Carbon Emissions - The Use Phase

I have struggled to write recently due to starting a new job, which I am excited to say subscribe to Ecotextile. Score.

This is a quick post to share a quote from an article I have read (Issue 44, page 66) about carbon emitted as a result of the global consumption of clothing:

'The report, International Carbon Flows - Clothing, says that the global consumption of clothing results is around 330MtCO2 of emissions, with emissions from the use phase resulting in an additional 550MTCO2 per year, primarily from washing and drying but including ironing and dry cleaning, - equivalent to around 2% of total global CO2 emissions.' (Ecotextile, 2011)

Isn't the use phase just insane!? Almost double that of production, shipping and retail.

This pinpoints yet again that designers and innovators really need to explore methods to reduce the impact during the use phase.