SUSTAINABILITY EN VOGUE: HOW CAN THE FASHION INDUSTRY BEGIN TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABILITY?

Circularity and sustainability have become hot topics in the fashion industry, with corporations, brands, and designers all pledging to reduce their footprint, utilize more “natural” materials or even waste, and increase transparency. Despite not having methods to gauge and measure the sustainable impact of these commitments, fashion industry stakeholders strive to make and achieve incremental goals. Still, these stakeholders fail to consider the amassing amounts of textile waste that result from consumer practices in the fast fashion industry. Comparable sustainability measurements gauge the impact of sustainability initiatives and end of life alternatives allowing designers, brands, and corporations to plan for circularity and sustainability. This thesis explores the effectiveness of current sustainable impact measurements and proposes methods to improve the applicability of such calculators in driving sustainability transitions within the fashion industry. Through a literature review of academic life cycle assessments (LCA), this thesis examines the comparability and possible applications of comprehensive sustainability impact calculations on a sustainable, and more circular, future for the fashion industry. Sustainability advocates who expect major brands to stop production and corporations who rely on consumer behavior change to achieve sustainability outcomes alone are negligent; therefore, a measurement system would allow the industry to explore sustainability initiatives which integrate solutions across production, retail, and consumer use. Such measurements allow the fashion industry to plan for consumer use and offer alternatives to polluting processes which occur outside of the current ownership schemes. By mindfully choosing less impactful materials and utilizing alternative end of life options, the fashion industry may be able to begin achieving strong sustainability outcomes

Process-oriented Life Cycle Assessment framework for environmentally conscious manufacturing

Environmental concern requires manufacturers to extend the domain of their control and responsibility across the product's life cycle. Much of the research has concentrated on assessment of environmental performance through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework that provides a technical methodology to help identification of environmental impacts of product systems. However, the current LCA framework does not incorporate dynamic and diverse characteristics of manufacturing processes. As a result, the LCA's referential data will largely deviate from the real ones to an extent that the purpose of LCA is not meaningful. In other words, the current and fixed referential data-based method is not suitable to specify the impact categories related to manufacturing processes. From the perspective of decision making related with environmental impact during manufacturing, the current LCA method carried out in the off-line is hard to apply. As a result, performance index, such as greenability, a major performance index for environment conscious manufacturing cannot be implemented in the real practice. This paper presents the development of a framework (called process-oriented LCA) to realize environmental conscious manufacturing incorporating both greenability and productivity. To show the applicability and validity of this framework, experiments and analysis have been conducted and a prototype system has been implemented for a turning machining process

Process Oriented Life Cycle Assessment framework for environmentally conscious manufacturing

Environmental concern requires manufacturers to extend the domain of their control and responsibility across the product's life cycle. Much of the research has concentrated on assessment of environmental performance through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework that provides a technical methodology to help identification of environmental impacts of product systems. However, the current LCA framework does not incorporate dynamic and diverse characteristics of manufacturing processes. As a result, the LCA's referential data will largely deviate from the real ones to an extent that the purpose of LCA is not meaningful. In other words, the current and fixed referential data-based method is not suitable to specify the impact categories related to manufacturing processes. From the perspective of decision making related with environmental impact during manufacturing, the current LCA method carried out in the off-line is hard to apply. As a result, performance index, such as greenability, a major performance index for environment conscious manufacturing cannot be implemented in the real practice. This paper presents the development of a framework (called process-oriented LCA) to realize environmental conscious manufacturing incorporating both greenability and productivity. To show the applicability and validity of this framework, experiments and analysis have been conducted and a prototype system has been implemented for a turning machining process.1131sciescopu

The impact of direct digital manufacturing on supply chain operations, cost and environmental performance in an aerospace application

Industry 4.0 concepts, such as direct digital manufacturing (DDM), are expected to change the world, the society and the industry within the coming decades. This study explores the potential implications of DDM on supply chain operations by performing a case study. It assesses the impact of distributed production capabilities enabled by additive manufacturing (AM) on the life cycle cost and environmental impact in an aerospace application. It builds on a previous life cycle assessment (LCA) conducted by GE to compare the environmental impacts of using fuels nozzles produced via additive and conventional manufacturing over a future period of 30 years. Here, simulation models are developed to represent the aftermarket of the LEAP engine based on current and forecasted airline fleets for US and Canadian airline operators. Three supply chain operation scenarios are considered: (1) conventional manufactured at a central GE manufacturing plant at a high volume; (2) additive manufactured, high-volume at the same plant; and (3) de-centralized, low-volume, additive manufactured at 7 identified demand locations. 648 experiments were run to capture all relevant combinations of service levels, electricity mix, carbon pricing, and electric truck adoption. Production, distribution, and energy consumption were simulated based on information from publicly available sources. Environmental impacts on resource availability, climate change, human health and ecosystem quality were assessed using an integrated hybrid LCA model developed by the United States (US) Department of Defense (DOD). Data-envelopment analysis was used to benchmark the supply chain operation systems based on their cost, environmental and supply chain performance. Both additive production systems show stronger efficiencies than the traditional manufacturing system. The de-centralized system benefits from its flexibility and locations that already contain high amounts of renewable energy highlighting the significance of the site selection process. The centralized system requires inventory to be competitive but shows benefits due to economies of scale and strategic investments that would not be justified for smaller facilities. The applied methodology has shown plausible results over all experiments and can therefore be recommended for decision makers from private and public sectors for benchmarking their alternatives when considering cost and environmental criteria

Life cycle assessment of marine power systems onboard roll-on/roll-off cargo ships : framework and case studies

PhD ThesisA study into the environmental impact of marine power systems was performed in proximity with the defined research objectives: (i) present an overview on Annex VI The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, cargo ships, marine power systems and technologies; (ii) review life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology development; (iii) develop an LCA framework for marine power systems; (iv) carry out case studies to determine environmental impact, significant components and critical processes; (v) apply scenario analysis to investigate the sensitivity of the results to selected parameters; and (vi) compare power systems under study to verify their environmental benefits. Built upon literature and the proposed LCA framework, LCA case studies on conventional, retrofit and new-build power systems were performed using a bottom-up integrated system approach, where data were gathered and LCA models were created for individual technologies using GaBi software. Life cycle impact assessment was performed using CML2001, International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) and Eco-Indicator99 to estimate the environmental impact of the systems. It was found that disposing metal scrap of significant components was the principal cause of ecotoxicity potential, which was the impact category that showed the top two highest indicator results; and operating diesel engines and auxiliary generators or diesel gensets was mainly accounted for other impact categories. When compared with the conventional system, both retrofit and new-build systems consumed less fuels and released less emissions during operation but involved more materials and energy during other life cycle phases, leading to a decline in most impact categories to the detriment of a few burdens. The life cycle of marine power systems must be planned, managed and monitored appropriately for reduced environmental implications. Further research should address limitations presented in this study and explore other factors that might affect the environmental burdens of marine power systems.Research presented in this thesis was delivered for a European Commission funded FP7 project ‘INOvative Energy MANagement System for Cargo SHIP’ (INOMANS²HIP, grant agreement no: 266082)