Carbon Footprint of a Shirt

This page analyzes the carbon footprint across the entire life cycle of shirts, providing key insights to guide sustainable design and manufacturing strategies. Professionals can benchmark performance and identify emissions hotspots to prioritize reduction efforts.

11.98 kg CO2e The Carbon Footprint of a Shirt Shirt Carbon Footprint
What's the Carbon Footprint of A Shirt?

What's the Carbon Footprint of A Shirt?

The average carbon footprint of a shirt is 14.68 kg CO₂e based on an analysis of 87,856 products. Shirt emissions range from 5.64 to 35.49 kg CO₂e, with an average product mass of 329.43 g and 4 components.
  • Minimum footprint: 5.64 kg CO2e
  • Median footprint: 11.98 kg CO2e
  • Maximum footprint: 35.49 kg CO2e

Carbon Emissions by Process Step in Shirt Production

Each Shirt's footprint includes emissions from multiple manufacturing stages. The following process steps were identified as carbon hotspots for Shirt:
  • Raw Materials and Yarn Formation 3.57 kg CO₂e
  • Finishing 1.40 kg CO₂e
  • Coloration 0.83 kg CO₂e
Carbon Emissions by Process Step in Shirt Production

Key Insights from the Environmental Data on Shirt

Raw Material Emissions Hotspot

The combined raw materials and yarn formation step accounts for 3.57 kg CO₂e, the highest emissions source for shirts. This suggests a need to prioritize sustainable material sourcing and efficient processing.

Finishing Stage Improvements

The finishing stage is the second highest at 1.40 kg CO₂e, indicating an opportunity to explore cleaner finishing technologies and chemistry to reduce this impact.

Product Mass Relationship

With an average mass of 329.43 g, there may be a relationship between product mass and emissions that could inform light-weighting or material reduction strategies.

Component Complexity Factor

Shirts consist of 4 components on average. Evaluating component design for simplified manufacturing and assembly could reveal efficiency gains.

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CHOSEN by Hundreds of BRANDS AND SUPPLIERS

"Shoes can consist of up to 1500 components. Before Carbonfact, we asked our developers to weigh every single piece but such a manual approach is not scalable. Carbonfact helped us  in deriving rules to overcome data gaps by creating accurate assumptions."

Philipp Engels
Product Sustainability Lead at On
Philipp Engels

"With Carbonfact we can do full product LCAs on all of our products. Thanks to measuring things early on, we can simulate how a new product is going to have a different impact compared to the current version. For example, one of our new products is expected to decrease its footprint by a fourth just by designing it differently."

Jessica Genta
Strategy & Sustainability at La Sportiva
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"We needed a solution that could handle the complexities of the apparel supply chain, provide year-to-date insights, and support with detailed scenario analyses for our supply chain. For us Carbonfact is not just a Carbon Management Software, but an extension of our sustainability team."

Florence Degoy Vacher
Secrétaire Générale at A.P.C.
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"What's really special about Carbonfact is the way that it can work alongside the VF brands to help identify where there are gaps in our product impact data. But also helping us bridge towards improving that data. So it's much more of a partner to solve the challenges we have."

Julian Lings
Senior Sustainability Manager, The Northface
Julian Lings

"The Explorer is, for sure, my favorite feature. I love the ability to look at the breakdown of the carbon footprint per product line, for processes or on a material basis. That's so dynamic that we're able to leverage it in different ways depending on the projects that we're working on or the teams that we're engaging with."

Emily Foster
Director of Planet & People Impact at Burton
Emily Foster

"Carbonfact's offerings, particularly its product-level focus for footwear and apparel, ensures we can both measure our carbon footprint and actively find ways to reduce it. Carbonfact has been instrumental in helping us model different scenarios and make informed decisions that align with our sustainability goals."

Aileen Lerch
Sustainability at Allbirds
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"We have moved from spend-based carbon accounting into Carbonfact to prioritize primary data and get more accurate calculations. The main reason for us to choose Carbonfact is that we now not only get our company's total carbon footprint but also break it down for each of our products."

Malin Bosaeus
Global Sustainability Manager at Happy Socks
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References

Data sourced from Carbonfact’s proprietary database, powered by over 50 million LCAs run on textile, fashion, and footwear products. The methodology is aligned with the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and adapted for product category specificity.

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