You may have noticed the little water conservation icons that appear on the product pages of our website.
It takes a lot of fresh water and energy to make the stuff we buy. Just how much depends on a number of factors, including the material it’s made from, where it’s made, and what processes are used to make it. To produce a cotton t-shirt, for example, water is required to grow the cotton, process it into fabric, and dye it.
Unfortunately, the way the apparel and accessory industries work, a lot of perfectly usable material gets thrown out even though they took a lot of resources to make. That includes trim waste, end of bolt excess, and last season's fabrics. When you buy an upcycled product made from discarded materials, you are directly offsetting the water and energy needed to make new materials from scratch to produce the same product. Thus, resources are conserved.
How we calculate it
Because we source material from around the world, we use a global average water footprint for different materials pulled from a couple of references.
- Cow Leather – 2,000 gallons per lb
- Goat Leather – 1050 gallons per lb
- Cotton – 587 gallons per lb
- Felted Wool – 295 gallons per lb
- Polyester – 10 gallons per lb
- Nylon - negligible
- Neoprene – negligible
Carbon Footprint?
All else equal, upcycling also conserves carbon emissions because making materials requires a lot of electricity, which requires a lot of carbon. We’ve tried our hand at a carbon footprint analysis before, but (a) it’s time intensive to calculate it accurately and (b) there’s so much variability in a final number based on what study you reference and we didn’t want to misrepresent our impact.
Got ideas for an easy and accurate carbon footprint analysis? Know of anyone else making cool upcycled stuff? We’d love to hear about it! Let us know in the comments below.
Looptworks Upcycled Apparel >
Comments
Looptworks
Carl, thanks for your comment and diligence in being suspect. If you were to look at this case study as an isolated purchase you may (or may not) be correct. However, our calculations are based on a basic supply/demand economic theory that still stands the test of time. As the demand for upcycled products goes up, the supply of products made from virgin materials will go down. From working in this industry for over 25 years, the one thing we know is that if something doesn’t sell, you don’t make more of it.
Therefore, it is our responsibility as citizens on this planet to vote with our dollars. What happens if people buy more upcycled, recycled or second-hand products? Fewer products from virgin made materials are produced. When this happens, the CO2 and water conservation is achieved. While it might not be an immediate impact, the impact is very real just the same. It is our responsibility as a brand and individuals to educate our peers on the carbon and water footprint of the products they purchase and offer alternatives that will reduce both.
July 17, 2019
Carl
This is extremely flawed logic in that you assume you are preventing the production of an equivalent product by creating one of upcycled material. As an example, based on your logic, someone buys a shirt from you and thus a traditional shirt is not produced. In reality, at best that additional shirt is, at best, not bought and thus was still created and still has the same impact.
I think what you are doing and your mission is extremely admirable, however I simply can’t agree with your reasoning here and I find it a bit duplicitous.
July 19, 2018
Dick
Do you recycle old wetsuits?
August 20, 2016
Connie Ulasewicz
Thank you for the simplicity and clarity of your explanations and models. Very appreciated work and so needed. T
August 04, 2016
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