An approach for the application of the Ecological Footprint as environmental indicator in the textile sector.
The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a recent concept which has widely been used as an indicator of environmental sustainability applied to individual lifestyles, regions, nations or even the world. Recently, its application to enterprises has been proposed. In the present study, a textile tailoring plant has been analysed. The overall purpose of this study was to develop a tool useful for evaluating the environmental impact evolution due to the performance of the plant, as well as for comparing the environmental behaviour of different tailoring processes. Therefore, the selected data were those from the manufacturing work. Data were divided in three main categories: energy, resources and waste. The principal contribution to the final EF (expressed in hectares of land) was the resources category, mainly due to the high value associated to the cloth. The consumed energy was the second contributor, while the waste category remained in third place. The final outcomes were divided by the production rates to obtain a comparable relative index, easy to be interpreted by the different stakeholders. This is of special importance for a Company involved in Corporate Social Responsibility and thus meant to have a general communication strategy.
Herva
M
M
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Franco
A
A
Ferreiro
S
S
Alvarez
A
A
Roca
E
E
D004463:Ecology; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D013783:Textile Industry
D004785:Environmental Pollutants