New paradigm needed for carbon calculations, wool scientist says
A meeting of a group called the Sustainable Livestock Intergroup took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on May 21. The main topic of discussion at the gathering was the ways in which wool and leather make positive contributions to the environment.
Prominent wool scientist, Dr Paul Swan, addressed the meeting and told members of the European Parliament that lifecycle assessment methods that have had a significant influence on clothing brands’ material choices are flawed. He said: “They use a decades-old accounting thought-process. They count all carbon emissions as though they were new and permanent and do not recognise the distinction between fossil carbon and biogenic carbon.”
Fossil carbon refers to adding to the atmosphere (after millions of years of being stored) emissions of greenhouse gases from hydrocarbons. Biogenic carbon includes gases that animals emit as part of the biological carbon cycle.
Sydney-based Dr Swan argued that a new paradigm was required “to allow us to differentiate”.
He explained that 32 case studies are under way or planned across “major apparel wool suppliers” in the US, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. He said he hoped the results of these studies would encourage policy-makers to adopt new accounting methods that make it possible to report biogenic carbon accurately.
“Our fibres are made from recycled life,” Dr Swan said. “They represent life from life. We must take this overdue opportunity to correct long-term faults in the way we assess the sustainability of materials.”
