What's Your Clothing's Footprint?

Up to 75 or 80 percent of our clothing's lifecycle impact comes from washing and drying, because it takes so much energy to heat the wash water and run the drying cycle. That means that, though it's typically the largest impact, there's lots of room to make the process greener.

Read more:
How to Go Green: Laundry
Beat the Heat, Wash in Cold

Yep, in addition to a huge reduction in pesticides, organic cotton also requires less water. A conventional producer of cotton requires 3000 cubic meters of water per acre more than the organic farmer.

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Organic Cotton: For Clothing , Baby, Bedding and More
U.S. Land Devoted to Organic Cotton Increases

According to Patagonia's Footprint Chronicles—the life cycle assessment process they're using to measure the impact of their garments—a pair of Wavefarer Board Shorts travels 10,785 miles, from fabric sourcing in Japan, manufacturing in Thailand, to their distribution center in Reno, Nevada. That same pair of shorts racks up a carbon footprint of about 18 pounds, and uses almost 20 kilowatt hours of electricity.

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Patagonia Add Five Products to Footprint Chronicles
Learn What Goes into Your Clothes

According to this German study, (here's an English translation of the numbers) sea freight is the greenest shipping method, though there are ranges of carbon emissions for each method, depending on factors like space efficiency (how full each ship is, for example) and the like. Though there is some overlap in the numbers—train shipping can be pretty efficient—sea freight usually comes out on top. Sorry, zeppelin fans.

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Shipping vs Airfreight revisited: Some more considerations
Commercial Shipping Particle Air Pollution = Half of That From All the Cars in the World

Though lots of cargo fits on air freighters, the slower the shipping, in general, the greener it is. Air freight emits about five times as much carbon dioxide, per pound of material shipped, compared to truck freight. Rail freight is even more efficient—about twice as efficient as trucks, on average—but, sadly, train shipping isn't often an option for consumers at the point of sale.

Read more:
How to Offset the Carbon Emissions of Shipping Your Online Purchases
Online Shopping vs. Driving to the Mall: The Greener Way to Buy

According to the Council for Textile Recycling, 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste, which includes anything made of fabric, is annually collected and prevented from entering directly into the waste stream. This represents almost 10 pounds for every person in the United States, but is still just 15 percent of all textiles tossed each year.

Read more:
Ask Summer Rayne: What Can I Do With Clothes I No Longer Want?
Clothing Libraries: Another Product Service System

While textile recycling has come a long way in recent years, a viable method to recycle nylon—a petroleum-based fabric—came most recently to the clothing industry. In a process that took 17 years, garment company Patagonia first initiated audits of their textiles, and then developed processes to recycle and reuse them. In-store polyester started in 2005, and nylon is now on board.

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Patagonia Sell First Recyclable Nylon Shell Garments
Eco-Tip: Mini Directory of Green Fabrics

Mulesing is the grisly-sounding practice in which a layer of skin around the animal's rear end is removed to help prevent disease. Certain breeds of sheep are susceptible to "fly strike," whereby flies lay eggs in the skin of the sheep, which hatch and literally eat the animal from inside—yikes! While some folks think mulesing helps insuring the long-term health of wool-producing sheep, animal welfare advocates tend to disagree. So if you care about the health of those who help produce your clothes, look for mulesing-free wool.

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Organic Wool Network
Make Your Own Organic Wool Sweater

According to Continental Clothing, a U.K.-based clothing label who initiated the world's first Carbon Reduction Label for textiles, the carbon footprint of the life cycle of one of their t-shirts is about 5 pounds. That number is smaller than many conventional designers because of their use of renewable energy, and they recommend further reducing it by skipping the clothes dryer and washing in cold water.

Read more:
U.K. Launches First Carbon Label For Fashion
First Carbon Neutral Suit Available, But Better Act Fast

China accounts for about 30 percent of world apparel exports, according to the UN Commodity Trade Statistics database. In her 2005 book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, Pietra Rivoli, a professor of international business at the McDonough School of Business of Georgetown University, writes that each year, Americans purchase approximately 1 billion garments made in China, the equivalent of four pieces of clothing for every U.S. citizen.

Read more:
February Deadline To Get The Lead Out Of Kid's Clothes & Toys: Recycling Allowed?
HT Naturals: Part of the Solution Clothing