{"id":74407,"date":"2026-01-29T11:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miljogiraff.se\/kunskapshubb\/climate-impact-of-wool-how-allocation-in-lca-affects-the-result\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:35:31","slug":"climate-impact-of-wool-how-allocation-in-lca-affects-the-result","status":"publish","type":"kunskapshub","link":"https:\/\/miljogiraff.se\/en\/kunskapshubb\/climate-impact-of-wool-how-allocation-in-lca-affects-the-result\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate impact of wool: how allocation in LCA affects the result"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Note: Same article can be found under “Case”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Is the Climate Impact of Swedish Wool?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wool has a very high climate footprint compared with other textile fibres when evaluated using LCA. The Swedish Wool Initiative contacted us at Milj\u00f6giraff to understand why this is the case. We conducted a study in which we looked more closely at how environmental impact, and specifically climate impact, from products made of Swedish wool can be calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The aim of the study is to explain why results can differ so much between different analyses. One major reason for the variation is that environmental impact can be distributed between meat, wool, and other products from sheep farms according to different principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a starting point, we examined two current Swedish value chains for wool and one future scenario in which the value chain is more integrated. Regardless of the value chain, sheep farming itself and the wool as a raw material always have the greatest negative impact on the final product. The study shows shortcomings in today\u2019s background data and methods that need to be improved so that fair and transparent environmental product declarations, EPDs, can be developed for Swedish wool in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The work has resulted in both new insights and important questions about how we calculate and value sustainability in relation to a living material.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Read the whole report here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Climate Impact from Sheep to Finished Product <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The analysis clearly shows that the largest share of wool\u2019s climate impact occurs already on the sheep farm. This is mainly due to methane emissions from rumination, feed production, and manure management. But when calculating the climate impact of a wool product, a central question arises: how should emissions be distributed between the different products that sheep provide \u2014 meat, wool, hides, and sometimes other by-products? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the core of the concept of allocation, a methodological question in LCA that can radically change the result. In Milj\u00f6giraff\u2019s calculations, several ways of distributing the impact were tested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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