Watershed moment for microfibres

Microfibres shed by synthetic textiles during washing are currently in the spotlight, especially their impact on aquatic ecosystems. Researchers are investigating this problem and how to prevent fibres from escaping into the environment.[1]

The wet processing of textiles is energy and water intensive, as well as requiring the use of numerous chemicals. Wet processing steps, depending on the textile product, can include sizing, desizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerisation, printing, and finishing. Many of these steps require high temperatures, mechanical agitation, and different chemicals to be added, whilst thorough rinsing with large volumes of water to remove excess chemicals is needed between steps. The use of enzymes in textile manufacture is an increasingly important way to lower the energy, water

Fabric utilisation depends directly on marker efficiency. Markers are usually paper consumables showing the outlines of the pattern for making cutting and making clothes. CAD design tools are usually used to calculate how best to arrange the pattern components on the fabric layer but in small-scale operations manual marker-based methods are commonplace.

How does it work?

There are several ways to improve fabric use:

LCA for 501s ...

Retailer reduces food loss with customers on-board

Food waste should primarily be reduced to a minimum. However, some food waste will inevitably be generated. Stores can then look for ways to put unsold groceries to use.

Food residues from the grocery trade can be either edible or non-edible.

Edible food waste includes products that have passed their 'best before' date or are removed from selection due to the store's own freshness standards but are still suitable for consumption.

When groceries end up as waste, the entire economic input used to produce and transport them is lost.

In Finland, the value of food waste in the retail grocery sector has been estimated to be 1.5 % of the total sales value. For grocery stores, food waste even causes additional work costs, when the expired products need to be collected, transported, reloaded and deposited.

Diagnosis of a building can help designers and architects to decide which aspects should be retrofitted in order to improve the energy efficiency of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.

The most important aspects to watch out for and recommended actions are:

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed to make a building more comfortable for its occupants. In the case of retail businesses that means customers and staff. Several zero-cost measures can be included to improve energy management control in retail organisations.

Useful HVAC controls include:

If lighting in a shop or warehouse uses over 12 kW/m2 of power, there is a high likelihood that savings can be made. Firstly, it is important to monitor energy consumption for lighting to find out which elements of the system are consuming the most. Find solutions to rectify the problem, whether it is replacing older fittings, using new technologies, or simply installing more energy efficient bulbs. 

A number of organisation-wide measures can make a difference: