Should Clothing Stores Be Required to Post

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19. Carbon footprint of the textile industry

Textile manufacturing is a separate matter from apparel fabrication.
2% of the US workforce is engaged in textiles.
Remember, this includes lots of agriculture and lots and lots of synthetics (petroleum).

Carbon footprint of the textile industry
25 05 2009

We’re starting a series of blogs on the carbon footprint of textiles. Because it’s such a complex subject we’re breaking it into smaller portions, beginning with looking at the textile industry as a whole. In other words, why the fuss over textiles?

Fabrics, believe it or not, have a large carbon footprint. In other words, it takes a lot of energy to produce fabrics. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. textile industry is the 5th largest contributor to CO2 emissioins in the United States (after primary metals, nonmetallic mineral products, petroleum and chemicals). In the developing world, where the textile industry represents a larger percentage of GDP and mills are often antiquated, the CO2 emissions are greater.

In fact, today’s textile industry is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gasses on Earth, due to the huge size and scope of the industry as well as the many processes and products that go into the making of textiles and finished textile products. (See Vivek Dev, “Carbon Footprint of Textiles”, April 3, 2009, http://www.domain-b.com/environment/20090403_carbon_footprint.html)

Based on estimated annual global textile production of 60 billion kilogrms (KG) 0f fabric, the estimated energy and water needed to produce that 60 billion KG of fabrics boggles the mind: 1,074 billion KWh of electricity (or 132 million metric tons of coal) and between 6 – 9 trillion liters of water.

http://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/category/carbon-footprint-2/page/2/

Also:

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/73624.aspx

http://selectusa.commerce.gov/industry-snapshots/textiles-industry-united-states

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