Incorporating Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity into Life Cycle Assessment for the Apparel Industry
Inputs of land for raw material production and fabric manufacturing. Such land use has significant implications for biodiversity—the diversity of Earth’s species, which provide critical services such as pollination, water purification, and climate regulation.
Although land use is a major driver of biodiversity loss, there is no easily applicable method for incorporating land use impacts on biodiversity into life cycle assessment (LCA)—a widelyused tool for evaluating potential environmental impacts of a product system.