OEKO-TEX® Impact Calculator

Does the OEKO-TEX® Impact Calculator calculate a facility's CO2 emissions or all greenhouse gases (GHG)?

• The Impact Calculator covers all greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, PFCs, HFCs, SF6, NF3)
• We could call it the "Greenhouse Gas and Water Footprint Calculator". However, "Carbon Footprint" is used interchangably and more commonly
• To compare the contribution of each GHG, we convert all GHGs to CO2 equivalent (CO2e)

How is CO2e calculated?

• Activity Data x Emission Factor = CO2e

Why is an accurate, baseline emission measurement so important?

• You can't reduce what you can't measure
• The baseline shows the hotspots, helps prioritize reduction activities and provides starting point for tracking improvements

• Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol - IPCC 2013 100a approach for calculating carbon emissions (CO2e)
• EU Commission - AWARE methodology to measure the water impacts (m3)
• World Apparel and Footwear Database (WALDB) and ecoinvent database
• Elements of the product LCA to measure the impacts of material output
• Elements from the Corporate LCA to measure the overall facility level impact

Data from the calculations will be used to continuously improve the tool.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a framework for analyzing potential environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle of a product (or service), many based on ISO 14040 and 14044 standards.

There are three LCA types:

• Product LCAs measure the impacts of a single product throughout its value chain

• Comparative LCAs weigh the impacts of products (e.g. T-Shirt made of cotton vs. viscose)

• Corporate LCAs assess an organization’s entire footprint and usually focus only on carbon (not water) footprint

The OEKO-TEX® Impact Calculator combines elements of all three, customised to the textile industry.