Environmental Footprints of Cotton and Cotton Fibres ifeu paper 01/2022

For this reason, and since the amount of diesel fuel has no ifeu Environmental Footprints of Cotton and Cotton Fibres 21 significant effect on the CO2 footprint, the use of diesel fuel in organic farming is assumed to be the same as in conventional farming, irrespective of the degree of mechanisation and the small additional input required for green manuring (see 3.1.3). [...] Due to the uncertainty related to irrigation water amounts in organic cotton production and the fact that the amount of water needed for irrigation of organic cotton is in the range of that of conventional cotton depending on the boundary conditions, the specific irrigation amount for organic cotton per kg fibre is set equal to the irrigation for conventional cotton. [...] The Ecoinvent data also include the drying of the fibres and the pressing of the loose cotton fibres into compact bales using a hydraulic press. [...] ifeu Environmental Footprints of Cotton and Cotton Fibres 27 4 Environmental Footprints of Seed Cotton and Cotton Fibre 4.1 Results for Conventional and Organic Cotton Fibres The results of the four environmental footprints of conventional and organic cotton fibres are shown in Table 6. [...] While the water footprints of both conventional and organic cotton fibres are 370 m3 H2O eq./kg fibres and the phosphate footprint of organic cotton fibres is only slightly higher than the value of conventional cotton fibres, the greenhouse effect and the land footprint show clear differences.