A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Nudie Jeans’ Repair and Reuse Concept
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2019
Författare
Saric, Mate
Nellström, Maja
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
As one of the largest and most polluting industries, the fashion industry plays a
significant role regarding the ongoing degradation of the environment. Nudie Jeans
is a Swedish denim company that has taken an active approach by contesting the
current paradigm of producing fast fashion, which contributes to the throwaway society,
which in turn contributes to polluting the environment. Instead, they focus
on giving their jeans a narrative, where ageing and letting the jeans break in is
encouraged by the means of their Repair and Reuse concept.
This Master’s thesis has investigated to what extent this concept helps mitigate
environmental impacts with respect to a studied pair of Nudie Jeans entire life cycle
using the Life Cycle Assessment method with the help of the LCA software GaBi.
A linear case, where the studied jeans were assumed to be discarded after their
functional life time had expired, was compared to a circular case, which assumed an
extension of the functional life time through repairing and reusing the jeans three
times. These two cases where compared with regard to the environmental impact
they cause per year that they are worn.
According to the results, the environmental impact decrease by extending the life
time of the jeans. Thus, for each added event of reuse, the environmental load associated
with the life cycle of the studied pair of Nudie Jeans decrease. However, the
decrease occurs at an increasingly lower rate late with increasing number of reuses.
Active measures that can be taken in order to further reduce the Repair and Reuse
system includes decreasing the environmental impact related to maintenance of the
jeans and repairing the jeans. For example, decreasing the frequency of washing
and tumble drying will decrease the environmental impact. Moreover, the paper
bag that customers get when they repair their jeans at a Repair Shop, were identified
to be a considerable source of environmental impact with regard to the Repair
stage of the Repair and Reuse concept.
Valuable insights were identified, which indicate that Nudie Jeans is contributing
to mitigating environmental impact within the fashion industry by promoting their
Reuse and Repair concept. The results of this study imply that considerable environmental
impact could be mitigated if more actors in the fashion industry implement
an approach similar to Nudie Jeans’ Repair and Reuse concept.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Nudie Jeans , Repair and Reuse , Life Cycle Assessment , Circular Economy , IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute