Carbonfact Textile LCA Database

The open-source reference database for textile lifecycle assessment.

⚠️ Soft release. This is an initial release shared with a small group of practitioners in the field to gather feedback from the LCA and textile communities before communicating more openly. Datasets, methodology, and documentation may still evolve over the coming weeks based on the feedback we receive — please treat version numbers below 1.x as preview and check the changelog before re-using results across releases.

In particular, the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) Facility Benchmark is a key secondary data source for several process datasets (notably dyeing, and wet-processing energy/water more broadly). The Aii benchmark itself is actively being updated, and we plan to refresh the affected Carbonfact datasets as new Aii releases become available.

If you spot something worth improving or have data to contribute, see the Contributing section below — we'd love to hear from you.

What is this?

The Carbonfact Textile LCA Database is a free, open-source collection of lifecycle assessment (LCA) datasets for core textile manufacturing processes, with impact scores calculated using EF 3.1 characterization factors across 16 PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) impact indicators. Every dataset includes data quality ratings.

What's included

Process	Datasets	Technologies	Functional Unit
Spinning	159	Ring spun, Melt spinning, Open end rotor	1 kg yarn
Knitting	13	Flat, Circular, Seamless, Hosiery, 3D	1 kg fabric
Weaving	19	Air jet, Rapier, Water jet, Projectile	1 kg fabric
Dyeing	38	Exhaust, Continuous, Pad steam, Thermosol	1 kg dyed textile
Shoe Assembly	5	Sneaker (VN, GLO), Women's Boots (CN, GLO, IT)	1 pair / 1 kg
Synthetic PU Leather	2	DMF-free (water-borne), DMF-based (solvent-based)	1 m² PU leather
Natural Rubber	4	STR production (TH, ID, CI, VN)	1 kg STR
Use Phase	15	Dry cleaning, Hand washing, Machine washing (30/40/60°), Tumble drying, Ironing, Detergents	1 kg textile / 1 min / 1 kg detergent
Total	255

Upcoming

• Printing
• Fabric Finishing
• Nonwoven Fabric Formation
• Viscose
• Apparel Assembly
• Dyeing and Printing Chemicals
• Synthetic PU Leather (DMF-free & DMF-based)
• Bovine Leather
• Natural Rubber (STR Production)
• Footwear Assembly
• Use Phase (Laundry)

Data files

Each process directory contains 2 files:

File	Description
impact-scores.csv	Emission factors (LCIA results) across all 16 EF 3.1 impact indicators, plus Data Quality Rating (DQR) scores for each dataset. Where available, includes an Input required (kg) column — the kg of input material needed to produce 1 kg of output (e.g. 1.18 means 1.18 kg of input per 1 kg of output). See Handling material losses for how to apply it. This is the primary results file.
inventory-brightway.xlsx	Brightway/Activity Browser compatible lifecycle inventory (LCI). Can be directly imported into Brightway2 for further LCA modeling.

Handling material losses

Yarn and other material losses are not modelled inside the process datasets — the process inventories contain no waste-yarn or waste-material exchanges. They are meant to be applied externally by the caller using the Input required (kg) value (this is the column name in the CSV files; it is sometimes referred to as the Input-Output Ratio, or IOR, in methodology docs).

To correctly account for material losses, the caller must:

1. Scale the upstream material input by the process-specific Input required (kg), so the material-production burden reflects the actual loss rate. For example, 1 kg of knitted fabric at Input required (kg) = 1.05 means modelling 1.05 kg of upstream yarn production.
2. Add a material waste flow for the lost material (e.g. textile waste to recycling, landfill, or incineration) to account for the end-of-life treatment of the fraction that did not end up in the product.

Auxiliary and chemical waste flows (oils, cleaning agents, wastewater treatment, etc.) are already embedded in the process emission factors and do not need to be added separately.

Impact indicators

All datasets report results for the 16 EF 3.1 impact indicators:

Code	Indicator	Unit
ACD	Acidification	molH+e/kg
ETF	Ecotoxicity, freshwater	CTUe/kg
FRU	Fossil resource use	MJ/kg
FWE	Eutrophication, freshwater	kgPe/kg
GHG	Climate change	kgCO2eq/kg
HTC	Human toxicity, cancer	CTUhtc/kg
HTN	Human toxicity, non-cancer	CTUhtn/kg
IOR	Ionising radiation	kBqU235e/kg
LDU	Land use	Pt/kg
MRU	Mineral resource use	kgSbe/kg
OZD	Ozone depletion	kgCFC11e/kg
PCO	Photochemical ozone formation	kgNMVOCe/kg
PMA	Particulate matter	dis.inc./kg
SWE	Eutrophication, marine	kgNe/kg
TRE	Eutrophication, terrestrial	molNe/kg
WTU	Water use	m3Weq/kg

Methodology

For a general introduction to the LCA approach, see the methodology overview. Each process directory contains detailed methodology documentation covering system boundaries, data sources, allocation rules, and modeling choices:

• Spinning methodology
• Knitting methodology
• Weaving methodology
• Dyeing methodology
• Shoe Assembly methodology (Sneaker + Women's Boots)
• Synthetic PU Leather methodology
• Natural Rubber methodology
• Use Phase methodology

Cross-cutting methodology docs (applicable to all processes):

• Impact indicators — Full table of 16 EF 3.1 indicators
• Data Quality Rating framework — PEF DQR scoring methodology
• Capital goods (PDF) — Machine amortization approach
• Building infrastructure (PDF) — Building allocation approach
• Indirect energy (PDF) — HVAC, compressors, lighting and auxiliaries allocation

Background database & pre-calculated scores

If you want to use the emission factors or pre-calculated impact scores, these are shared openly in this repository. The impact-scores.csv file in each process directory gives you ready-to-use results.

The lifecycle inventories in this repository are built on top of ecoinvent 3.12 as the background database. If you want to run these inventories in an LCA software (e.g. Brightway, Activity Browser, SimaPro, openLCA), you will need a valid ecoinvent license.

Versioning & changelog

This project follows Semantic Versioning. Major versions indicate breaking schema changes, minor versions add new datasets or processes, and patch versions fix data errors.

See CHANGELOG.md for a full history of changes.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the LCA and textile communities. See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines; in short, here's what we're actively looking for:

• Report data errors or methodology issues — open an issue or start a discussion.
• Submit a new dataset — if you've modelled a process that fits the scope (textile manufacturing or use phase), open a PR following the structure of an existing process folder.
• Point us at a good non-LCA source — if you don't have an LCI but know of a solid technical reference (industry benchmark, academic paper, supplier disclosure) for a process we don't yet cover, get in touch and we can talk about modelling it together.
• Suppliers: share primary data — most of the current datasets are built on secondary data. Our vision is to progressively collect primary data from manufacturers to improve quality. If you're a supplier willing to share process data for one of the existing processes, we'll run an LCA of your process in return. Your data can remain anonymous and be averaged with other suppliers' data so the published dataset stays fully anonymised.

For supplier data-sharing or any other partnership questions, contact us at science@carbonfact.com.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

What you can do

• Use the data for any purpose, including commercial use — no permission needed.
• Share — copy and redistribute the data in any medium or format.
• Adapt — remix, transform, modify, or build upon the datasets (e.g. improve an inventory, add new exchanges, recalculate with updated characterization factors).

What you must do

• Give credit — You must include the following attribution when sharing or using the data:

  Data source: Carbonfact Textile LCA Database, CC BY-SA 4.0

  We strongly encourage displaying this attribution on the same page or screen where emission factors or impact scores derived from this database are shown, rather than burying it in a bibliography or appendix.

• ShareAlike — if you modify or improve the datasets and distribute your version, you must release it under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license (or a compatible one). This ensures improvements stay open for the community.

What you cannot do

• Add restrictions — you may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Commercial licensing

For companies that need different attribution terms or cannot comply with the ShareAlike requirement, a separate commercial license is available. Contact us at science@carbonfact.com.

Citation

If you use this database in your work, please cite it as:

@dataset{carbonfact_textile_lca_2026,
  title     = {Carbonfact Textile LCA Database},
  author    = {Carrières, Vincent and Vandepaer, Laurent and Vieira, Gustavo},
  year      = {2026},
  version   = {1.1.0},
  url       = {https://github.com/carbonfact/textile-lca-database},
  license   = {CC-BY-SA-4.0}
}

Quick start (Python)

import pandas as pd

knitting = pd.read_csv("datasets/knitting/impact-scores.csv")
print(knitting[["Activity", "GHG"]].to_string(index=False))