Following Vaayu acquisition, Carbonfact launches open-source LCA database

Environmental intelligence platform Carbonfact has released a free, open-source database featuring detailed environmental impact data for textile manufacturing, arriving shortly after the company's acquisition of fellow fashion sustainability platform Vaayu in May.

The database contains 300 Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets covering core processes such as spinning, dyeing, and weaving. By measuring emission factors across all 16 European Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) environmental indicators, the tool provides roughly 4,800 specific impact scores to help brands rigorously map their supply chains in compliance with evolving European legislation.

With this release, the French software company aims to address a long-standing issue in the fashion industry: the lack of transparent, auditable data. Most existing emission databases lean on generic sector averages. For example, a dyeing process typically receives a single emission factor regardless of the specific machinery, chemicals, or fiber types used. Carbonfact’s database disaggregates data at the unit-process level, allowing fashion brands to inspect individual parameters or swap them out for primary data collected from their own suppliers.

The launch strategically positions Carbonfacts as an expert in transparency, impact measurement, and environmental reporting for the fashion industry – services already utilized by brands including On, Ganni, and The North Face.

Database provider ecoinvent and the French environmental agency ADEME have responded enthusiastically to the launch, bolstering ongoing discussions on how granular production data can better feed into future European methodology standards and mechanisms like the French environmental score or PEFCR.