Clothing (new textiles): carbon footprint per tonne of new clothing
Live factor value
22,310 kgCO2e per tonne of new clothing
Source: UK DESNZ greenhouse-gas conversion factors, 2026 (revision 2). Factor set desnz-2026-r2.
New clothing is one of the most carbon-intensive materials in the official DESNZ 2026 tables: the live per-tonne figure below works out around 22 kg of CO2e per kilogram of garments — fibre production, spinning, dyeing and making-up all included. A single tonne of new textiles out-emits a tonne of concrete by two orders of magnitude.
The same tables put re-used clothing at a small fraction of the new figure, which is the quantified case for second-hand: extending a garment's life displaces nearly the whole primary-production footprint. For event organisers, branded merchandise is often the hidden heavyweight line — a thousand cotton tote bags or tees weigh in fast.
Worked example
200 kg of event merchandise (≈1,000 t-shirts): 0.2 × 22,310 = 4,462 kgCO2e.
Measure your own with the free event calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the carbon footprint of a t-shirt?
- At the official ~22 kg CO2e per kg of new clothing, a 200 g t-shirt lands around 4–5 kg CO2e — before printing and delivery. Re-used textiles carry a small fraction of that.