Sustainability Report 2023-24 - Flipbook - Page 20
Life cycle assessments
Gabriel puts an active effort into making products that are durable while also considering environmental impacts. Product certifications such as the EU Ecolabel and
OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 are used to ensure and document this, as are life cycle assessments, which provide information on the products’ potential impact on the environment throughout their life cycle.
Life cycle assessment
A life cycle assessment (LCA) assesses a product’s potential
environmental impact throughout its life cycle within a wide
range of environmental parameters including climate, aquatic
environment and health.
A product’s environmental impact is calculated and assessed
by charting the total amount of resources, materials, energy,
water, waste and emissions used and/or produced throughout its life cycle. Characterisation factors, methods and software are used to convert these data into a potential impact
on the environment.
The purpose of LCAs is to gain an insight into products’ related
environmental impacts and thus to evaluate new and existing products, production technologies and production chains
from an environmental perspective and to make fact-based
decisions with due care for the environment. With a holistic
overview of environmental impacts Gabriel also ensures that
some individual environmental focus areas are not improved
at the expense of others.
The international ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards set
the framework for conducting an LCA but do not dictate the
choice of method. Different choices of method and the use
of background data from different databases can significantly influence the LCA results. It is important, therefore, not
to use and compare LCA results uncritically without taking
the underlying factors into account.
Gabriel’s LCA work
Gabriel has had a life cycle-based mindset for many years
and evaluates materials, technologies and production chains
from a broad environmental perspective. Gabriel prepared
its first LCA in 2000. LCAs can be quantified and integrated
as part of future decision-making processes.
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Gabriel has therefore chosen to insource the LCA work to
keep expertise and resources in-house and so that LCAs can
be used as an active tool.
A large part of the production chain for Gabriel’s fabrics is
under Gabriel’s control and influence as the majority of fabrics
are woven or knitted at Gabriel’s weaving mill, Gabriel Textiles and washed and dyed at Scandye, Gabriel’s part-owned
dyehouse. Gabriel’s ownership of a large part of the production chain provides direct access to consumption data from
the production. This means more precise LCA results and
enables Gabriel to act directly in the production, guided by
the LCA results.
In addition to being an internal tool, the LCA work enables
Gabriel’s employees to guide customers, suppliers and partners from a documented environmental perspective.
Environmental product declarations
– a means of communication
The demand for knowledge about the environmental impacts
of products has increased in recent years and the market also
requests LCA results, for example given in an environmental
product declaration (EPD). An EPD is a means of communicating LCA results and information on the product and the
methods chosen as the basis for the LCA. Like LCAs, EPDs
aim to support market-driven environmental improvements.
To accommodate this demand Gabriel published its first
product-related LCA results at gabriel.dk in 2023/24. The
underlying LCA report and the future EPDs are undergoing
third-party verification and are expected to become available
on the website in the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial
year. The number of fabrics with LCAs and EPDs will increase
with time. In the meantime, Gabriel supports customers and
partners by providing LCA data on request.
