The Carbon Footprint Research Of Jeans Production On The Basis Of PAS2050Standard

The textile and clothing has created industry a lot of material wealth for human beings, but it also consumes a lot of energy, which causes massive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. At present the greenhouse effect has become a serious challenge which the international community has to face. In order to protect the environment for human survival, the textile and clothing industry should develops in low-carbon way to achieve sustainable development."Carbon footprint" is a new concept that came out in the environment of human beings great efforts to develop low-carbon economy. It is defined as the quantity of the greenhouse gases(GHGs) expressed in terms of CO2-e,emitted into the atmosphere by an individual, organization, process, product, or event within a specified boundary. By understanding the stages the life cycle stages’carbon footprint, some low-carbon suggestions are taken out to minimize the full life cycle GHGs emissions. PAS2050,issued by the British Standards Institute, the Carbon Trust and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in2008, is the first standard of the world to measure product carbon footprint. The standard is used to calculate GHGs emission of products and services throughout the life cycle (from raw materials acquisition to production, distribution, use and waste disposal).The research background of carbon footprint, research status domestic and abroad, and research significance are reviewed and summarized. The research expands around jeans, and presents the concept of carbon footprint and related standards. Using a method which combine a top-down approach using input-output analysis and a process analysis (bottom-up) approach,on the basis of the PAS2050standard, a set of model is built to evaluate carbon footprint which is apply to the actual production of jeans, and the model is applied to the factory’s production process. The thesis collects the date of the quantity of usage of source, energy during the life cycle stages of cotton spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, garment and washing,to calculate the carbon footprint of the actual production process of jeans. Then through analyzing the carbon footprint result from the multi-angles, understand that denim finishing process is the production stage which have the greatest impact on the greenhouse, the amount of CO2is the biggest in the GHGs emitting from the jeans production process and the use of steam is the largest carbon footprint factor in the whole life cycle of jeans production. On the basis of the analyze result,raises improvement suggestion of the existing jeans production environment characteristics to design a new low-carbon products.Jeans carbon footprint evaluation promotes the adjustment of product structure, improves the competitiveness of their products. It provides advanced management ideas and management techniques for the denim enterprises and basis and data support for the further development of low-carbon economy in the textile and clothing industry. At the same time, it provides consumers with environmental information to increase consumer awareness of emission reduction. The carbon footprint calculation model proposes systematically and synthetically what should be considered in the jeans production process and the tentative recommendations of jeans low-carbon production to improve its international competitiveness.