BY Ben Hooke

We complete a Life Cycle Assessment 
An LCA is an analysis of of the environmental impact of our product 
It is split into seven sections 
We use standardised tools to gain an objective number 
Our numbers differ from product to product but consistently outperform the average running shoe.

If you’ve ever looked at our product page you have probably come across our carbon number.

This number represents the amount of emissions that are released into the atmosphere during the life cycle of a hylo product. This is also known as the global warming potential (GWP) and is expressed in kg CO2 equivalent.
 
We calculate and publish our carbon number in an effort to be transparent about the environmental impact of our products.

What is an LCA?

A Life Cycle Assessment is an analysis of the environmental impact a product or service has on the world around it. It determines all processes and inputs needed to produce, in our case, a product.
  
SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

A cradle to grave approach was taken, meaning that the LCA we conduct includes all stages from the beginning to the end of life of our products. These stages can be broken down into:

Raw materials 
The impacts associated with the production, cultivation and extraction of raw materials.

Finished Goods Processes  
The impacts of the different manufacturing processes involved in making and assembling our products.

Transportation 
This includes the transportation of the raw materials and components to the final assembly - not delivery to customers’ door.

Packaging 
The materials that make up our packaging.

Logistics 
The transportation of the final product from the factory to our warehouses and the final mile delivery from the warehouse to our customers.

End of life 
The scenario we use assumes that the majority of our products end up in landfill. We chose this path for now until we have more accurate data on the paths our products take as well as the uptake of our recycling programme.

The weights of the items for footwear are based on a UK8 and for apparel on a men's medium LegacyTech T-Shirt.

IMPACT CATEGORIES
The Life Cycle Assessment we conduct looks at five impact categories. For the carbon number we focused on the Global Warming Potential (GWP) which is expressed in CO2 equivalent.



We will be expanding and reporting on the other four impact categories in the future.
THE TOOLS

As part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition we make use of the Higg Index and its tools. The Higg Index is a suite of tools for the standardised measurement of value chain sustainability. Developed collaboratively over the last decade by a coalition of brands, retailers, manufacturers, and other footwear, apparel and textile industry stakeholders through the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).
This platform gives us access to standardised life cycle assessment (LCA) data. The Higg tools and databases are built in accordance with the Ecoinvent data quality guidelines, ISO 140404 /14044 and the PEF Guide. We can further customise the materials and production processes to better reflect our products. This means that the data we use is an indication of our environmental impact and is not 100% representative of the impact of our products. This is due to the fact that we currently do not have primary data for all of our materials and all the processes involved in the making of hylo products.

THE RESULTS

We will continue to publish a carbon number for every product we bring to market.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to ask.impact@hyloathletics.com