China Textile Federation Releases Lcaplus Digital Textile Whole Life Cycle Green Assessment Platform

The LCAplus platform (LCAplus platform for short) of China's textile and clothing industry's full life cycle assessment (LCAplus platform for short) made its debut at the 2023 China Garment Conference on the 26th, helping to promote China's textile and clothing industry towards a more green and sustainable future.

Sun Ruizhe, President of China Textile Industry Federation, Chen Dapeng, Vice President of China Textile Industry Federation, Yan Yan, Director of Social Responsibility Office of China Textile Industry Federation, Chen Hu, Deputy General Manager of Brand Business Department of Ordos Cashmere Group, Representative of Industry Practice Pioneer Enterprise, and Gong Yanqi, Director of Jinba Men's Wear and Vice President of Brand jointly witnessed the launch of LCAplus platform.

Yan Yan said that in order to lead the textile and clothing industry towards a more resilient and sustainable future, the China Textile Industry Federation (hereinafter referred to as the "China Textile Federation") took the lead in launching the "Carbon Management Innovation 2020 Action" as early as 2017, upgraded the "Carbon Management Innovation 2020 Action" to the "Climate Innovation 2030 Action" in 2019, and officially launched the industry chain LCA measurement. In 2020, it promoted the establishment of the China Textile and Clothing Industry Life Cycle Assessment Working Group ("CNTAC-LCA Working Group" for short), guided the industry to carry out the textile product life cycle assessment and product environmental information disclosure, officially launched the "Fashion Climate Innovation 30 · 60 Carbon Neutralization Acceleration Plan" ("30 · 60 Plan" for short) in 2021, and launched the online and offline climate training camp in 2022. By September 2023, a total of 21 brand enterprises, 42 manufacturing enterprises and 3 industrial clusters have joined the "30 · 60 Plan".

Due to the long chain and complex process of textile and clothing industry, many challenges may be encountered in actual operation. The CNTAC-LCA Working Group Secretariat has summarized six pain points for LCA measurement work in the past three years - collaboration, traceability, modeling, analysis, security, and promotion. LCAplus platform has provided perfect solutions using digital technology. Yan Yan introduced that LCAplus is a digital industrial platform for one-stop carbon footprint assessment, certification, and label promotion of products, integrating seven core functions of product modeling, supply chain management, comparative analysis, report management, information disclosure, database management, and process chain management, covering data collection, modeling and accounting, report analysis Emission reduction optimization and green management.

Product life cycle assessment often needs a lot of data support, and usually uses two types of data: Foreground data and Background data. Real data usually needs to be obtained through field survey, and background data usually needs to be obtained through database, both of which are essential data for product life cycle assessment. Especially in the actual product evaluation, due to the limitation of data availability, the use of background database cannot be avoided. The use of background database can improve the effect and reduce the cost. However, the lack of high-quality local databases has largely restricted the accuracy and credibility of the LCA results of Chinese textiles.

LCAplus platform provides strong support for enterprises to trace environmental data throughout the process. Yan Yan said that the China Textile Information Center has completed 32 end brands, 102 end consumer textiles, and completed complete on-site supply chain live data collection and evaluation, involving 173 suppliers, covering 13 fiber types, 6 spinning methods, 24 yarn count types, 2 fabric weaving methods, and 3 dyeing methods, covering clothing, bedding, fabrics Yarn and other textile and clothing segments.

Next, China Textile Information Center will carry out LCAplus platform trial for key enterprises, further optimize functions according to enterprise feedback, and provide application scenarios for the standard pilots of Technical Specifications for Carbon Labeling of Textiles and Technical Specifications for Carbon neutral Textile Evaluation, further expand its application scope, and integrate low-carbon concepts into more industries and products.