Carrefour is initiating a project that employs the Clear Fashion app to improve transparency in clothing sales. This effort aligns with a nationwide initiative spearheaded by the French government to introduce environmental labeling, aimed at helping consumers understand the environmental impacts of their purchases.
In the first phase of this initiative, Carrefour will present environmental scores for about 70 items from its Tex clothing brand, which includes various products such as underwear, T-shirts, and bodysuits. Shoppers can easily access the environmental ratings of each item by scanning its barcode using the Clear Fashion app.
Upon scanning, the app reveals a score out of 100, based on Clear Fashion’s proprietary methodology. During this trial period, Carrefour intends to identify effective tools and methods for broadening the reach of environmental labeling across its entire textile collection.
The foundations of this environmental labeling methodology were established by public authorities after extensive trials and include a lifecycle assessment for each product. The assessment takes into account various factors, including greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity impacts, resource use, product longevity, and pollution effects.
The resulting score quantifies a garment’s environmental expense in impact points, similar to measurements used for carbon footprints or nutritional values. So far, the average environmental cost for the assessed Tex garments is 542.91 points per 100 grams. For example, a Tex organic cotton T-shirt scores 510 points per 100 grams, while a comparable non-organic T-shirt from a fast fashion brand exceeds 1,000 points per 100 grams.
With this latest initiative focused on environmental labeling with Clear Fashion, Carrefour aims to illustrate that the large-scale implementation of clothing labels is feasible and achievable.