Most frequently used1 materials for dresses are cotton, polyester and viscose. Dresses are usually2 manufactured in China, India, Germany or Spain. The average carbon footprint of a dress is 22 kg CO2 equivalent (kgCO2e)3. The lowest is Cotton recycled made in Spain (11 kgCO2e), the highest is Cotton made in India (41 kgCO2e).
60% of the carbon footprint comes from knitting and weaving.
Manufacturing a dress involves different processes such a knitting & weaving, wet treatment and confectioning.Those processes require about 24 Kilowatt-hour (Kwh)4 of energy. That is where the bulk of carbon emissions come from.
A dress made in India has a carbon footprint 3x higher than a dress made in Spain.
Countries rely more or less on fossil fuel to produce their electricity. That impacts the product carbon footprint. For instance a dress manufactured in India has a carbon footprint 3x higher than a dress manufactured in Spain. 5
Using recycled materials emits less carbon.
A dress made of recycled materials tends to consume less energy and emits less carbon than a dress made of non-recycled materials. The difference is most notable between cotton and recycled cotton.
