A dress is 22 kg of CO2 equivalent on average.
Carbon footprint of different types of dress
Wikicarbone, BaseImpact. Each dot is the carbon footprint of a dress made of a given material and manufactured in a given country.
Most frequently used materials for dresses are cotton, polyester and viscose.
Dresses are usually manufactured in China, India, Germany or Spain.
The average carbon footprint of a dress is 22 kg CO2 equivalent (kgCO2e). The lowest is Coton recycled made in Spain (11 kgCO2e), the highest is Coton made in India (41 kgCO2e).
60% of the carbon footprint comes from Knitting & Weaving.
Share of carbon footprint per steps
Wikicarbone, BaseImpact, PEFCR
Manufacturing a dress involves different processes such a Knitting & Weaving, Wet treatment and Confectioning.
Those processes require about 24 Kilowatt-hour (Kwh)of energy. That is where the bulk of carbon emissions come from.
A dress made in India has a carbon footprint 3x higher than a dress made in Spain.
Carbon footprint of a dress per country of manufacture
Wikicarbone, BaseImpact, PEFCR. Average carbon footprint for a dress depending on the country where it was manufactured
Countries rely more or less on fossil fuel to produce their electricity. That impacts the product carbon footprint.
For instance a dress manufactured in India has a carbon footprint 3x higher than a dress manufactured in Spain.
Using recycled materials emits less carbon.
Carbon footprint of a dress per material
Wikicarbone, BaseImpact, PEFCR. Average carbon footprint for a dress depending on the material it is made of.
A dress made of recycled materials tends to consume less energy and emits less carbon than a dress made of non-recycled materials.
The difference is most notable between cotton and recycled cotton.