Intertek has launched the Instant LCA Textile Web Portal, an online tool for life cycle assessment (LCA) and product eco-design that enables the textile and apparel industry to instantly measure and visualize the environmental impacts of products based on pre-defined eco-design scenarios.
This unique web platform was designed with feedback from leading textile and apparel brands and retailers, as well as Intertek experts, with the objective to provide an easy-to-use solution for non-expert LCA users. Its aim is to support quick and reliable decisions at an early stage with regard to product design using a simple interface that includes pre-defined eco-actions to guide users through relevant parameters to compare a “before and after” improvement scenario.
The web platform does not require any specific training and the on-boarding takes only few minutes. In four steps users can visualize their product’s main environmental hotspots for carbon, water and energy consumption impacts, and select pre-integrated eco-design recommendations to assess the impacts on their scenarios. An eco-profile report is generated with summary results and key graphs.
In designing the tool, Intertek drew upon its textile and apparel LCA expertise, as well as several LCA studies, existing client platforms and existing international databases. For each product, a series of product-specific data can be entered by the user to provide a company’s product-specific profile. A list of pre-defined eco-design actions is embedded in the tool for each life cycle stage and the potential for reduction of the environmental impacts of the product analyzed.
“The Instant LCA Textile Web Portal is the perfect tool for users who don’t have any in-house LCA expertise but who want to engage further in understanding the environmental footprint of their products in a quick and easy way, and assess different eco-design scenarios to reduce their products’ impacts,” says Michael Ooms, managing director at Intertek.
The web platform can be used not only by brands and retailers but also by manufacturers who usually don’t have access to this level of information and who would like to better understand how to improve their environmental impacts.
For organizations that are already engaged in product eco-design or eco-labeling, Intertek’s Instant LCA Textile expert version provides access to a wide range of eco-design parameters to allow users to create and benchmark multiple scenarios.
The cost to implement Instant LCA Textile Web Portal starts at 89 Euros / 99 USD / 990 RMB, with the option to tailor to a company’s specific needs using different licensing models, including a pay-per-report structure or monthly and annual licenses.
