Using life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental impacts of clothing consumption Assessing environmental impacts of clothing consumption for three different lifestyles

Abstract

This master’s thesis assessed the environmental impacts of clothing consumption and how these varied depending on lifestyle, with the aim of identifying environmental hotspots in the clothing value chain. The study applied a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to compare three different lifestyles: a slow fashion lifestyle, a modern Swedish lifestyle, and an ultra-fast fashion lifestyle. Environmental impacts were calculated for four selected garments and combined to represent total lifestyle impacts. The selected impact categories were climate change, water use, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, and land use. The results showed that the ultra-fast fashion lifestyle generated more than twice the environmental impact compared to the slow fashion lifestyle across all categories, due to higher consumption of new garments. The production phase was identified as the major contributor to all environmental impacts in the lifestyles, followed by the use phase, particularly user transport. A sensitivity analysis showed that shifting to second-hand clothing significantly reduced environmental impacts across all categories. In contrast, shifting to electric transport reduced climate change impacts but had no effect in other impact categories. Several methodological challenges were identified, particular related to data availability and the complexity of the online shopping value chains. Initiatives by the EU such as the Digital Product Passport may help to adress these challenges. The study highlighted the importance of consumer behaviour in reducing environmental impacts, such as reducing consumption and extending garment lifespans, and provided future recommendations for research.