Circular Design

Circular design with the end in mind. More sustainable exploration starts with better design, a design with less impact on the environment. In terms of environmental performance, the Kai jacket's recycled material is the biggest positive impact maker, with 65% reduced impact on total eco-costs compared to a Kai jacket made of virgin materials. The carbon footprint is reduced by 42% compared to the virgin variant. Recycled materials also save 62% energy compared to virgin materials.

** Natural resources can also be called ‘Environmental impact (total)’ and in this example it is used to describe eco-costs, as this is easier to understand.

The Kai bag's recycled material is the biggest positive impact maker, with 47% reduced impact on total eco-costs compared to a Kai bag made of virgin materials. The carbon footprint is reduced by 7% compared to the virgin variant. Recycled materials also save 42% energy compared to virgin materials.

** Natural resources can also be called ‘Environmental impact (total)’ and in this example it is used to describe eco-costs, as this is easier to understand.

These three savings were measured through a Life-cycle assessment (LCA). A LCA is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life, thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities. It is executed to measure the sustainability of products and services in general. The LCA made for KAI builds upon the eco-costs method as developed by the Delft University of Technology. The method of eco-costs enables comparison of the sustainability ‘level’ of different products or services with the same functionality.

In the eco-costs approach, the environmental impacts are expressed in three different impact units, namely:

Eco-costs in euros (€): a single unit to express the overall burden based on prevention - natural resources.

Carbon footprint in CO2 equivalents (CO2-eq): to express the global warming potential - energy.

Cumulative energy demand (CED) in megajoules (MJ): a measure for total energy use - greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision to choose recycled materials for this jacket has a reduced negative impact on the environment. Real impact can be made, and this can be transparently to PF Concept’s target audience. The total average reduction in impact PF Concept already made with 1 jacket is as follows: 22% eco-costs, 17% carbon footprint and 32% CED energy per jacket. This is accumulated with the amount of jackets sold by PF Concept. This can be documented in a yearly sustainability report from PF Concept to show the significant change they make by making better products. 

More research is needed when it comes to specific location-based water data, as most calculations made in researched studies are not comparable to this study and process-specific data and information are lacking in the scientific literature. For instance, information on water consumption in the extrusion process is often missing. Usually, only fiber data are known, while a lot of water is also used in the making of the yarns: the extrusion process. In this process, water is used to cool the filament/multi fiber yarns***.

The KAI LCA was carried out by an independent consultancy firm RethinkRebels.

Longevity

Our Kai products are designed to be used for decades.

Certified branding

Our materials as well as our branding are all certified and sustainable.

Take-back program

Extend the useful life of your Kai product by giving it a second chance! 

*** Source: Milieu Centraal 2018