TED's Ten:4 – Design to Reduce Energy and Water Use
Energy consumption and water usage in the textile industry are extremely high and occur at each stage of the lifecycle of textiles – at the production stage, in the use phase (where consumers use and care for textiles and garments) and at the end stage (which covers either disposal and/or re use of the material.
“ 60% of the total energy consumption in the lifecycle of a t-shirt occurs in the use phase. i.e washing, ironing, drying ” (Allwood et al, 2006)
Examples:
In the production phase:
- Exhaust printing and dyeing
- Dry patterning systems
- Air-dyeing
- Distributed manufacture
In the use phase:
- Design for no/low launder
- ‘Short life’ textiles
- Technical coatings to reduce washing
- Innovative and informative labeling
- Localisation
- Natural energy systems
