Organising for Efficient Environmental Assessment : A Case Study on Cotton Fabric Production

Abstract: The textile industry is one of the most polluting industries globally and needs to change to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Cotton fabric constitutes approximately 50% of all textiles. Its production is complex, and it is crucial to map all its processes to assess the environmental impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a common tool to execute this, and there are software tools to simplify the conduction. However, the complexity of textile production, especially the pretreatment process, makes the assessments time-consuming. Therefore, this thesis examined how the environmental assessment of the cotton fabric could be more efficiently organised. The study was an exploratory single case study at a large furniture company. To pursue, the literature processed the topics of designing and producing cotton fabric, environmental assessment of cotton fabric, and organising environmental assessment. The results and analysis were formulated into the three themes: organising environmental assessment, environmental data management, and circularity. Also, the environmental data from the pretreatment process was presented. The discussion of the findings resulted in some conditions to organise for a more efficient environmental assessment of cotton fabric and applicable to other products. Based on the literature and empirics, the conditions were concluded in requirement, development, and potential. In general, the need for an extended LCA tool which enables comparison of processes and includes all sustainability aspects was discovered. Further, to organise the execution of environmental assessment more efficiently, the study clarified the importance of increasing communication and transparency. Meanwhile, extending the data management authority to experts in the textile department to relieve the environmental department.