Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM)
Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) is
a unique and powerful platform designed to monitor the environmental impact of
the garment finishing process in an efficient and economically efficient way.
It is a self-recognition tool aimed at improving the environmental performance
of jeans finishing at the production stage. The EIM software is specific to the
garment finishing industry. It is designed to supply laundry and garments
finishers around the world.
Ecosystems
provide a variety of services such as control, support, provision, and culture
of living animals on Earth. The productivity of a system is greatly affected by
the health of the various components and the level of contamination in it.
Increasing industrialization and the depletion of natural resources for the
safe use of a growing population lead to poor productivity of the ecosystem. Environmental Impact Measurement is the
current need for sustainable human survival on Earth. Increasing industrialization
and population, as well as mismanagement of natural resources, are creating
environmental threats. Nowadays people are more concerned about natural
disasters and the significant degradation of global environmental standards.
There are many techniques available to diagnose and determine the severity and
quality of environmental factors at any given time. Therefore, the use of
modern technology, in this case, can be an effective alternative to warning
about natural disasters and conserving or effectively managing human life and
natural resources. Most developing countries today need to implement
environmental policies and effective guidelines and provide the infrastructure
to properly assess the environmental impact on the various biochemical cycles
of natural resources and ecosystems. Spreading awareness among the people
through government and non-government organizations has a valuable place in
dealing with natural disasters and deteriorating environmental health.
EIM measures environmental impact in four different categories: water and energy demand, chemical impact, and labor impact.
Based on a recipe description, the software works in 3 steps:
i. Quantity (for each category)
ii. Benchmarks are defined in contrast to the environmental limits for each category
iii. Score as the average of the 4 categories, including the classification of the process and the weight equal to the final score.
Each company and brand may use EIM for different purposes and therefore, they may decide to focus on individual categories or overall scores.
The data obtained through EIM helps to understand what garment manufacturers or brands and retailers like according to industry standards. Thus, being able to define and observe short and long-term objectives, taking steps towards environmental footprint reduction.
Photo Reference: Jeanologia
Environmental impact measurement tools
The
two most common Environmental impact
measurement tools are life cycle analysis and environmental footprint.
Environmental footprint
The environmental footprint was developed in the early 1990s by
Professor William Rees and Ph.D. Mathis Wackernagel, a student at The University of British Columbia. Since then there have been numerous
repetitions, and similar instruments have been developed to measure water use
and carbon emissions.
Today
the term environmental footprint is used equally by both the scientific and
corporate communities. It is a multi-standard measure to calculate the
environmental performance of a product, service, or organization based on a
life cycle approach.
An
environmental footprint considers the completeness of the supply and demand of
products and services for the planet. In doing so, it is assumed that the
entire population follows a certain lifestyle that is characteristic of a familiar person or group of people.
Environmental
footprint estimation begins with the calculation of land, water, or sea for a
person's food, shelter, mobility, and supply of goods and services in a given
area. Estimates depend on the individual's area of residence. The reason is
that ecosystems differ in their ability to produce biological materials and
absorb CO2. This is known as biocapacity.
Environmental
footprints measure the needs of ecosystems rather than their regenerative
capacity. It is usually expressed very compulsively through a common number
representing a biologically productive land or water.
Environmental
footprints are counted as countries (or even the whole world) - for example, it
takes about eight hectares of land for the average American to survive; In
Canada, the average footprint is about six hectares and the global average per
capita is about 1.5 hectares but these can also be counted for smaller units,
such as individuals, products, facilities, or organizations. The Global
Footprint Network tool has created a standard of use.
Life-cycle analysis
Life-cycle
analysis, also known as life-cycle assessment, is a primary tool used to help
make decisions for sustainable development. According to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, LCA is a tool for assessing the potential environmental
impacts of a product, material, process, or activity. Importantly, an LCA is a comprehensive method for evaluating all direct and indirect environmental
effects across the entire life cycle of a product system, from material
acquisition to production, use, and final disposition.
The
application of LCA helps to promote sustainable design and new design of
products and processes, thereby reducing the overall environmental impact and
reducing the use of nonrenewable or toxic substances. LCA studies identify key
ingredients and processes in product life cycles that can have the greatest
impact, including resource demand and human health. These assessments describe
the full benefits and costs of a product or process, allowing decision-makers
to choose the most effective solution. The LCA process consists of a
systematic, periodic approach and four components: goal definition and scope,
inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation.
Energy
efficiency is arguably the only consideration in determining which alternative
processes can be employed, and should not be promoted as the sole criterion for
determining environmental acceptability. For example, a general energy analysis
does not take into account the renewability of energy flows or the toxicity of
waste products. The inclusion of dynamic LCA, for example, in the case of
renewable energy technologies - which use sensitivity analysis to improve the
future renewable systems and their share in the power grid - may help alleviate
this criticism.
One problem that the energy analysis method cannot solve is thermal energy,
chemical energy, etc. The two main laws of thermal energy have different
properties and values as a result. According to the first law of
thermodynamics, all power inputs should be calculated for equal weights,
whereas according to the second law, different energy forms should be calculated
to use different values. Conflicts can be resolved in a number of ways: price
differences between energy inputs can be ignored, a value ratio can be
arbitrarily assigned, analysis can be supplemented by economic / cost analysis,
or labor, a thermodynamic measure of quality, LCA's metric can be used as.
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