The French Textile Eco-Score: 2026 - Key Updates for Fashion Brands

Status:  ✅ Approved law

Recent updates: Brands that create an account on the official portal can register their GTINs to get an email alert whenever a third party declares one of their products.

The French Eco-Score, now officially called the “Environmental Cost” (coût environnemental), gives clothing sold in France a single environmental score in “impact points”: the higher the score, the bigger the impact. Scores are calculated with Ecobalyse, the French government’s official calculator.

The scheme entered into force in October 2025, when brands could start declaring their scores voluntarily. A second phase began in October 2026: since then, any third party, from comparison platforms to private citizens, can publicly declare the Environmental Cost of a brand’s products without its approval. Citizens have already declared 13 products.

Without the brand’s primary data, third parties rely on Ecobalyse’s conservative defaults, which usually give a higher (worse) score. A brand’s own declaration replaces it. That's why more and more brands are declaring their own scores: the Ecobalyse portal now lists more than 120,000 product references from around 200 brands.

Read the full French Eco-Score guide below. Prefer video? Watch our 15-minute Eco-Score crash course:

Find the French version of this article here 🇫🇷. Read more about our Eco-Score Software for Textile and Fashion.

TL;DR

• What: French Eco-Score, part of the 2021 Climate and Resilience Law. Assigns a single environmental score (Environmental Cost) to textile products sold in France. 

• Who: Applies to all producers, importers, and distributors placing textile products on the French market, regardless of country of origin.
• When: Voluntary display started on October 1, 2025. Since October 1, 2026, any third party can declare a product's score without the brand's approval. Displaying the Environmental Cost is mandatory whenever another environmental score is shown.
  

What Is the French Textile Eco-Score (Environmental Cost)?

The French “Environmental Cost” (French: coût environnemental) is part of France’s environmental labeling scheme for textiles (French: affichage environnemental), introduced by the 2021 Climate and Resilience Law.

It is a methodology developed by the French government, coordinated with ADEME (French Agency for Ecological Transition), that assigns a single score in impact points to the environmental impacts of textile products sold in France.

The method is based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and evaluates 16 environmental indicators. Each indicator is normalized and weighted according to the official methodology.

The weighted results are summed and adjusted for durability. Points for microfiber release and textile exports outside the EU are then added to produce the final score. The higher the score, the bigger the product’s environmental impact.

France is not alone. See how Italy's textile Eco-Score scheme compares, or browse our textile regulations navigator by region.

What Is the French Eco-Score Timeline?

The final decree was published in September 2025, followed by implementation in two main phases:

• October 1, 2025: Entry into force. Brands may voluntarily calculate and submit their product Eco‑Scores to the public portal. 

• October 1, 2026: If the fashion brand has not yet published a score itself, any third party, e.g., retailers, NGOs, or citizens, can publish the Environmental Cost of the brand’s products – without needing the brand’s prior approval. From October 2026, for anyone communicating any other environmental score (such as a carbon footprint on the e-commerce store), displaying the Environmental Cost label becomes mandatory.

Who Must Comply with the French Eco-Score?

The environmental labeling requirements apply to all producers, importers, and distributors who place textile products on the French market, regardless of their origin​. This also means that non-French companies are included if they market products in France. The decree does not explicitly mention exemptions for small fashion brands or specific thresholds of company size.

Which Clothing Categories Are Included? 

The Environmental Cost applies only to “produits textiles d’habillement” – clothing items made of at least 80% textile fibers by weight, whether natural or synthetic, including any trims or integrated components.

The product categories considered are the following:

1° Boxer / Briefs;

2° Underpants;

3° Socks;

4° Shirt;

5° Jeans;

6° Skirt / Dress;

7° Swimsuit;

8° Coat / Jacket;

9° Pants / Shorts;

10° Sweater;

11° T-shirt / Polo.

The following textile products are currently excluded:

• Second-hand products (only new or remanufactured products are covered).
• Products where more than 20% of the mass is made of materials not modeled in Ecobalyse, unless an acceptable substitute material exists.
• Products with electronic components.
• Shoes and leather goods (including leather clothing).
• Household linen and coverings.
• Single-use clothing.
• Technical and professional products: personal protective equipment (PPE), workwear for professional use, sportswear covered by the sports and leisure goods EPR scheme (REP ASL), and garments not covered by the textile EPR scheme (REP TLC).

Some products are not yet modeled, but might be added through an update of the methodology: bras, padded down jackets, fancy-dress costumes, 100% silk shirts, and textile accessories such as scarves, beanies and caps.

Is the French Eco-Score Mandatory?

Since October 2026, if a brand communicates any other environmental score on a product (for example, a carbon footprint on product pages), it must also display the official Environmental Cost. If the other score is on a physical medium, such as a hangtag, the Environmental Cost must be there too.

Third-Party Eco-Score Declarations: What Changed on October 1, 2026

Since October 2026, “personne physique ou morale” (any individual or organization) – NGOs, retailers, comparison websites, industry associations, journalists, or even citizens – can officially declare the environmental cost of a product if the brand itself hasn’t done so.

This could look like:

• A big e-commerce platform integrating Eco-Scores into its product listings, auto-computing scores for any brand that hasn’t published its own.
• Fashion Revolution releasing its annual Fashion Impact Report and calculating missing brand scores using publicly available product data.
• A journalist investigating label transparency independently calculating Eco-Scores for brands that haven’t done so.

What Data Do Third Parties Use?

Most mandatory data is already public: fiber composition is on the label, and AGEC requires larger brands to publish online where weaving, dyeing, and assembly take place.

For optional data, third parties use the Ecobalyse calculator's default values. These defaults are conservative, for example:

• Product range: 100,000 references, which signals fast fashion and lowers the durability coefficient.

• Repair: a large brand with no repair service.
  

• Spinning origin: if unknown, Ecobalyse uses India as the reference country for transport distances.

Though not a legal requirement, this setup creates a strong incentive for brands to calculate their own scores, because:

1. Scores calculated by third parties usually result in a higher (worse) Environmental Cost.

2. Scores declared by brands replace third-party scores on the portal immediately. Third parties then have a maximum of one month to update their own communication.

Below, see an example of how real data lowers the score of the same T-shirt: from 1,558 to 777 points with real durability data, and to 998 points with French production.

What Is the Ecobalyse Confidence Index?

The confidence index shows who declared a product on the portal and how much access they are likely to have to primary data:

• Strong: the brand, or a provider it has delegated.

• Average: a third-party company without the brand’s delegation.

• Weak: a citizen.

Citizens declare through a simplified form. Optional parameters are set to default values automatically, and the product’s weight is set to a default mass for its category. Companies, including brands and third-party companies, declare by CSV upload or API.

Even a citizen’s score rated “Weak” is public and shown as the product’s Environmental Cost. It stays that way until the brand declares its own score.

Note: If several third parties declare the same product and the brand has not, the portal shows their average score, weighted by confidence index.

Above, see an example of a Promod product declared by Carbonfact on the official portal. As the declaration is made by a delegated provider (Carbonfact), it is rated “Strong”.

How Can Brands Get Notified of Third-Party Submissions?

Brands should create an account on the portal and register their GTINs (barcodes), even if they are not ready to declare yet. The portal uses GTINs to match third-party declarations to the brand and sends an email as soon as one of its products is declared.

A brand’s declared score overrides any third-party score, and the confidence index then changes to “Strong”. We recommend, however, that brands declare their scores preemptively, as a defensive measure, so that a third-party score is never shown for their products.

Declared scores are public on the portal, but brands don’t have to show them on their own channels, such as product pages or hangtags.

Once declared, the score may be reused by third parties such as retailers or NGOs, but any such use must rely on the brand’s declared score rather than an externally calculated one.

See Real Textile Eco-Score Data in Action: VF Corporation's Journey

More and more of Carbonfact's customers declare the French Eco-Score to stay competitive in the French market – VF Corporation is one of them.

Watch our on-demand webinar to see the patterns emerging from early Eco-Score submissions, and hear how VF Corporation calculated its French Eco-Score with Carbonfact for The North Face – the data preparation, the challenges, and the lessons they're carrying into Timberland, Vans, and Napapijri.

How Does Ecobalyse Calculate the Environmental Cost?

Ecobalyse is the French government’s official tool for calculating the Environmental Cost of textile products. Users enter basic product data, such as material composition, weight, place of manufacture, and processing.

The tool then uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to turn it into a single score in impact points, covering impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, biodiversity damage, and microfiber pollution.

Currently, the Ecobalyse calculator is only available in French. Carbonfact has developed a free Eco-Score calculation and benchmark tool, with an English interface, endorsed by Ecobalyse.

How to Calculate Environmental Cost?

The Environmental Cost must be calculated and displayed for each sales reference, which refers to a unique product colorway (référence couleur). This means that each color of a product requires its own score. The score must be based on a single representative size, as defined by the official size table for each market segment (e.g., men, women, children). 

Brands cannot publish different scores for different sizes – the representative size is used as the benchmark for the entire size range of that colorway.

Step 1: Life-Cycle Assessment

Ecobalyse models the full life cycle of garments: from raw materials, through processing (spinning, textile formation, coloration and finishing, assembly), to transport and distribution, use, and end-of-life.

Step 2: Compute 16 PEF Impact Indicators

Computes all 16 Product Environmental Footprint categories. Changes to weightings under the Eco-Score methodology include: freshwater ecotoxicity carries a 21.06% weight, and the modeled impact of organic substances is doubled, while the two human-toxicity indicators receive zero weight.

Environmental impact categories and weights:

Step 3: Normalizations and weightings 

To get a single Environmental Cost score, Ecobalyse goes through two steps:

• Normalization: Each impact (climate, water, toxicity, etc.) is converted into comparable “impact points”. Ecobalyse builds on the PEF normalization factors, but some differ, for example, for freshwater ecotoxicity.

• Weighting: Each impact is given a share of importance (see the table above). Climate change keeps the same 21.06% weight as in PEF. Freshwater ecotoxicity also gets 21.06%, much more than in PEF, and the two human toxicity indicators get 0%. The other weights are adjusted to match, so they differ slightly from PEF.

Step 4: Additional Fashion-Specific Penalties

• Beyond the PEF metrics, Ecobalyse adds two fixed-point categories to capture key apparel issues:
  • Export outside of EU: penalizes used garments collected in France that are shipped abroad, instead of being reused or recycled locally.
  • Microfiber release: adds points for the fiber fragments a garment sheds over its whole life cycle (production, use, and end of life). It covers all fibers, natural and synthetic, and weights how long the fiber persists in the environment (70%) more than how much it sheds (30%). Synthetics score worst, because they barely degrade.
    

Durability Coefficient

Ecobalyse divides each product’s total life-cycle impact by a durability coefficient, between 0.67 (low durability) and 1.45 (high durability). This coefficient depends on two main inputs:

• Range breadth (50%): The maximum number of product references a brand sells on any single day of the year in the product’s market segment (women, men, children, baby or underwear). A wide range signals rapid trend turnover, typical of fast fashion, and lowers the durability coefficient. If the brand does not provide this data, Ecobalyse applies a default of 100,000 references (worst case).

• Repair incentive (50%): Based on the ratio between average repair cost and the brand’s reference sales price (retail price of the product), plus whether the brand offers a recognized repair service. If no price or repair info is available, Ecobalyse assumes no repair service and applies conservative defaults. Note: For small and medium brands (under 250 employees), only the repair-cost-to-price ratio counts. 

The resulting coefficient increases or decreases the assumed number of wears for the garment.

Higher coefficient → product lasts longer, impacts spread across more uses → lower cost per wear.
Lower coefficient → product lasts fewer wears, impacts concentrated → higher cost per wear.

Which Data Do You Need to Calculate Environmental Cost?

To generate a compliant Eco-Score, brands (or third parties) must provide product data through the Ecobalyse tool or its API.

Mandatory Parameters

The mandatory parameters in Ecobalyse are the minimum data points needed to generate an Environmental Cost score, ensuring that every product can be scored consistently, regardless of brand data availability. 

1. Product category
2. Mass of the finished product
3. Nature & percentage of raw materials
4. Geographical Location of textile formation (weaving/knitting)
5. Geographical Location of ennoblement (finishing)
6. Geographical Location of confection (assembly)

Note: An ‘unknown country’ value is only allowed for raw material origin and spinning. The locations of weaving/knitting, finishing, and assembly must always be provided.

Optional Parameters 

Not required, but highly recommended. If left blank, Ecobalyse uses conservative defaults: a 100,000-item product range, a large company with no repair service, and a default reference price per category.

Providing real values here helps lower the score.

1. Remanufactured vs. new status
2. Number of products offered in the segment
3. Reference price
4. Company size & repair-service offering
5. Geographical origin of raw material sourcing
6. Geographical origin of spinning
7. Type & % printed surface (finishing)
8. Application of a washing process
9. Air-transport share
10. List of accessories

Note: If you have real data for a given parameter (say, your actual % of air freight or your true repair-service take-up), you must feed those numbers into the calculation and not use defaults.

Fixed Parameters

(Preset by product type; cannot be changed)

1. Spinning type
2. Yarn titration
3. Weaving/knitting process
4. Weight linkage to category
5. Dye type (finishing)
6. Manufacturing complexity
7. Loss rate in confection
8. Dormant-stock rate

These parameters are fixed at sector-average values because brand-specific data is hard to verify, their impact on the score is small, and standardizing them keeps results consistent across all products.

Carbonfact supports the French Eco-score by integrating directly with the Ecobalyse API

Here’s a simplified explanation of how the score is calculated:

1. Product-specific data is extracted from your product files.
2. This data is mapped to the Carbonfact taxonomy for consistency.
3. We convert the mapped data to match the Ecobalyse taxonomy requirements.
4. The required parameters are sent to the Ecobalyse API, which returns the official Eco-Score
5. The Eco-Score is displayed directly on each product’s page within the platform.

Eco-Score software for textile brands

What Is the Eco-Score Publishing Process?

Scores are declared on the official portal. Brands can declare themselves or through a delegated provider. Since October 2026, third parties can also declare. It allows submissions via CSV upload, API, or manual entry, and includes delegation options for third-party representatives (e.g., consultancies or LCA experts).

Declaring product Eco-Score takes these steps:

1. Calculate the score: Any tool can be used: in-house software, the open-source Ecobalyse code, or the public calculator. The only requirement is to follow the official calculation rules.

2. Declare on Ecobalyse: Before communicating the score, the declarant (brand or third party) must publish a data record on Ecobalyse.

   1. Available to the public: the score in impact points, its breakdown by impact category, the durability coefficient, the product reference, the calculation date, the declarant’s legal status, and the methodology version.

   2. Restricted: the detailed calculation data, which only the authorities (DGCCRF, the environment and economy ministries, and ADEME) can access.

3. Communicate: Once the data is on the portal, the brand/third-party may display the score wherever it informs consumers: e-commerce pages, product listings, shelf labels, apps, printed catalogs, social media, etc. The visual must follow the standard label rules.

How Should Brands Display the Environmental Cost on Labels and Online?

Display of the score includes:

• Mandatory Header: Always include the words “Environmental Cost” ("Coût environnemental" in France).
• Pictogram of Impact Points: A simple icon alongside the total “points d’impact” calculated for the product.
• Normalization per 100 g: Below (or beside) the total points, display the same number of points recalculated per 100 g of product mass.

Digital Display: Whenever you show the Environmental Cost on a website or app, you must include a link to the full dataset on the official portal.

Graphics: You cannot modify the official design – only scale it up or down proportionally if needed.

Minimum Size Requirements:

• On a shelf label or product page, the Environmental Cost must be at least as large as the price text.
• On physical packaging or hangtags, it must remain clearly legible.
• In all media (print or digital), its size must match or exceed any other environmental score or label you display for the same product.

Textile Eco-Score: Updates and Revisions 

A product declaration cannot be deleted. However, it can be modified. The Eco-Score framework allows for updates to ensure accuracy and reflect improved data:

• Update frequency: Brands can update their scores at most once every three months with more precise data or corrections.

• Mandatory revisions: If the methodology changes, brands must revise their scores within 12 months to remain compliant. This rule doesn’t apply when the score was already communicated by marking or labeling on the product or its packaging. In practice, products already labeled don’t have to be relabeled.

This structured approach ensures that the Eco-Score reflects the most accurate and current information over time.

Methodology: French Eco-Score vs PEFCR

The French Textile Eco-Score is a simplified LCA-based method designed for consumer-facing applications. It introduces novel parameters such as emotional durability and the export of textile waste outside the EU.

The PEFCR for Apparel & Footwear, in contrast, is a more detailed framework. It is supported by the EF 3.1 database and applies the standardized EF 3.1 impact assessment method. Many of the same modeling principles used in the PEFCR also underpin parts of the French framework.

This table summarizes some key differences between the two methods. It is not exhaustive – feel free to suggest additions if you notice other relevant divergences!

How Can Carbonfact Help Your Brand?

Automated Eco-Score calculation for all products: Carbonfact's Eco-Score Software imports all your data, generating Eco-Scores for all products in scope without manual work.

Compare against category benchmark products: Carbonfact’s platform allows you to see how your product compares against industry averages and decide whether to publish or improve first.

Simulate and improve your Eco-Score: Use Carbonfact’s Eco-design Tool to simulate products with differing materials and processes – so you can see and improve your score before publishing.

Push data directly to the French declaration portal: Carbonfact is integrated with Ecobalyse, so you can submit your calculated Eco-Scores directly to the French portal.