A digital product passport’s quality depends on the quality of the data that feeds it.
That’s the message behind “The Denim Passport,” a new white paper by EIM by Jeanologia, a software and industry standard to measure the environmental footprint of textile and garment production processes, and BCome, an impact measurement and traceability platform for the fashion industry.
The white paper provides a practical example of how real data from denim finishing processes can be incorporated into product environmental impact analysis to deliver more accurate and representative results.
In this case, EIM by Jeanologia provides the “zoom lens” by measuring the impact of finishing processes directly on the factory floor, including water and energy consumption, chemical use and worker health. BCome provides the full picture by integrating the data into the garment’s life cycle assessment and accounting for impacts of earlier stages in the supply chain.
Using real data, the case study compares a 100 percent cotton jean with a conventional finish using stone wash and potassium permanganate spray to a 100 percent cotton jean made with Jeanologia’s Atmos technology, a garment-finishing and stonewash process that uses air to create authentic effects on denim.
With Atmos, factory measurements show reductions of 96.3 percent in water consumption, 20.8 percent in energy consumption and 38.2 percent in process-related emissions. Chemical impact drops by 77 percent, and the worker health indicator improves by 93 percent. These improvements are reflected in the EIM Score, which falls from 78 points (high impact) for the conventional process to 17 points (low impact) with Atmos.
This data is applied to the garment’s life cycle assessment, which evaluates the improvements in the context of the whole product. BCome’s assessment includes the impact of cutting, sewing, assembly and packaging at the factories where the finished product is made. The results show reductions of 1.99 percent in global warming impact, 1.18 percent in the water scarcity indicator and 9.88 percent in marine eutrophication.
The white paper explains how the strategic partnership between EIM by Jeanologia and BCome closes information gaps and provides a complete audit trail—offering companies a competitive advantage as they face regulatory pressure. It underscores how “having a QR code or a digital product sheet does not, on its own, guarantee the quality of the information behind it” and that for digital product passports to be useful, the data must be “linked to the product, structured and backed by reliable sources.”
Another takeaway is how insight into a garment’s impact can help brands assess production alternatives and base their decisions on more representative information.
“We need to understand what lies behind the product, connect the different stages and get the whole chain speaking the same language. Measure to understand, compare and improve,” said Begoña García, director of EIM.
