What data do you need to collect to prepare for environmental labelling?

Introduction

With the gradual adoption of the Climate Law, the deployment of environmental labelling is currently driving the textile and furniture industries.

The time-consuming nature of the process and the complexity of setting it up are often at the heart of discussions surrounding this topical subject. The problem is simple:

What data needs to be collected, and how can the approach be deployed across an entire product catalog to comply with regulatory requirements without spending a colossal amount of time on it?

In response to this issue, this article provides practical advice on how to implement environmental labelling in three sections:

• What data needs to be collected for environmental labelling?
• How can the approach be deployed effectively across an entire product catalog?
• What tools are available to facilitate the process?

1 - What data must be collected for environmental labelling?

Collecting product information throughout the life cycle is often one of the most time-consuming aspects of implementing environmental labelling.

To facilitate the work of the brands, the environmental display methodologies and sector-specific standards (ADEME or PEF) clearly define the mandatory data to be collected and the default data available.

The different types of data

There are two main types of data used in a life cycle assessment (LCA).

• Specific (or primary) data: these are product-specific values that are measured or calculated directly on a product (for example, the mass of each raw material making up the product).
• Semi-specific data: these are default data that can be specified by the user to improve the accuracy of the environmental assessment (for example, the fashion & apparel standard specifies that the average electricity consumption for the manufacturing stage of a T-shirt is 0.5 kWh / item). This default value can be modified by the user, for example, if he or she has more precise data on the subject.

The data to be collected as part of the environmental display is therefore specific.

💡 The average data available are often majoring data. Companies with better knowledge of their value chain will therefore be rewarded with a better result.

To ensure the comparability of results between companies, sector-specific environmental display guidelines (see our article on the subject) specify the specific data to be collected and the default values to be used.

It's important to note that from one sector to another, and from one product category to another, the data to be collected will differ.

An example of the data to be collected at each stage of production

To illustrate the above definitions with a concrete case, here is the information to be collected for each life-cycle stage as part of the environmental display.

For raw materials :

Information on raw materials is specific data only. It is therefore necessary to collect information on the raw materials used in the T-shirt, in particular the list of raw materials, their weight (or composition in % if the weight of the finished product is known) and the origin of each material.

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⚠️ It is essential to know the weight of each material. Here are two options:

• Know the final weight of the product and the % composition of the fabric
• Know for each fabric: grammage, width and consumption in linear meters.

🧶 For textile materials (natural or synthetic), information must be collected at yarn level. All you need to know is where the yarn is spun.

For manufacturing processes :

The location of each manufacturing stage is the main information to be collected as part of the environmental display. In fact, sector-specific reference systems offer average data on the energy consumption of each stage, waste rates, etc...

At the very least, the manufacturing processes to be taken into account are weaving/knitting, finishing and garment making.

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As detailed in the table, default values are available for loss rates and energy consumption for each manufacturing stage.

🏭 To find out exactly how much energy a manufacturing stage consumes, all you need to know is the time a part spends on a machine and the power of the machine (in KW).

For transport stages :

Environmental display methodologies take two types of transport into account:

• Supply transport: procurement of raw materials and transport between each stage of production
• Distribution, i.e. the routing of the finished product from the garment factory to the warehouse and then to the consumer

Fortunately, once the locations of each manufacturing stage are known, there are default values available for transport. For example, sourcing a product from China to France defaults to 20,000 km by boat and 800 km by truck.

For example, we obtain the following transport diagram:

To fill in more specific data, the information to be retrieved is as follows:

🚢 The impact of transport is directly related to the weight of the product transported, apart from mileage and means of transport, so there's no need to collect any other information.

Default values for fill rate / empty return rate are also available.

By default, delivery of a product from the warehouse to the end consumer in France is 500 km by truck (if the warehouse is located in France).

Other stages in the product life cycle (use and end-of-life phases):

For the use and end-of-life phases of products, default data are provided by the methodologies. There is therefore no need to collect specific data on these stages.

Average data available on the market

As this example shows, the average data provided by the standards makes it easier to set up an environmental display, by limiting the volume of data to be collected. On the other hand, these data are often overstated, and won't allow you to make the most of your eco-design efforts.

It is therefore becoming strategic for brands to have a better understanding of their value chain, in order to use more specific data.

Why collect more specific data?

Integrating more specific data has three major advantages:

A data quality score is currently being developed to transparently inform consumers about the ratio between specific and average data.

2 - How can this information be structured to deploy environmental labelling?

Now that you know what data you need to collect to prepare for environmental labelling, one of the big questions is how to collect and structure this information so as to be able to deploy the approach across your entire product catalog.

2.1 Collecting data on a large scale, involving all stakeholders

To ensure the success and longevity of environmental labelling projects, it is essential to be able to involve the company's various stakeholders, in particular suppliers and internal teams.

In particular, internal teams will enable you to quickly identify what data is already available internally, and what additional data needs to be collected from your suppliers.

Suppliers :

Collecting traceability information very often means involving the various suppliers in your value chain. There are two approaches to this:

• A manual approach, using Excel files for example. This approach has the advantage of being quick and easy to set up. On the other hand, it has a number of disadvantages:
• The process is generally long and time-consuming for large volumes of references, both for the supplier and for you.
• Filling errors can easily creep into files, and they are complicated to audit.
• The supplier response rate is generally lower (little added value for the supplier).
• Finally, using the results is very complex (numerous files to process by hand, etc.).
• A more automated approach, notably using specialized tools: although more complex to set up, these tools have the great advantage of facilitating the use of data and the verification of proofs, and generally offer a much more scalable approach.

🔮 To improve the response rate of suppliers, it is possible to share part of the value created with them, for example by enabling them to directly identify the eco-design levers they can implement.

2.2 Structuring information

Structuring your PLM tools to take account of environmental labelling

Many of our customers are currently thinking about upgrading their data systems to facilitate the deployment of environmental labelling. In the front line of this transformation, PLMs (Product Lifecycle Management) have a central role to play.

For this reason, it is important to structure your PLM by directly integrating the various attributes required for environmental labelling.

🧑‍💻 Environmental display tools generally offer APIs to connect directly to PLMs and automatically retrieve data.

The diagram below summarizes the ideal operation:

• integration with internal tools (PLM) to retrieve all available information on your products
• A supplier portal to complete this information with the missing data (thus avoiding the need to request information from your supplier that you already know).

🤯 Collecting and structuring data is usually a big job in the first year. But if you get it right, you'll save a lot of time for future collections!

3 - Tools available for environmental display

To link traceability information to a product's environmental impact, several tools have appeared on the market.

Public awareness tools

A number of public tools have been developed to raise companies' awareness of environmental labelling. These include Ecobalyse, which is currently developing a calculator for the textile sector, and the Eco-meuble tool for the furniture sector.

🤩 The Ecobalyse simulator documentation provides an overview of the data to be collected for the various stages in the life cycle of a textile product.

Private tools for deploying the approach across an entire product catalog

In addition to these public tools, private tools such as Waro have been developed in recent years. The development of these tools has, among other things, made it possible to roll out environmental labelling more rapidly, by enabling :

• Involve suppliers and stakeholders to facilitate data collection
• Interconnect with existing tools (ERP / PIM / PLM) to limit manual data entry
• Facilitate onboarding of product and purchasing teams as well as CSR teams
• And finally, to maximize the actionability of results (communication, eco-design, etc.).

Private tools are therefore the ideal partners for implementing a scalable solution for rolling out environmental labelling today.

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