A Practical Approach to Assess the Environmental Impact of Footwear using Life Cycle Assessment Principles Andrew Hudson, BLC Leather Technology Centre Ltd (UK)

1. Moving towards
sustainability
through innovation

2. A Practical Approach to Assess the Environmental Impact
of Footwear using Life Cycle Assessment Principles
Eurofins BLC Leather Technology Centre Ltd
Dr. Andrew Hudson
andrew_h@blcleathertech.com
Managing Director

3. Footwear
How Can I Measure the Environmental Impact?

4. Life Cycle Assessment
A complex but detailed tool
An LCA considers the entire life
cycle of a product, from raw
material extraction and acquisition,
through energy and material
production and manufacturing, to
use and end-of-life treatment and
final disposal

5. Life Cycle Assessment
The Pros and Cons
In a perfect world, all parts of the supply chain would do detailed LCA’s
Why should you consider LCA’s
✓ They are Science Based Metrics
✓ They can be used in Environmental,
Social, Governance (ESG) Reporting
✓ You can use a combination of measured,
calculated or estimated data
Why avoid LCAs’?
 They are expensive
 They generally require an LCA expert
to support at all stages of the analysis
 They require significant data input from
all parts of the organisation

6. Life Cycle Assessment
A complex but detailed tool
How can we achieve the benefits of
an LCA without the drawbacks?

7. Footwear Sustainability Tool based on
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Principles

8. Technical Expertise
➢ Footwear
➢ Sustainability
+
LCA Expertise
➢ Software
➢ Sustainability
Footwear Sustainability Tool – ‘The Partnership’

9. Footwear Sustainability Tool – Meet the Developer: PRé Sustainability
• In 1990 PRé developed the first version of SimaPro
• This is now the world’s most widely used LCA software
• Trusted by Industry and Academia
• Developer of ReCiPe and Eco-Indicator 99: widely
recognized and applied environmental assessment
methods
• Initiator of the industry-led Roundtable for
Product Social Metrics

10. Build the model for category Footwear Configure Data Input
Calculate Environmental Impacts and Report
Draft PEFCR as Guideline
Footwear Sustainability Tool
Key Stages

31. How Brands and Manufacturers
can use the Tool

32. Measuring and
Reporting Impacts*
Investor & Client
Regulatory
Consumer
EXAMPLES
• GHG Protocol
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting
Directive
EXAMPLE
• ESG Reports
EXAMPLE
• Digital Product Passports
* Please see separate recommendations and disclaimers on use

33. Footwear Life Cycle Assessment
How the Results are Used
➢ Identify which parts of your footwear supply chain are causing the biggest impacts
and target improvements accordingly
➢ Compare different input materials, from different locations, for different footwear
components
➢ Compare different footwear styles to identify those which are better or worse
performing
➢ Use the tool to calculate potential sustainability impacts during the footwear design
phase (materials, locations, etc) to optimise performance

34. Footwear Life Cycle Assessment Tool
➢ Is a low cost Pay-As-You-Go (no subscription)
➢ It will allow you to do 1 product assessment or 1000’s
➢ Is a web-based tool - no software required
➢ It does not require expertise to use

35. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION