifecycle of the house during a time horizon of 50 years.Hemp fiber insulation material is planned to be used in the external walls; thus, it isconsidered the baseline case for this thesis. The first study is corresponded to the externalwalls, and it was found that glass wool insulation is more environmentally friendly thanhemp fiber and rock wool insulation.Wood material is planned to be used in the roof; thus, it is considered the baseline casefor this thesis. The second study is corresponded to the roof, and it was found that woodmaterial is more environmentally friendly than concrete and steel.Therefore, the suggested material by the authors surpasses the baseline case materialenvironmentally in respect of external walls, but this was not the case regarding the roof.

Finding innovative technologies for building our roads has always been of paramount importance. From moving to warm mix asphalt to decrease our indulgence in high energy consumption to substituting fly ash for asphalt binders to reduce dependence on pure asphalt binders from petroleum, engineers have painstakingly tried to develop new ways to improve the ways that flexible pavements are made. The major problem facing the next generation of civil engineers is sustainable practices on the field. Over the years, significant progress has been made in this regard on the impacts of building pavements on the environment. Characterizing these improvements tends to be difficult, and that is where Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comes in. LCA is a technique used to analyze and quantify the environmental impacts of a product, system, or process. LCA shows where the significant impacts occur and how improvements can be made while recommending better practices. Even with its many advantages, its use is very constrained, especially in the United States, as it is still a very novel approach in design coupled with limited datasets and protocol for its operation. With modern technologies of substitute materials for binders like bio-oil from food waste, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), and fly ash, there is a need to understand their environmental impacts. Furthermore, in this regard is where LCA can help using three significant areas: selection of materials, normalization, and characterization. Characterization refers to the identification and quantification of the relationships between the life cycle results and the environmental impacts. This research explores the environmental impacts of substituting other materials for asphalt binders using LCA. With variations in modifying levels of substitutes, results show promising levels in emissions of harmful gasses to both the air and water. This study explores ways used in normalizing this process as well as setting up a pathway for other asphalt binder substitutes. / Civil Engineering

To decouple ever-increasing production and the related environmental impacts, collaborative use of products and product-service-systems including rental services can help to intensify the use of products during their designed lifetimes. While these approaches present potential to decrease environmental impacts compared to traditional linear product sales, they need to be assessed with a holistic scope to avoid counterintuitive trade-offs. This study evaluates the potential environment impacts of Husqvarna’s tool rental service with a hypothetical case example from Stockholm, Sweden. The objectives are to analyse the potential environmental impacts of the rental service, to identify hotspots for improvement and to compare the potential impacts of the rental system to a sales alternative. The annual service of one electric chainsaw is analysed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology with different user scenarios. The potential impacts are analysed for global warming potential, fossil and mineral resource scarcity, marine ecotoxicity and human carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity. The analysis for the rental system shows that user transport back-and-forth to the rental service is a key contributor to all the environmental impacts analysed, if done by private cars. The comparative results to sales business model indicate that while the rental service can help to reduce the potential impacts in mineral resource scarcity and toxicities due to the lower number of products needed, the user transport may outweigh the potential improvements in global warming potential and fossil resource scarcity, depending on the distances and modes of transport. Different scenarios illustrate that the results are however sensitive to the assumptions made. Based on the results, it can be recommended to optimally place the service close to the users and to take efforts to reduce user transports around the service, to reach the environmental potential of the service. The sensitivity analyses also indicate the importance for accounting detailed data for LCAs for product-service-systems and covering the service holistically in system boundaries. Further studies on user behaviour are suggested to reach more robust analyses on consumer services, to cover also potential rebound effects. / Gemensam konsumtion av produkter kan minska dess miljöpåverkan, sett över produktens livstid, genom intensifiering av produktanvändning och minskad nyproduktion. Även om detta koncept har potential att minska miljöpåverkan, jämfört med traditionell linjär produktförsäljning, måste det granskas på ett systematiskt sätt. Denna studie utvärderar den potentiella miljöpåverkan av ett verktygshyrningssystem av Husqvarna med ett hypotetiskt exempel från Stockholm, Sverige. Målen är att analysera den potentiella miljöpåverkan av hyrestjänsten, identifiera förbättringspunkter och jämföra de potentiella effekterna av hyressystemet med ett försäljningsalternativ. Miljöpåverkan av en motorsåg under ett år är analyserad genom livscykelanalysmetod med olika scenarier. Analysen för hyressystemet visar att den högsta miljöpåverkan kommer från transporten av användare fram och tillbaka till hyresdepån, om transporten är gjord med personbilar. Resultaten indikerar att hyrestjänsten kan bidra till att minska potentiella effekter av mineralresursbrist och toxicitet, jämfört med försäljningsmodellen, på grund av det lägre antal producerade produkter. Hyrestjänsten kan dock riskera att öka växthuseffekten och påverkan på fossilresursbrist, beroende på transportens längd och transportsätt. Olika scenarier illustrerar att resultaten är känsliga för andantagen. Resultaten visar att det kan rekommenderas att placera tjänsten optimalt nära användarna och att försöka minska användartransporten runt tjänsten för att nå tjänstens optimala miljöpotential. Känslighetsanalyserna indikerar också att detaljerade data och omfattande systemgränser är viktiga med LCA studier om produktrelaterade tjänster. Ytterligare studier om användarbeteende föreslås för att nå mer robusta analyser av konsumenttjänster, för att utvärdera även potentiella rekyl-effekter.

Jeans is a clothing segment that has had a lasting popularity over many years. The intenseproduction of jeans has led to a discussion on the environmental effects that the jeanscontribute to. Cotton, which is the main material used to make jeans, is a water and chemicalintensive crop which today is involved in discussions on whether there are other moresustainable alternatives to conventional cotton. Organically grown cotton does not usesynthetic fertilizers, pesticides or growth regulators, which has made many people andcompanies believe it is a more sustainable alternative to conventionally grown cotton. J.Lindeberg is a Swedish fashion company which produce jeans made from bothconventional and organic cotton today, however, they have a goal to increase the use oforganic cotton to decrease the negative environmental effects from the jeans. Therefore, thismaster thesis aims to determine if jeans made from conventional or organic cotton has ahigher environmental performance. This is done by taking environmental effects through theentire life cycle into account by making a life cycle assessment of two pairs of jeans made byJ.Lindeberg, Jay Devout made from conventional cotton and Jay Solid Stretch made fromorganic cotton. To reach the aim, three research questions are formulated: Which style of jeans, Jay Devout or Jay Solid Stretch, has the highest potential lifecycle environmental performance? Will the change from conventional cotton to organic cotton in the jeans align with thesustainability goals set by J.Lindeberg? Are there any possible risks or trade-offs associated with the shift from conventionalto organic cotton? The LCA was performed with data from four supplying companies of J.Lindeberg and theresults show that Jay Devout, made from conventional cotton, have a higher environmentalperformance when including the entire life cycle. However, the impacts from the productionis not dependent on the cotton being conventional or organic and therefore, to conclude ifJ.Lindeberg is making the right choice by changing from conventional to organic cotton, thecomparison should only include the cotton cultivation phase. When comparing the cottoncultivation phase of the conventional and organic systems, the results show that the organiccotton has a higher environmental performance. This suggests that the change fromconventional cotton to organic cotton will in fact contribute to lower negative environmentalimpacts. Furthermore, the change from conventional to organic cotton aligns with most of thesustainability goals set by J.Lindeberg. Jay Devout, made from conventional cotton, had a higher negative impact on most of theimpact categories connected to toxicity, which supports the choice of changing to organiccotton, since J.Lindeberg has a goal to reduce the chemicals in their products. Overall, thetwo jeans performed differently on different impact categories, however a similarity is thatthe production phase is a hotspot for both jeans. There is a risk of trade-offs regarding theimpact categories water consumption, global warming and fossil resource scarcity whenincluding all phases of the life cycle, and to avoid this, increased transparency andtraceability is required in the supply chain to enable thorough sustainability work. Arecommendation is to demand the use of renewable sources for electricity production in allsteps of the life cycle, since this decrease the environmental impacts, especially from theproduction phase. / Jeans är det mest sålda klädesplagget i världen, och har haft en ihållande popularitet undermånga år. Den intensiva produktionen har väckt diskussioner om vilken miljöpåverkan somjeans bidrar till. Bomull är det material som främst används i jeans och odlingen av bomullkräver generellt stora mängder vatten och kemikalier. Detta har lett till sökandet av ett merhållbart alternativ till den konventionella bomullsodlingen. Ekologiskt odlad bomull odlasutan tillsatser av konstgjorda gödningsmedel och insektsmedel vilket gör att det blivit kändsom ett mer hållbart alternativ till konventionell bomull. J.Lindeberg är ett svenskt modeföretag som säljer jeans gjorda av både konventionell ochekologisk bomull idag. De har ett mål att öka användningen av ekologisk bomull i sina jeansför att minska de negativa effekterna på miljön. Målet med denna masteruppsats är därför attta reda på om jeans gjorda på konventionell eller ekologisk bomull har bättre miljöprestanda.En jämförelse av två par jeans från J.Lindeberg, Jay Devout gjorda av konventionell bomulloch Jay Solid Stretch gjorda av ekologisk bomull är gjord med hjälp av verktygetlivscykelanalys, LCA. En LCA är gjord för att inkludera alla miljöeffekter som jeansen bidrartill genom hela dess livscykel. Tre forskningsfrågor är formulerade för att uppfylla målet meddenna masteruppsats: Vilken av jeansen Jay Devout och Jay Solid Stretch har den högsta potentiellamiljöprestandan? Kommer bytet från konventionell bomull till ekologisk bomull stämma överens medde hållbarhetsmål som J.Lindeberg har satt upp? Finns det risk för högre miljöpåverkan på någon miljökategori vid bytet avkonventionell till ekologisk bomull? Data från fyra leverantörer till J.Lindeberg har använts för att genomföra denna LCA ochresultatet visar att Jay Devout, som är tillverkad av konventionell bomull, har högremiljöprestanda då hela livs cykeln är inkluderad. Eftersom att bomullsodlingen är den endafasen som beror på om bomullen är ekologisk eller konventionell, kan endast påverkan fråndenna fas avgöra vilken typ av bomull som har högst miljöprestanda. När de två jeansenjämförs med avseende på endast bomullsodlingen, visar resultatet att den ekologiskabomullen har högst miljöprestanda. Detta gör att slutsatsen kan dras att bytet frånkonventionell bomull till ekologisk bomull kommer bidra till en lägre negativ miljöpåverkanfrån jeansen. Jay Devout, tillverkad av konventionell bomull, har större negativ påverkan på de flesta avkategorierna som är kopplade till toxicitet, vilket talar för beslutet att byta till ekologiskbomull då J.Lindeberg har ett mål att minska användningen av kemikalier i sina produkter.Sett till hela livscykeln så påverkar jeansen de 17 miljöpåverkanskategorierna olika men enlikhet är att produktionen generellt har den största påverkan. Implementeringen av ekologiskbomull stämmer till viss del överens med de hållbarhetsmål som J.Lindeberg har satt upp,men inte alla. Det finns en risk för att global uppvärmning, fossil resursanvändning ochvattenanvändning påverkas mer av bytet från konventionell till ekologisk bomull, sett till helalivscykeln, och för att undvika detta krävs transparens och spårbarhet i distributionskedjan föratt heltäckande hållbarhetsarbete kan utföras. En rekommendation är att användaförnyelsebara energikällor genom hela livscykeln för att minska miljöpåverkan, vilket harsärskilt stor påverkan i produktionen.