🌿 Dyeing Eco-Impact Calculator
Estimate the water, energy, carbon, and chemical load of a dye batch from the fabric weight, the dye process, and your liquor ratio — and see how a tighter bath or a natural dye changes the picture.
🌿 Footprint of a Dye Batch
What is a Dyeing Eco-Impact Calculator?
Dyeing is a thirsty, energy-hungry process, and the choices you make — how much water you run, which dye class you use, how hot the bath gets — add up. This calculator translates a batch into four plain numbers: litres of water, kilowatt-hours of energy, kilograms of CO₂, and kilograms of chemical load, so the trade-offs are easy to see and easy to act on.
Use it to compare a reactive versus a natural process, justify a tighter liquor ratio, or set a baseline you can improve against. The results are estimates for planning; test on a sample swatch first, and treat the figures as a way to compare options rather than a certified audit.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How does the eco-impact calculator estimate a batch's footprint?
Water comes from the liquor ratio — fabric weight × ratio gives the litres of bath. Energy is estimated at 0.05 kWh per litre to heat and run the bath, and that energy implies roughly 0.42 kg of CO₂ per kWh. The chemical load is the fabric weight times a per-process factor: reactive 0.6, disperse 0.5, acid 0.4, and natural just 0.1 kg per kg of fabric.
How can I lower the environmental impact of dyeing?
The biggest lever is the liquor ratio — running a tighter bath cuts water, and because there's less water to heat, it cuts energy and carbon too. Choosing natural dyes drops the chemical load sharply, reusing or recovering bath water helps, and heating with a cleaner energy source lowers the CO₂ per kilowatt-hour. Drop the liquor ratio in the calculator to see the difference.
Are these footprint figures exact?
These are estimates for planning; test on a sample swatch first. The energy and carbon factors are typical averages — your real numbers depend on your machine, water temperature and source, and local energy mix — so use the results to compare options and trends rather than as an audited measurement.