Materials Database

• Framing
  • Concrete
  • Steel
  • Wood
• Siding
  • Stone
  • Brick
  • Vinyl
  • Metal
  • Stucco
  • Wood
• Flooring
  • Carpet
  • Tile
  • Vinyl
  • Linoleum
  • Cork
  • Wood
• Roofing
  • Clay
  • Concrete
  • Metal
  • Asphalt
• Textiles
  • Cotton
  • Hemp
  • Polyester
  • Cellulosic Fibers
  • Wool

Concrete

53.15 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Concrete is the second most consumed material on the planet after water.
• Pound for pound, the footprint of concrete is roughly half that of steel. Our enormous global demand makes concrete responsible for 5% to 8% of global emissions, which is comparable to steel.

Raw MaterialB-+

• Concrete is made up of aggregate, which consists of sand and gravel, as well as cement, which is the glue-like material that holds aggregate together.
• While aggregate composes 70-80% of concrete, cement is where the carbon problem lies.

ManufacturingF+

• To create cement, limestone and other raw materials are fed through a variety of kilns, which reach over 2,500 degrees F. This intense heat demands onsite energy, which is often supplied directly by coal.
• Between 50 and 60% of CO2 emissions are not from burning fossil fuels at all, but instead, come from an inherent chemical reaction of converting limestone to cement.
• This reaction is known as calcination.
• During calcination carbon naturally stored in limestone is released as CO2 into the atmosphere when under intense heat.
• This means that if all operations are converted to renewable energy, 50-60% of carbon emissions remain.

WasteF+

• Concrete is extremely durable, with a lifetime of over 75 years.
• Concrete cannot be reused as newly manufactured concrete.
• It can be downcycled to road fill, by grinding it into gravel sized pieces.
• Most concrete ends up in the landfill and makes up 70% of the construction and demolition waste stream.

Steel

29.44 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• The steel industry emits 2.2 billion tons of CO2 each year. That's 7% of our global carbon footprint, which is greater than emissions from global shipping and aviation combined.

Raw MaterialC++

• The main material needed for steel is iron.
• Iron must be mined, blasted, and excavated out of areas. While carbon intensive, it only makes up 0.5-2% of total emissions, given how carbon intensive manufacturing is.

ManufacturingD++

• Iron must go through a series of furnaces that reach over 4,000 degrees F. This fuel can be supplied by electricity or natural gas, but it is most commonly supplied by coal, giving steel manufacturing such a high footprint.
• For every ton of steel that is produced, two tons of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere.
• Transitioning to furnaces powered by either renewably supplied electricity or sustainable biofuel can make steel manufacturing carbon neutral.

WasteA-+

• Steel is an easily recyclable product. Currently 83% of steel is recycled.
• This rate can be improved. By increasing recycling and designing buildings to use less steel, we could cut new steel demand globally by 38%.

Wood

10.59 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Wood is a renewable resource, unlike most construction materials such as steel and concrete.
• Wood products sequester atmospheric carbon, a heat trapping gas. Well planned use of these products can allow wood to act as a valuable climate mitigation strategy.

Raw MaterialB++

• While mining results in high intensity land use, forestry involves tree propagation, which uses a modest amount of fertilizer, and tree harvesting, which requires felling equipment and trucks for transport.
• While forest products are renewable and do sequester carbon, urbanization and effects of climate change such as increased disease and severe weather will stress forests.
• As wood demand grows, this will put additional pressures on fragile ecosystems.

ManufacturingA-+

• At log yards, trees must be debarked, trimmed, dried, and then planed into lumber.
• This phase consumes 96% of all energy used during wood production.
• While natural gas, coal, electricity, and oil are used, the main fuel used is wood scrap, which is considered renewable and carbon neutral.

WasteB-+

• Wood is the third most abundant source of waste found in the construction and demolition waste stream.
• Each year 48% of wood waste generated can be reused but is thrown in the dump instead.
• Wood is typically downcycled. It is either chipped into mulch, bound together in engineered wood products or used as biomass fuel.
• The best use for wood is to upcycle it, and maintain its integrity as lumber, so it can have several more lifetimes before being degraded.
• When wood decomposes in a landfill, bacteria digest the wood and much of the sequestered carbon escapes as methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more than CO2.
• Some of the wood does not decompose and the sequestered carbon is stored deep in the landfill.
• These are opposing forces. Currently more greenhouse gas is released through methane than stored in the landfill, however, this can change by increasing methane capture in landfills.

Stone

12.92 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Mines and quarries occupy 0.3% of the land area in the U.S. which is roughly 10 times larger than the State of Rhode Island.
• Out of this land 60% is used for excavation and the rest for disposal of overburden and other mining wastes.

Raw MaterialB-+

• Mining stone demands a high frequency of drilling, blasting, hauling and transporting of waste materials.
• Like all mining, excavation releases high levels of air pollutants, changes watershed drainage, and leads to deforestation.

ManufacturingB+

• Stone needs little processing compared to many building materials that demand the use of furnaces or chemicals.
• Transport generally has the lowest relative impact in material production.
• Given the weight of stone, transporting stone from places such as Asia to the U.S. increases the total footprint by over 550%.
• Stone siding's high carbon footprint is largely due to the use of cement mortar and steel, two carbon intensive materials, needed for construction.

WasteC++

• Stone is extremely durable and can last longer than the building. If treated well, it can be easily reused.
• If unusable stone is often recycled into aggregate for landscaping or roadwork.

Brick

8.15 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Choosing brick as siding can increase the embodied carbon of your house by over 30%.

Raw MaterialB-+

• 1.5 trillion bricks are produced each year, with over 85% of the world supply coming from Asia.
• Bricks are composed of 85% clay.
• Like all mining, excavation releases high levels of air pollutants, changes watershed drainage, and leads to deforestation.

ManufacturingD++

• Clay must be mixed, molded, dried and then fired.
• Brick firing is the most carbon intensive step, due to the intense heat of over 2000 F needed.
• In the major brick producing countries due to old kiln technology and high reliance of coal, firing has a high carbon footprint.
• By updating old kiln technology, the carbon footprint of the manufacturing stage can be reduced by over 40%.

WasteC++

• Brick is extremely durable. It can last longer than the building. If treated well, it can be easily reused.
• If unusable, brick waste can be ground and repurposed as aggregate for roads.
• Currently, most brick is hauled to landfills.
• 12.1 million tons of brick and clay tile debris is added to landfills each year.

Vinyl

2.73 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Stucco demands far less material input than other siding materials.

Raw MaterialC++

• The composition of stucco is very similar to that of concrete.
• Roughly half of a stucco mix is sand, while the other half is equal parts cement and lime.
• Both cement and lime are made from limestone and all three of these materials must be extracted through mining.
• Like all mining, excavation releases high levels of air pollutants, changes watershed drainage, and leads to deforestation.

ManufacturingC++

• To create both lime and cement, limestone is fed through a variety of kilns, which reach over 2,500 degrees F. This intense heat demands onsite energy, which is often supplied directly by coal.
• Between 50 and 70% of CO2 emissions are not from burning fossil fuels at all, but instead, come from a chemical reaction of converting limestone to cement and lime.
• This is known as calcination.
• During calcination carbon naturally stored in limestone is released as CO2 into the atmosphere when under intense heat. This means that if all operations are converted to renewable energy, 50-70% of carbon emissions remain.
• The embodied carbon of a stucco wall is small. While many tons of concrete must be poured to make a foundation, a stucco coat only amounts to a few centimeters.
• Because most emissions related to stucco are not due to fossil fuel use, but from calcination, it is possible that stucco will become a less green alternative as other industries transition to renewables to generate products.

WasteC-+

• There remains no way to recycle stucco. Unlike plasterboard, which contains gypsum, and can be recycled, exterior stucco is only sand and cement, and currently has no end of life uses.

Metal

12.65 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• 75% of the 30 million tons of vinyl that is produced every year is for construction purposes.

Raw MaterialC++

• Vinyl is a plastic, which is a petroleum product derived from crude oil reserves

ManufacturingD++

• Vinyl production is not energy intensive, and finished vinyl does not have a high carbon footprint.
• Production is, however, extremely toxic. Production demands the use of hazardous chemicals and creates carcinogenic byproducts.
• Chlorine, a toxic gas, is essential to produce vinyl.
• Vinyl production is responsible for 60% of global chlorine consumption.

WasteA-+

• The largest issue associated with vinyl is waste.
• Half of the vinyl produced annually ends up in the waste stream.
• The recycling industry has started accepting more vinyl, which is recycled into plastic products.
• Most vinyl is landfilled. Out of the 14.7 million tons of vinyl disposed of last year, over 10 million tons were put in landfills.

Stucco

1.99 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• The steel industry emits 2.2 billion tons of carbon each year. That's 7% of our global carbon footprint, which is greater than emissions from global shipping and aviation combined.

Raw MaterialB-+

• The main ingredient needed for steel is iron.
• Iron must be mined, blasted, and excavated out of areas. While carbon intensive, it only makes up 0.5-2% of total emissions, given how carbon intensive manufacturing is.

ManufacturingC++

• Iron must go through a series of furnaces that reach over 4,000 degrees F. This fuel can be supplied by electricity or natural gas, but it is most commonly supplied by coal, giving steel manufacturing such a high footprint.
• For every ton of steel that is produced, two tons of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere.
• Transitioning to furnaces powered by either renewably supplied electricity or sustainable biofuel can make steel manufacturing carbon neutral.

WasteC-+

• Steel is an easily recyclable product. Currently 83% of steel is recycled.
• This rate can be improved. By increasing recycling and designing buildings to use less steel, we could cut new steel demand globally by 38%.

Wood

1.64 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Wood is a renewable resource, unlike most construction materials such as steel and concrete.
• Wood products sequester atmospheric carbon, a heat trapping gas. Well planned use of these products can allow wood to act as a valuable climate mitigation strategy.

Raw MaterialB++

• While mining results in high intensity land use, forestry involves tree propagation, which uses a modest amount of fertilizer, and tree harvesting, which requires felling equipment and trucks for transport.
• While forest products are renewable and do sequester carbon, urbanization and climate change effects such as increased disease and severe weather will stress forests.
• As wood demand grows, this will put additional pressures on fragile ecosystems.

ManufacturingA-+

• At log yards, trees must be debarked, trimmed, dried, and then planed into lumber.
• This phase consumes 96% of all energy used during wood production.

WasteB-+

• Wood is the third most abundant source of waste found in the construction and demolition waste stream.
• Each year 48% of wood waste generated can be reused but is thrown in the dump instead.
• Wood is typically downcycled. It is either chipped into mulch, bound together in engineered wood products or used as biomass fuel.
• The best use for wood is to upcycle it, and maintain its integrity as lumber, so it can have several more lifetimes before being degraded.
• When wood decomposes in a landfill, bacteria digest the wood and much of the sequestered carbon escapes as methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more than CO2.
• Some of the wood does not decompose and the sequestered carbon is stored deep in the landfill.
• These are opposing forces. Currently more greenhouse gas is released through methane than stored in the landfill, however, this can change through increase of methane capture in landfills.

Carpet

9.95 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Americans bought more than one billion square yards of carpeting last year. That's enough to cover all of Manhattan 14 times.

Raw MaterialC+

• Over 90% of all carpeting used in peoples homes today is made from nylon.
• Nylon is a plastic, which is a petroleum product derived from crude oil reserves.

ManufacturingC-+

• Carpet manufacturing requires an array of raw materials, from plastics needed to make the fibers, to rubbers for rug backing, as well as limestone for fillers.

WasteF+

• Waste generated from carpet remains a large issue.
• Carpet has the shortest life of all flooring products, lasting 11 years in the average home.
• While efforts are being made to recycle carpets, facilities are not offered in many parts of the country, with some states not having a single facility.
• Most carpet goes to the landfill, which amounts to 5 billion pounds of carpeting each year.
• This is roughly 1 to 2 percent of total U.S. landfill waste, or 17 pounds of carpeting per person per year.

Tile

1.58 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• The United States imports 75 times more tile than it exports. Most of this tile comes from the Mediterranean followed by China.

Raw MaterialC+

• Raw material acquisition requires the extraction of a variety of rocks and minerals, resulting in high levels of air pollutants, changes watershed drainage, and leads to deforestation.
• The environmental impact of the pre-production phase is only partially due to the extraction of raw materials for the tile body.
• Over 60% of CO2 during this phase is due to material extraction for glazes, which is significant due to the small amount of material needed for glaze compared to the tile body.
• While clay and sand are needed for ceramic tile body, zinc, lead, aluminum, and titanium are the materials needed for glazes, which are highly energy intensive to extract.

ManufacturingC+

• Tile does require several firing stages, which is mostly supplied by natural gas.
• Tile must be dried at a low temperature of 200 F for 28 hours. It is then fired under 2000 F for an additional 38 hours and is finally fired at over 1500 F for 29 hours.

WasteD++

• Tile is challenging to reclaimed due to its susceptibility to cracking.
• Finding a recycling center that accepts ceramic is difficult.
• If found, ceramic is downcycled. It is crushed into aggregate and added to industrial products such as concrete.

Vinyl

0.74 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• 75% of the 30 million tons of vinyl that is produced every year is for construction purposes.

Raw MaterialC+

• Vinyl is a plastic, which is a petroleum product derived from crude oil reserves.

ManufacturingC++

• Vinyl production is not energy intensive, and finished vinyl does not have a high carbon footprint.
• Production is, however, extremely toxic. Production demands the use of hazardous chemicals and creates carcinogenic byproducts.
• Chlorine, a toxic gas, is essential to produce vinyl.
• Vinyl production is responsible for 60% of global chlorine consumption.

WasteC-+

• The largest issue associated with vinyl is waste.
• Half of the vinyl produced annually ends up in the waste stream.
• The recycling industry has started accepting more Vinyl, which is recycled into plastic products.
• Most vinyl is landfilled. Out of the 14.7 million tons of vinyl disposed of last year, over 10 million tons were put in landfills.

Linoleum

0.85 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Linoleum is an all-natural and biodegradable substitute for more environmental intensive materials such as vinyl or stone.

Raw MaterialB++

• Linoleum is predominantly made from natural materials.
• The main material used is linseed oil, which is made by pressing flax seed.
• Finely ground cork and wood is added to the linseed.
• Rosin, a sap like material that is gathered from trees, is added as a binder.
• Finely ground limestone, which demands some mining is added as the one non-renewable raw material in linoleum.

ManufacturingA-+

• Manufacturing is not energy intensive.
• The raw materials needed are heated together to create a viscous paste called linoleum cement, and then set to cool to be cut.

WasteB-+

• Linoleum does not last as long as more durable flooring products such as hardwood or tile.
• Linoleum is recyclable.
• It is not, however, repurposed as other manufactured goods.
• Given its high content of oil and wood, it is very calorific, and is treated as a biofuel in waste-to-energy incinerators.
• If landfilled, while less favorable than recycling, it is biodegradable, and does not release any toxins during decomposition compared to similar materials such as vinyl.

Cork

0.95 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Cork comes from the bark of cork oak trees. Harvesting cork does not require deforestation. Instead, after harvesting cork, the bark grows back and can be removed every ten years, making it a more rapid renewable than hardwood.

Raw MaterialA++

• Cork is a natural product made from the bark of cork oak trees.
• The cork used is recycled cork scraps that remain after cork bottle stopper manufacturing.

ManufacturingA-+

• Little manufacturing is needed to create cork flooring.
• It is often sandwiched between a piece of wood fiberboard, which can be made from new or recycled wood products.
• The cork board is then pressed and baked at low temperatures.
• Almost all cork production is in Western Mediterranean countries, which increases its transport footprint compared to other natural products, such as wood flooring.

WasteA-+

• Cork is a durable product. While not as durable as wood, cork floors last over 50 years.
• Cork is a circular commodity. Used cork is equally as valuable as new cork and can be returned to manufacturers to manufacture new flooring.
• If landfilled, while less favorable than recycling, it is biodegradable, and does not release any toxins during decomposition compared to similar materials such as vinyl.

Wood

0.88 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Wood is a renewable resource, unlike most construction materials such as steel and concrete.
• Wood products sequester atmospheric carbon, a heat trapping gas. Well planned use of these products can allow wood to act as a valuable climate mitigation strategy.

Raw MaterialB++

• While mining results in high intensity land use, forestry involves tree propagation, which uses a modest amount of fertilizer, and tree harvesting, which requires felling equipment and trucks for transport.
• While forest products are renewable and do sequester carbon, urbanization and climate change effects such as increased disease and severe weather will stress forests.
• As wood demand grows, this will put additional pressures on fragile ecosystems.

ManufacturingA-+

• At log yards, trees must be debarked, trimmed, dried, and then planed into lumber.
• This phase consumes 96% of all energy used during wood production.

WasteB-+

• Wood is the third most abundant source of waste found in the construction and demolition waste stream.
• Each year 48% of wood waste generated can be reused but is thrown in the dump instead.
• Wood is typically downcycled. It is either chipped into mulch, bound together in engineered wood products or used as biomass fuel.
• The best use for wood is to upcycle it, and maintain its integrity as lumber, so it can have several more lifetimes before being degraded.
• When wood decomposes in a landfill, bacteria digest the wood and much of the sequestered carbon escapes as methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more than CO2.
• Some of the wood does not decompose and the sequestered carbon is stored deep in the landfill.
• These are opposing forces. Currently more greenhouse gas is released through methane than stored in the landfill, however, this can change through increase of methane capture in landfills.

Clay

14.61 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Clay tile is the most carbon intensive roofing material.

Raw MaterialB-+

• Like all mining, excavation releases high levels of air pollutants, changes watershed drainage, and leads to deforestation.
• Glazes are also required, which contain zinc, lead, aluminum, and titanium, and can be highly energy intensive to extract.

ManufacturingD++

• Clay must be mixed, molded, dried, and then fired.
• Clay firing is the most carbon intensive step, due to the intense heat of over 2000 F needed, which lasts for 15-20 hours.

WasteC++

• Clay tile is extremely durable and can last longer than a building, making it an easy material to reclaim.
• Most clay, however, is not reclaimed. While some waste clay is ground and repurposed as aggregate for roads, most is hauled to landfills.
• 12.1 million tons of brick and clay tile debris is added to landfills each year.

Concrete

5.05 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Concrete is the second most consumed material on the planet after water.
• Pound for pound, the footprint of concrete is roughly half that of steel. Our enormous global demand makes concrete responsible for 5% to 8% of global emissions, which is comparable to steel.

Raw MaterialB-+

• Concrete is made up of aggregate, which consists of sand and gravel, as well as cement, which is the glue-like material that holds aggregate together.
• While aggregate composes 70-80% of concrete, cement is where the carbon problem lies.

ManufacturingF+

• To create cement, limestone and other raw materials are fed through a variety of kilns, which reach over 2,500 degrees F. This intense heat demands onsite energy, which is often supplied directly by coal.
• Between 50 and 60% of CO2 emissions are not from burning fossil fuels at all, but instead, come from an inherent chemical reaction of converting limestone to cement.
• This reaction is known as calcination.
• During calcination carbon naturally stored in limestone is released as CO2 into the atmosphere when under intense heat.
• This means that if all operations are converted to renewable energy, 50-60% of carbon emissions remain.

WasteF+

• Concrete is extremely durable, with a lifetime of over 75 years.
• Concrete cannot be reused as newly manufactured concrete.
• It can be downcycled to road fill, by grinding it into gravel sized pieces.
• Most concrete ends up in the landfill and makes up 70% of the construction and demolition waste stream.

Metal

9.53 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• The steel industry emits 2.2 billion tons of carbon each year. That's 7% of our global carbon footprint, which is greater than emissions from global shipping and aviation combined.

Raw MaterialC++

• The main ingredient needed for steel is iron.
• Iron must be mined, blasted, and excavated out of areas. While carbon intensive, it only makes up 0.5-2% of total emissions, given how carbon intensive manufacturing is.

ManufacturingC+

• Iron must go through a series of furnaces that reach over 4,000 degrees F. This fuel can be supplied by electricity or natural gas, but it is most commonly supplied by coal, giving steel manufacturing such a high footprint.
• For every ton of steel that is produced, two tons of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere.
• Transitioning to furnaces powered by either renewably supplied electricity or sustainable biofuel can make steel manufacturing carbon neutral.

WasteA-+

• Steel is an easily recyclable product. Currently 83% of steel is recycled.
• This rate can be improved. By increasing recycling and designing buildings to use less steel, we could cut new steel demand globally by 38%.

Asphalt

4.36 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Each year over 500 square miles of Asphalt shingles are produced, enough to cover half of Rhode Island.

Raw MaterialC-+

• Asphalt, is a petroleum product, found in crude oil reserves. It must be refined and separated.

ManufacturingC-+

• Asphalt goes through several refining steps requiring long periods of processing through furnaces, which increases the energy intensity of manufacturing.
• Asphalt is combined with fiberglass, crushed glass aggregate, and felt backing in order to construct a shingle.

WasteD+

• While other roofing materials can last 50 to 75 years, asphalt shingles last between 15 and 30 years.
• Recycling efforts have been made to integrate shingles into road paving asphalt mixes.
• While attempts have been made to use recycled shingled as the base for new shingles, technical and economic feasibility has prevented large scale manufacturing.
• Each year 13.5 thousand tons of asphalt shingles end up in the dump, making it the fourth largest source of construction waste after concrete, asphalt concrete, and wood.

Cotton

1.78 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Cotton is a subtropical water intensive plant that is mostly grown in areas of high water stress.

Raw MaterialC-+

• Most of cotton's environmental impact is from cultivation rather than manufacturing.
• Cotton is a sub-tropical plant making it one of the most water intensive plants.
• 57% of cotton cultivation are in areas under high or extreme water stress.
• Toxicity issues are also attached to cotton.
• Despite covering only 2.5% of land, cotton uses 16% of the world's pesticides.
• 3 of the 10 most acutely hazardous insecticides are used to grow cotton.

ManufacturingB++

• Once harvested, cotton must be ginned, cleaned, combed for impurities, and spun into yarn.
• Cotton demands 3 times less energy than polyester.
• Including agricultural practices, cotton is still 25% less carbon intensive than polyester.

WasteB+

• Cotton can be easily be recycled.
• Cotton is shredded into small pieces and then re-spun into new yarn.
• It is uncommon that more than 30% of recycled content is used in new yarn or fabric.

Hemp

1.38 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Hemp is a natural and renewable product like cotton, however, it demands fewer water and pesticide inputs.

Raw MaterialA-+

• Due to hemp's hardiness, it demands less water and pesticides compared to cotton.

ManufacturingB++

• After harvesting, hemp is treated using either chemicals or natural processes such as fungi or bacteria to break down the woody material. This process is known as retting.
• Retting currently functions at the same technological level as it did 50 years ago, making it challenging to increase production scale.

WasteB+

• Hemp fabric can be recycled.
• Most hemp is downcycled and repurposed for applications such as papermaking.
• If landfilled, while less favorable than recycling, it is biodegradable, and does not release any toxins during decomposition compared to similar materials such as oil-based synthetic fibers.

Polyester

1.98 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Two in three textiles are made from polyester, making it the world's most consumed fabric.

Raw MaterialB-+

• Polyester is a plastic, which is a petroleum product derived from crude oil reserves.
• Because polyester is synthetically derived, it has a much lower water impact than naturally grown textiles that rely on agriculture.

ManufacturingC++

• Polyester's energy intensity is three times as great as cotton and has a carbon footprint that is 25% higher.
• Polyester undergoes various chemical reactions and is heated to produce yarn, which can then be woven into fabrics.
• Energy intensity issues can be circumvented.
• Polyester that is derived from recycled plastic, such as bottles, uses between 30 and 50 percent less energy because oil needed for production doesn't need to be harvested.

WasteB+

• Polyester fabric is recyclable, but technical barriers remain.
• Polyester has a finite life due to plastic degradation each time it is recycled.
• If sent to the dump, polyester can take decades, if not longer, to degrade.

Cellulosic Fibers

1.96 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Cellulosic fibers refer to viscose, modal, and lyocell, which are textiles made from wood pulp.
• While all three are derived from trees, the carbon footprint between them varies.

Raw MaterialB+

• Cellulosic fibers are synthetic materials made from the pulp of eucalyptus and beech trees.
• The three main fibers are viscose, modal, and lyocell.
• Like structural wood products, raw materials require very little energy or water inputs.
• There is generally no irrigation or fertilizer used during the planting and growing of trees.

ManufacturingB-+

• After harvesting, the wood is transported to a pulp production site where it must go through a sawmill and be processed.
• The pulp must be dissolved into yarn, which demands a variety of caustic chemicals.
• Emissions from the production of these caustic chemicals account for more than half of the fossil CO2 emissions.
• Viscose, which makes up two-thirds of the cellulosic fiber market, uses the greatest amount of these chemicals, making it the most carbon intensive of the cellulosic fibers.
• Lyocell requires a different set of chemicals and uses a closed solvent cycle, greatly reducing the waste produced and number of chemicals needed, making it the least carbon intensive of the cellulosic fibers.

WasteB+

• Cellulosic fiber recycling is currently operating at a small scale.
• If landfilled, while less favorable than recycling, cellulosic fiber is biodegradable, and does not release any toxins during decomposition compared to similar materials such as oil-based synthetic fibers.

Wool

2.82 tCO2 for a typical 3-bedroom house

+

• Wool requires very few energy inputs, however, it has an extremely high carbon footprint.
• Its high carbon footprint is due to the biological release of greenhouse gasses from sheep.

Raw MaterialD++

• The direct fossil fuel requirements needed for wool are relatively low, however, wool remains one of the most carbon intensive fabrics.
• Sheep are raised on either animal feed or graze naturally.
• The constant supply needed to nourish sheep results in high life long energy demands.
• Animal feed requires the growing, cultivation and transport of crops such as soy, and grazing land demands regular reapplication of fertilizer.
• The demand for large areas to graze results in high land use intensity and overgrazing.
• Beyond food demand, sheep belching releases high concentrations of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than CO2.
• Studies show this can account for over 50% of the total carbon footprint of wool production.

ManufacturingB++

• Sheep are sheared once a year.
• After shearing, wool is sorted, graded, and then scoured.
• Scouring involves cleaning accumulated dirt and grease in the wool, which requires bleach and other caustic agents, leading to toxic wastewater.
• Once wool fibers have been produced, energy inputs for textile manufacturing is comparable to that of cotton, and roughly half that of synthetic fibers, such as polyester.

WasteB+

• Wool has been recycled commercially for at least 200 years.
• It consists of separating the waste by color and then pulling the garment back into a fibrous state to make new products.
• Most wool is still not recycled.