Environmental Impact Measurement | Its tools

Environmental Impact Measurement

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.

Environmental Impact Measurement

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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