The Role of Footwear Fitting and Comfort in the Environmental Impact of Footwear
Sustainability has become a global concern in recent years. The traditional production and consumption patterns bring heavy environmental burdens. As the increasing of sustainability and environmental awareness, not only the governments launched regulatio
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Abstract Sustainability has become a global concern in recent years. The traditional production and consumption patterns bring heavy environmental burdens. As the increasing of sustainability and environmental awareness, not only the governments launched regulations and policies to reduce the environmental impacts, consumers also have begun to show interests in eco-friendly products. The footwear industry plays a significant role in the impact of the contribution of apparel section. Various analyses have been conducted on this field aiming at optimizing the footwear life cycle management and design strategy to reduce the impact. As one of the most important properties of wearing products, fitting and comfort can influence consumers purchasing and usage, thus indirectly affects the environmental impact of footwear considering the whole product lifetime. This study focuses on the role of footwear fitting and comfort in the environmental impact of footwear, analysing the influence of fitting in different product life cycle stages. Keywords Sustainability
Fit Footwear
1 Introduction 1.1
Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a common method used to analysis the environmental impacts through the entire life of a product. According to ISO 14040.2 Draft: Life Cycle Assessment—Principles and Guidelines [1], the definition of LCA is described as: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the potential environmental aspects and potential aspects associated with a product (or service), by: A. Luximon (&) L. Jiang Institute of Textile and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 R. Goonetilleke and W. Karwowski (eds.), Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 489, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41694-6_19
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• Compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs, • Evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs, • Interpreting the results of the inventory and impact phases in relation to the objectives of the study. LCA takes consideration of all life cycle stages of a product, including raw material processing, manufacture, transportation and distribution, product usage, repair and maintenance, and end-of-life treatment. The typical LCA consists of four main stages: goal and scope, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation [1]. The goal and scope is a key step that identifies the purpose, sets the boundaries of the study, and determines the assumptions and methods that will be used. Then in the life cycle inventory stage, the raw materials and energy input and environmental output are summarized. The life cycle impact assessment analysis the environmental impacts according to the information collected in the inventory stage, and the interpretation stage gives out possible improvements reducing impacts at each product life cycle s
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