The carbon footprint of clothing: jeans, t-shirts, and fast fashion
A single pair of jeans carries roughly 20–30 kg of CO₂e across its life, and a cotton t-shirt about 2–7 kg. Multiply that by a wardrobe bought and discarded fast, and clothing becomes a real slice of a shopping footprint — the fashion industry is estimated at 2–8% of global emissions.
Where the emissions hide
For most garments the footprint is dominated by making the fabric, not shipping it:
| Item | ~kg CO₂e (life cycle) |
|---|---|
| Cotton t-shirt | ~2–7 |
| Pair of jeans | ~20–33 |
| Polyester dress | ~15–30 |
| Pair of trainers | ~14 |
Two things drive the number: the fibre (cotton is thirsty; synthetics are oil-derived) and how long you wear it. The use phase — washing and drying — can add a surprising amount over years, especially tumble-drying.
Why “buy less, wear longer” wins
The footprint is spread over every wear. A jacket worn 200 times has a tiny per-wear footprint; one worn five times and binned has a huge one. So the maths favours, in order:
- Wear what you own, longer. Doubling a garment’s life roughly halves its footprint per wear.
- Buy second-hand. A used garment carries almost no new manufacturing emissions.
- Buy fewer, better things. Fast fashion’s whole model is churn — the opposite of the above.
- Wash cooler, line-dry. Real, smaller, and free.
The honest framing
You can’t shop your way to a low clothing footprint — not even with “sustainable” collections, whose biggest problem is that they’re still new things being made. The cheapest, lowest-carbon garment is the one already in your wardrobe. Like most shopping emissions, the lever is buying less and keeping it longer, not swapping one new purchase for another.
Sources: Life-cycle analyses of apparel (incl. Levi Strauss & Co. jeans LCA); UN Environment Programme and Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates of fashion’s share of global emissions.