Bringing transparency to the textile industry with bAwear Score

bAwear wanted to create an easy-to-use online tool that would help companies in the textile supply chain to gain insights and take control of the environmental footprint of their products. The company reached out to PRé, and the joint efforts resulted in bAwear Score – an online service for environmental impact assessment of textiles and apparel.

About

Why is it so difficult to access reliable and credible impact calculations for textile products? That is the question that founded bAwear in 2019. As a young but experienced start-up, they believe life cycle assessment (LCA) calculations should be accessible, credible, and cost-effective. With reliable environmental insights, textile companies can make better decisions and take the first steps towards sustainable action.

Challenge

The textile supply chain is under increasing scrutiny as customers become increasingly aware of its environmental impact. Companies also need to conform to a growing number of EU and national regulations. The result? The industry is in dire need of reliable information and data on the environmental footprint of textile products. However, this proves to be challenging due to complex supply chains, various factors to consider, and the many stakeholders involved. Calculating the footprint requires both expertise in the textile sector and an in-depth understanding of life cycle assessment.

Traditionally, impact calculations are expensive, complex, and not very accessible. By combining our textile expertise with PRé’s expertise in building best-in-class LCA software, we leverage our strengths to bring accessible, scalable solutions to the textile industry.

Michel Walstock, Co-Founder/Director at bAwear Score

Conventional LCA studies are time-consuming and effort intensive. However, sustainability metrics are crucial to reduce the environmental impact of textiles and apparel. After all, you cannot manage what you do not measure. Decreasing the environmental impact of textiles and apparel starts with reliable insights about the footprint of your product. With all this in mind, bAwear and PRé joined forces and built bAwear Score.

Solution

bAwear Score is an online service for the environmental impact assessment of textile products. The life cycle assessment model at the base of the service is built in SimaPro. The model covers all processes in the supply chain from cradle to gate: from material composition to spinning, weaving, knitting and manufacturing, and finally transportation to the product’s final destination. The impact of the use phase and end-of-life will be included in the model soon. The LCA analysis and footprint calculations are done by the SimaPro calculation engine using API.

The roll-out of the tool started in the development stages. We involved key users in the design and development phase, and as a result, we were able to make bAwear Score highly relevant for tackling real-life sustainability challenges.

bAwear Score enables you to calculate, validate, compare, and communicate the environmental impact of textile materials and products. Currently, two services are available:

  • YourQuestion: an intuitive, user-friendly web application that gives you quick insights into a textile product’s footprint.
  • YourScenario: an information-as-a-service solution for detailed insights into the environmental impacts of textile products, which takes the entire supply chain into account.

Calculate the environmental footprint of more than 80 textile products – ranging from fashion to workwear to home and interior textiles – by using the YourQuestion app. The app takes into consideration the product type, material composition, color, dying technique, finishing, and production locations. The result is direct insights into three crucial environmental indicators: carbon emissions, energy use and water use. You can also compare two similar products and explore the differences in various impact areas: material, finishing or production location.

With SimaPro as the calculation engine in the background and a custom-built user interface, bAwear S
core offers a reliable solution for quick insights into textile’s footprint.

YourQuestion was brought to market in collaboration with the industry organizations Creamoda in Belgium and Modint in the Netherlands. The organizations are actively promoting the tool among their members and affiliated companies.

We paid extra attention to design an intuitive and user-friendly interface for the YourQuestion application.

YourScenario offers more advanced metrics that are based on primary data from your supply chain. With actionable sustainability insights, you can detect hotspots and design more sustainable products and supply chains.

Benefits

  • Fact-based footprint information

bAwear Score provides sustainability insights based on robust life cycle assessment methodology and reliable LCA software that has over 30 years of expertise in environmental metrics.

  • Accessible, easy-to-use tool

With its low costs and easy use, the YourQuestion app is the perfect tool to get started. The app speaks for itself, and as the need for sustainability insights grows, users can move on to YourScenario.

  • Cost-effective, reliable solution

bAwear Score is more cost-effective than a traditional LCA study, without undermining the reliability of the results. The SimaPro API connects bAwear Score to the SimaPro calculation engine and ensures robust, trustworthy results.

The first responses have been very positive, as the market is in high need of solutions. Industry organizations such as Creamoda in Belgium and Modint in the Netherlands have endorsed bAwear Score with many other interested partners and clients getting to know our services and how it helps their businesses.

Michel Walstock, Co-Founder/Director at bAwear Score


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