Page 86 - AJWEP-v22i3

Hossain and Rahman

Figure 3. The life-cycle environmental impact results for traditional (S1) versus eco-friendly (S2) scenarios.
Data for all categories is presented as per 1,000 pairs of jeans.
Abbreviations: DCB: Dichlorobenzene; Eq: Equivalents; FRS: Fossil resource scarcity; HTP: Human toxicity
potential.

an industry standpoint, this represents about 6 metric water, significantly reduces water intake. This results in
tons of CO avoided per 1,000 jeans. For Bangladesh’s a net savings of approximately 3,500 m of water per
3
2
fossil-fuel-driven textile business, these results show a 1,000 jeans. It is important to note that the consumer
significant way to reduce the industrial carbon footprint use phase (home laundering) also uses water in both
through renewable energy adoption and efficiency scenarios. However, since identical laundry habits
improvement. were assumed for both, the observed difference stems
The water consumption category shows the most from the production phase. Even with typical consumer
dramatic difference between the scenarios. S1 requires behavior, S2’s total water use remains much lower due
5,500 m of freshwater to produce and use 1,000 pairs to its upstream savings.
3
of denim trousers, compared to just 2,000 m in S2 – a For the terrestrial acidification category, associated
3
64% reduction. The S1 system is highly water-intensive with emissions such as SO and nitrogen oxides that
2
due to two main factors: (1) reliance on irrigation for contribute to acid rain, S2 performs substantially better.
cotton cultivation, which demands vast amounts of S1 has a cradle-to-grave acidification potential of about
water, and (2) wet processing stages such as dyeing 100 kg SO -equivalents per 1,000 pairs of jeans, whereas
2
and washing, which use and discharge a lot of water. S2 registers roughly 50 kg SO -equivalents. This 50%
2
However, S2 mitigates both sources as organic cotton reduction is primarily due to differences in energy sources
is primarily rain-fed or more efficiently irrigated. and agricultural practices. In S1, burning fossil fuels –
Moreover, S2’s factory-level water conservation, such coal or diesel in power plants and natural gas in boilers
as the reuse of indigo dye baths and recycling of rinse – emits SO and nitrogen oxides, whereas fertilizer use in
2

Volume 22 Issue 3 (2025) 80 doi: 10.36922/ajwep.6241