Climate Saving Calculation

How we calculate climate savings for NA-KD Circle products.

We have calculated the emission savings from buying pre-loved items on NA-KD Circle together with the ‘2050 Consultancy” - the total savings per item is, on average, 2,6 kg CO2e compared to if you would have purchased a product as new instead.

The climate savings is calculated in two steps:

First, the saved emissions are calculated, including emissions from materials, production and transportation from suppliers to our warehouses.
Secondly, emissions still arise from purchasing second-hand garments. We have included the additional transport emissions in our calculations. The user phase, including potential additional laundry of the garment’s extended life, has been excluded from these calculations as qualitative figures are hard to find and would be based on estimation only.

(Emission savings from second-hand sales are calculated following the attributional approach of the GHG protocol)

Details on how we calculated the saved emissions

Raw materials and fabric manufacturing (tier 2-4)

We looked at all products that have been sold through NA-KD Circle in 2021 from one customer to another. Then we summarized the weight of all materials that these products were made of, e.g. the amount of cotton, organic cotton, polyester, recycled polyester, etc. To consider waste from material and fabric production processes, 5% weight is added to the material weight. For some products, assumptions had to be made regarding weight and material. Metal is assumed to have similar raw material characteristics as brass, rubber as thermoplastic polyurethane rubber, mohair as wool fabric, and llama as alpaca. Lastly, faux suede and synthetic material were assumed to have comparable properties to polyester fabric. Then, emission factors from the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (2022) were used to calculate the total emissions saved from raw materials and fabric manufacturing. For the materials that were unknown or did not have a similar material available in Higg MSI, weighted average emissions per kg of material were calculated. This was based on the weight and emissions of all known NA-KD materials.

Production - cut & sew (tier 1)

At NA-KD, we gather environmental performance data from our producers using the Higg Index and the Facility Environmental Module (FEM). Approximately 36% of purchased products in 2021 are covered by data from reporting factories in Higg FEM that also share their actual emissions. Emissions from reporting producers are allocated to NA-KD based on NA-KD’s quantity purchased. For producers where actual data was missing, average values from reporting producers were applied together with country-specific electricity mixes to form emissions.

For NA-KD Circle, an average production (tier 1) emission per item was estimated based on the total production (tier 1) emissions and total purchased products.

Transportation

For savings on transportation emissions, we looked at the average CO2e emission per item for transport from our suppliers to our warehouses and from our warehouses to customers. This was calculated based on the average emission per kg of items shipped. We calculated the average weight per item based on the reported weight of materials and the number of purchased items.

(Our transport emissions have been calculated by TEKO (our industry association in Sweden) and according to the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) methodology)

Details on how we calculated the emissions that still arise from buying pre-loved products

Additional transports that occur from selling and buying pre-loved products on NA-KD circle are the following:

Customer to postage office

To calculate emissions from how customers get to the postage office to send their pre-loved NA-KD product/s, it was assumed that customers have a post office at the same distance as a shopping mall. An estimation was made regarding distance and travel mode based on statistics of travel patterns in larger cities to shopping malls. These estimations were that 28% of the consumers travel by car, 38% walk, and 34% travel by bus. The emissions from transport were based on an average Swedish car (2020) and emissions from a bus in an urban area. We then looked at how many packages we have received from customers with pre-loved products for sale to calculate the additional emissions from these transports.

Customer to NA-KD warehouse

We looked at all NA-KD Circle incoming shipments from customers, from what countries they came from, the number of packages and weight. An estimation on how they had been transported was done, where all transports within mainland Europe were assumed to be transported with a medium truck. All packages beyond mainland Europe were estimated as trucks to and from the airport and then a long-distance flight. The distances were estimated.

Between NA-KD warehouses

NA-KD Circle items often arrive at one of our warehouses, are sorted, and quality checked, and then sent onwards to another warehouse to be ready to be sold and shipped to its second owner. We looked at the travel distances and weight of the packages for these calculations. All transports were estimated to be conducted with a medium truck.

From NA-KD to customer

To calculate the emissions from transporting pre-loved products from our warehouses to our customers, we looked at both the warehouse location and the end-country destination, together with the number and weight of packages. We did an estimation on how each product was transported where all transports within mainland Europe were assumed to be conducted with a medium truck, and all packages beyond mainland Europe were estimated as trucks to and from the airport and then a long-distance flight.

Between customers

In some cases, a direct shipment of pre-loved products from the seller directly to the buyer has been possible. In these cases, emissions from transport between customers have been calculated by DHL, who is the carrier doing the transportation.

Source of emission factors

Average car Sweden (2020) – Trafikverket (2019)
Medium truck (tonkm) - NTM (2021), Energimyndigheten "Drivmedel 2020" WTW. Naturvårdsverket TTW.
Long distance flights (> 2500 km) (tonkm) - NTM (2022), distance 2500 km. RFI=2,7
Bus urban area – NTM (2019), “Elbussar I Sverige (2017), svensk kollektivtrafik”
Material in tier 2-4 – Higg MSI (2022)