Environmental impact assessment methods for textiles and clothing

The textile and clothing industry is one of the world's largest industries, while also one of the world's most polluting, contributing with its production and distribution activities to the degradation of our planet. In this context, environmental impact assessment (EIA) could be a useful framework for supporting textile and clothing companies in decreasing their environmental burden. After a review of existing EIA methods, the SustainTex system tool kit is introduced and described. SustainTex is a complete system of tools developed from appropriate EIA methods for the systematic identification and prediction of the potential environmental impacts of textile and clothing activities, as well as for the definition of mitigation solutions. Its use is illustrated in the final section by means of two real cases.