What are the limitations of current sustainable fashion impact measurement tools?

There is no standard global measurement tool and the categories under which the measurement is done is also not clear. The clarity is missing with the manufacturers and consumers which makes it difficult to understand what should be measured and what should be reported.

let us look at fashion from two standpoints before we get to sustainable fashion. Fashion or clothing belongs in the branch of human necessities. With 6 to 7 billion people in the world everyone wears cloth whether they choose designer or fancy ones. now what is fashion; fashion is fancy. The limitations in sustainable fashion in the future will be price and usability.

What drives the consistency of an LCA calculation for a specific product category is not the approach used by a tool or another, but the so-called "Product Category Rules" which are developed either by voluntary (Type III) certifications like the EPD, the European PEF or the Italian Made in Green. They should follow the guidelines provided by ISO 14025 and while not providing a mandatory approach for LCA practitioners to follow, the are built on industry consensus and therefore should guarantee standardization. LCA tools should declare the approach use and if needed integrate one of these frameworks (the PRCs)

There are two main issuers in accurately representing the impact of a fashion product: 1) the limited industry knowledge of LCA practitioners. Resulting in a high risk of misrepresenting the actual impact. 2) Lack of Data availability and poor data quality contribute to the misrepresentation of product impact. As of today, most of the LCA conducted in the industry run on what is known as "Secondary Data" coming from sources like Ecoinvet, Sphera etc.. The limits of these data sources are: -Outdated. Often data are 5+ years old. -Scarcity of data sources. A data point can built based on data collected from a single facility and therefore can't effectively represent a global industry -Poor Data granularity -Don't consider process variation

The same consideration done above about PCR applies. Moreover, according the ISO 14040/44 an LCA should be multimetric, if a single metric is used then we are talking about Footprinting and it should be clear that it provides a partial representation of the actual product impact. The use of a footprinting approach is also regulated i.e. the Product Carbon Footprint has to follow the ISO 14067 standard.

On this again the PCR can help in providing consistency in the communication and use of LCA results. Moreover, regulations like the Green Claim Directive are exactly tackling this issue and will forbid the use a vague claims and force to use science-based, quantitative figures to justify green marketing. It will require additional investigation and qualitative research. However, the use of a single score or Ecoscore (like we have already for energy-efficient home appliances) will definitely simplify the interpretation of science-based, complex environmental impact analysis.