Textile and Apparel Industries

Energy Consumption Model for Apparel Sewing Process: An Approach to Environmental Sustainability

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Abstract

Fossil fuel based electricity, the primary source of energy in the apparel production process, causes a great deal of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Due to ever-increasing apparel demand and population growth, this industry's carbon footprint only grows bigger. The purpose of this exploratory study were to (a) identify the most influential energy consumption (EC) factors and (b) develop a model that capture EC levels from the apparel sewing process. A multiple regression analysis using STATA version 12.0 was used to analyze EC factors to determine their explanatory power over EC. A total of 98 observations from 98 different sewing operations from three apparel factories were collected. Findings from the study indicated sewing machine motor capacity, sewing speed and standard allocated minute were the most influential EC factors. The EC model was found as: Log (EC) = 9.68 + 0.739*log (SAM) + 0.084*SPI - 0.008*motor_capacity + 0.004*seam_length - 0.001*speed + 0.512

How to Cite:

Islam, M. I., Patwary, S. U. & LeHew, M. L., (2017) “Energy Consumption Model for Apparel Sewing Process: An Approach to Environmental Sustainability”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 74(1).