Environmentally Calculate Your Sweatshirts!

Monday 14th of March 2011 12:43:51 AM

Environmentally Calculate Your Sweatshirts!

What impact do your purchases have on the environment? Technology continues to find ways to help people become more eco-friendly citizens. Concepts such as ethical fashion and Fairtrade are getting more emphasis every day. With the depletion of natural resources around the world, the clothing and textile industry has joined the campaign to produce fashions that are environmentally friendly. Consumers are also beginning to demand more fashions that they know follow Fairtrade standards. But how do you know if your clothing choices are environmentally wise? Various companies such as Colour Connections, Ltd. are developing the means for consumers to determine if they are doing their part also.

There is an online calculator that Colour Connections, Ltd. developed called the “Household Textile Environmental Impact Calculator”. The calculator is strictly for use by the consumers which is unusual in the marketplace, because the company has already introduced a textile eco-metrics calculator that textile manufacturers and clothing retailers can use.

The purpose of the calculator is to determine if the clothing in the home closet protects natural resources as much as possible. It takes into account factors such as water use, energy use, use of non-renewable resources and pollution produced. The calculator is quite easy to use online with its drop-down menus listing various articles of clothing such as jeans, skirts, trousers and so on. For example, you can count the number of sweatshirts you have in your wardrobe, choose the right category on the menu, and then enter the number. You also enter how many you threw away, washed, dried and ironed in a week.

Though the calculator is easy for consumers to use, it is actually performing a series of complicated calculations which produce the “Environmental Damage Units” or EDUs. The calculator scores each piece of your wardrobe.

Phil Patterson is the managing director of Colour Connections. He said, “You may be surprised at how much impact your personal or family clothing preferences have on the environment. Doing one fewer tumble drying cycle per week saves 170 EDU’s, which is enough to make the fabric for 50 pairs of underpants.”

So next time you decide to wash a load of polo shirts, try using the calculator to determine how you can lower your use of natural resources.