Clothing and textile consumption in Norway is sky-high. Literally.
The weight of our annual textile waste is equivalent to four and a half Eiffel tower, according to an NRKarticle on a recent NORSUS’ report about textile waste in Norway.
"I believe we are on the podium when it comes clothing consumption, so to speak," she says.
Now, action is being taken through a new extended producer responsibility scheme, and NORSUS is helping to provide the evidence base that will ensure those measures make a real difference.
Most recently with the new survey of textile waste in Norway. It shows that a total of 87,531 tonnes of new textiles – clothing, footwear and household textiles – were placed on the market in Norway last year. That is equivalent to roughly 15,5 kilos per inhabitant.
Med så mye klær og tekstiler i omløp, er det ikke så rart at mye havner i søpla. I 2025 kastet vi klær tilsvarende drøyt halvparten av det som kom inn: 44 461 tonn.
The good news is that a great deal of this volume could be repaired, reused or recycled.
Waste composition analyses reveals a large potential for getting more out of the textiles: 40 per cent could have gone to reuse or repair, while 33 per cent could have been material recycled.
At the same time, however, Irmeline de Sadeleer, Research Manager at NORSUS, is clear that the most important step towards reducing the amount of textile waste takes place in households.
"We have to start reducing our consumption. And the most important thing in achieving that is to wear the clothes you buy until they are worn out. We need to remember to regard clothes as something valuable, as something with labour and raw materials behind it, and to use the clothes we buy until they are worn out," she explains.
With the new extended producer responsibility scheme coming into force on 1 January 2027, action is also being taken at a system level to increase the amount of clothing that is reused or recycled. The scheme will ensure that the businesses producing and selling textiles have to foot the bill when those textiles become waste.
Similar schemes already exist for other products, including packaging and electronics. NORSUS provides the evidence base for these schemes as well.
In addition to giving industry incentives to reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling, the extended scheme will affect the entire value chain – from design to end-of-life management. It will also provide better data and more precise reporting in the future.
"Once producer responsibility is in place, reporting requirements will come with it. That should make future surveys both simpler and more precise," de Sadeleer explains.
NORSUS has previously delivered several surveys of textile waste in Norway. The last report was delivered in 2023.
New in this years' report, that was presented just before the summer, is that the survey also contains online shopping. The figures reveal that we are very fond of shopping online: more than 13,000 tonnes of textiles were bought from foreign online retailers last year. Online shopping rose by 236 per cent on the previous year, although de Sadeleer notes that the figures are still uncertain.
"Even though the figures are still uncertain, they show that online shopping is a significant part of the market and an area it is important to follow more closely going forward," de Sadeleer explains.
The aim of the new report is to learn more about how new and existing data can be used to develop more accurate measures for influencing travel habits in the lower Glomma area (Nedre Glomma).
To shed light on this, senior researcher at NORSUS, Ole Jørgen Hanssen, together with Mona Nilsen from Østfold County Council, has assessed the available knowledge base for the travel habits in the region.
The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the different data sources, discusses whether the data give a clear enough picture of the travel habits in Nedre Glomma, and proposes new travel habit data to be developed.
Among the most important current sources of knowledge about travel habits are the national travel habit survey (RVU 2024), data from Inspiria's travel habit survey, and data on cycling activity in Fredrikstad municipality.
Together, these data sources tell us a lot about how people in the Nedre Glomma area travel, but less about why they do so. The report highlights the value of – and the need for – analysis of attitudes, motivation and behaviour, in addition to the traditional travel-habit analyses.
The report is an important step towards developing a solid knowledge base about barriers, drivers and motivation behind people’s travel habits. This knowledge can be used to ensure more accurate mobility measures, which in turn can help more people in the region walk, cycle or use public transport.
The report is a part of the initiative «Bypakke Nedre Glomma» and Hanssen and Nilsen recommend that it:
The report forms part of the first work package of Bypakke Nedre Glomma – a comprehensive initiative to create better urban environments and a greener transport system in Nedre Glomma. The project is a collaboration between Fredrikstad municipality, Sarpsborg municipality, Østfold County Council, the Norwegian Railway Directorate and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Legumes are one of the least environmentally damaging protein sources there are.
Increasing legume production can also bring positive sustainability benefits for other crops, such as grain, because legumes fix nitrogen in the soil, which reduces the need for fertiliser.
In a recently published book chapter in Life Cycle Management from Global to Local NORSUS researchers Rannvá Danielsen and Clara Valente, sammen med kollegene Anna Milford og Simen Wilsher-Lohre ved NIBIO, sett nærmere på de sosioøkonomiske effektene og klimaeffektene av å dyrke mer belgvekster i stedet for animalsk protein til menneskemat.
The chapter, titled "Socio-economic and Climate Impacts of Increased Legume Production for Human Consumption in Norway", is based on a study presented at the International Conference on International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM) in 2025.
The study examines what happens to employment and to greenhouse gas emissions if we replace growing and eating animal protein with plant protein in Norway.
The researchers examined three different scenarios:
The findings indicate that a greater shift towards legumes can lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, legumes take less time to produce than animal protein (see illustration below), and as a result, growing more legumes may lead to a decline in employment within the livestock sector. Additionally, the cultural landscape – which arises from grazing animals – would change.
Overall, the study highlights that the relationship between legumes and livestock production involves a trade-off: while reducing emissions supports climate goals, it can come at the cost of fewer job opportunities and the potential loss of cultural landscapes, particularly in rural areas where alternative sources of income are limited.
Source: Based on figures 1 and 2 in Socio-economic and Climate Impacts of Increased Legume Production for Human Consumption in Norway. Time use: Hovland I (2022) Handbok for driftsplanlegging 2022/2023, Ås: NIBIO.
CO₂: Møller H, Samsonstuen S (2024) Life cycle assessment of meat and egg—Nortura, NORSUS; Svanes E et al. (2022) Sustainable Prod Consumption 33:756–766.
All figures at farm gate. Bar lengths are normalised independently for time use and CO₂ (lamb & sheep = 100% in both).
Read more
Environmental impact of high protein crops in comparison with other food protein sources in Norway
NORSUS researcher Erik Svanes' doctoral thesis, which compares the environmental impact of legume production in Norway with the most common protein sources in Norway.
In the future, clear labelling made from knowledge-based, comparable data could make it far easier to make sustainable choices when shopping for food.
I april ble det fireårige forskningsprosjektet NewTools avsluttet. Prosjektet er ledet av Folkehelseinstituttet, og inkluderer 28 aktører fra både næringsliv, forskning og offentlige myndigheter. NORSUS har i samarbeid med NMBU hatt ansvaret for å utvikle et rammeverk for skåring av miljømessig og sosial bærekraft.
The aim of NewTools has been to develop new knowledge about how we can make food production and diets in Norway more sustainable, through exploring and developing scoring systems for food
Defining indicators that are relevant and accurate, and that can be used as guidelines in product development, policy development and procurement schemes – amongst other things – as well as being a useful tool for consumers, has been central to the project.
The project began with a comprehensive review of existing frameworks and standards for environmental and social sustainability. The review revealed a need for a more operational framework better suited to the food sector.
One of the great strengths of the NewTools project has been the number and range of collaboration partners, covering the entire Norwegian value chain, from field and fjord to fork. This has allowed the participants to focus on integrating distinctive Norwegian production conditions and food culture, and the framework combines internationally established methods with adaptations for Norwegian conditions and data availability.
The project partners, together with external stakeholders, have worked closely on which categories to include for social and environmental sustainability respectively.
The two areas have been assigned a total of 19 indicators that can measure different aspects – eight for environmental aspects and eleven for social ones. The report, NewTools framework development-proposal for scope, system boundary and category selection, beskriver den første delen av arbeidet mot et skåringssystem og inneholder definisjon av rammeverkets systemgrenser og beskrivelser av de foreslåtte kategoriene i rammeverket.
Artikkelen «Scoring social sustainability of food products: A framework based on national-level data” inneholder rammeverk for sosial bærekraft utviklet i prosjektet.
The article “A Multi-Indicator Framework for Environmental Scoring of Food Products” contains the framework for environmental sustainability in the project.
In addition the method “nutritional LCA” was applied to a range of products, which you can read more about in this report.
The end report for the project can be downloaded on the following link.
I tillegg er en vitenskapelig artikkel under utarbeidelse som vurderer synergier og avveininger mellom ernæring og bærekraft . Denne artikkelen er et samarbeid mellom NORSUS, NMBU, UiO og FHI.
When a fish ends up in the frying pan in your kitchen, we know a fair amount about what it has cost the planet to put it there, thanks to life cycle assessments (LCA).
But until recently we have known little about how large a role plastic emissions have played in that equation.
The reason is that life cycle assessments generally don’t include plastic emissions in the data they are based on (inventory analysis) – and because of that, they aren’t included in the step that assesses the environmental impacts (impact assessment) either.
However, when we look closely at the environmental cost of fish for food and feed, plastic is a significant part of the equation: Each year 640,000 tonnes of fishing equipment – much of it made of plastic – is lost globally as a result of rough weather, wear and tear, or by accident.
NORSUS is working on several fronts to develop good methods for including plastic in LCA. For example in the Dsolve and MarILCA projects, where several NORSUS researchers are investigating marine plastic emissions.
Recently, "Expanding life cycle impact assessment to account for marine plastic emissions: a case study for the fishing industry”, written by NORSUS’ Cecilia Askham, Mafalda Silva and Valentina Pauna, amongst others, was published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
The study takes a closer look at new conversion methods (characterisation factors) for including plastic emissions in life cycle assessments – both to test the methods in real-world situations, and also to investigate how much damage plastic pollution does to the ecosystem.
When it comes to this last point, damage to the ecosystem, one stage in the life cycle clearly stands out, according to the study: the act of fishing itself.
The researchers have analysed two real-world cases: Cod fishing off the Norwegian coast (where the cod is intended for human consumption) and anchoveta fishing off the coast of Peru (where the anchoveta is intended as an ingredient in feed for Norwegian fish farms).
For cod fishing, the production of the antifouling treatment – which prevents organic matter from growing on the fishing boat hull – has the biggest negative impact on the ecosystem (shown in pink in the figure below). For anchoveta fishing, however, it is clearly entanglement (fish that gets entangled in lost or abandoned fishing gear) that has the highest negative impacts on the ecosystem.
And although ghost fishing is already the largest impact factor by far – the researchers are clear that it could account for even more: The method used to convert lost fishing gear into environmental damage assumes that the gear causes damage for five years.
When adding more years to the equation, the potential for damage is much higher. The five-year time horizon was chosen, however, because the probability of entanglement decreases over time.
There are still a range of effects that plastic and its chemicals might have on ecosystems – and many of these still lack methods good enough to be included in life cycle assessments at present. However, including as many as possible is nonetheless an important step towards life cycle assessments that comprehensively capture every impact that abandoned, lost or discarded plastic can have.
The study is a part of Dsolve – a project where NORSUS collaborates with several partners from research and industry to develop smarter fishing gear.
Dsolve is a good example of a project where research and industry collaborate to the benefit of both: NORSUS gains access to empirical data and real-world cases that can be used to test theory and methods against reality – and thereby contribute to methodological development internationally, while the results from NORSUS’ research can be used to make better, more environmentally friendly products, and to make better choices.
In May, NORSUS welcomed several international partners when we hosted the second SUSPENSEgeneral assembly in our offices in Fredrikstad.
The project is well underway in its eighth month. All partners are actively working in the project and the production of the first samples of the bio-based adhesives has begun.
The EU-funded project SUSPENSE aims to develop high-performance and safe types of bio-based adhesives from biological raw materials such as bio-acids, polyphenolics, and other biological materials, that are as strong and moisture-resistant as their fossil-based alternatives.
The goal is to significantly reduce CO2emissions from adhesive production, make the product more sustainable and circular, and establish bio-based adhesives as a viable alternative for consumers.
During the assembly, the project’s coordinator, CHIMAR, stressed the importance of sustainability and circularity of the developed products within the project's objectives, in addition to the more business-oriented goals like product properties and cost-effectiveness of the production processes.
NORSUS is responsible for ensuring safety and sustainability by implementing the framework Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD).
Key to the framework is an iterative and interactive approach, and during the assembly NORSUS researchers Cecilia Askham and Nora Løvdal Gamnes held the project’s second SSbD workshop, focusing on human health and safety of production processes.
The workshop had both theoretical and hands-on sessions, where the working groups identified hazards (HAZOP) and risks in relation to the production processes of the developed adhesives, and conducted risk assessment and management. The results of the workshop will be assessed and further used as input in the SSbD work package.
Following the workshop on day one, Askham presented our work on sustainability and implementation of SSbD on the second day of the assembly. NORSUS conducts comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in addition to integrating the SSbD framework in the development of new products.
We are currently at a screening LCA phase to evaluate the performance of the bio-based adhesives at an early stage in the development process.
NORSUS researchers Ingunn Saur Modahl, Ellen Soldal and Lina Plataniti also attended the assembly.
The results indicate that the measures can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wheat cultivation by up to 35%.
The initiative is a collaboration across the Norwegian food value chain. Read more about the project and the launch at Norgesmøllene.
How can we measure the extent to which something contributes to increased social sustainability?
To answer this question, NORSUS has collaborated with the social enterprise Moving Mamas’ to identify effective methods, in a recently completed pre-project.
Moving Mamas helps women from migrant backgrounds enter the Norwegian labour market through training and individual support.
The company combines the social entrepreneurship with sustainable services such as pop-up sewing workshops and textile repairs for B2B customers, combining social integration with environmental benefits, such as reduced textile waste and CO2 emissions.
"We see that we are making a difference at an individual level. That is very important," says founder Kirstine Holst, in Plan Norway's video about the social entrepreneur, following Moving Mamas being awarded "Jenteprisen" in 2021.
"And then we really hope that we can make a difference at a societal level as well."
In a new pilot project together with NORSUS, the company has now taken the first steps towards investigating this further.
NORSUS has developed two user-friendly tools to measure the environmental and social impacts of Moving Mamas' textile repair services. Initially the focus has been on the effects of the social entrepreneurship on the women employees themselves and their families.
"We have developed a questionnaire intended to be used several times: At the start, after 1 year and after 3 years – to observe changes over time. The survey covers the topics: Language, quality of life, personal finances, independence and knock-on effects within the family."
"We have also developed a relatively simple tool to measure the environmental effects of clothing repairs carried out by one of the company's three subsidiaries, Mamas Søm."
The results of the pre-project demonstrate how tailor-made methodologies can be developed to measure social sustainability in social businesses like Moving Mamas. Van de Glind emphasises, however, that the methodology requires further development.
"We only measure the difference over time, and not if it is caused by Moving Mamas. It may be, for example, that a woman has taken a Norwegian language course, and that this is the reason for the improvements. Also, the sample size in the pre-project was small."
Nevertheless: The results of the study suggest that women employed by Moving Mamas show significant improvements across all six measured areas:
NORSUS researchers Bram van de Glind and Irmeline de Sadeleer presented the results of the pre-project in April
One of the goals of the pre-project was to develop methods to document and highlight the value Moving Mamas create, and at the same time strengthen the business model of the company and its appeal for local and public sector clients.
For NORSUS, projects like Moving Mamas, where NORSUS gets to develop methodology in a real-world context, is very valuable.
"Social sustainability in the UN Sustainable Development Goals is about ensuring a safe, fair and inclusive society for all, with a focus on human rights, living conditions and reduced inequality. This is complicated to measure, which is why the work NORSUS and Moving Mamas are doing together is unique and important," says Irmeline de Sadeleer on Moving Mamas’ web pages.
Previous NORSUS research has shown that effectively demonstrating the value of social sustainability is a challenge. This was evident, for example, in another pre-project in 2025where a workshop with several social enterprises in Østfold revealed the need to make it easier to communicate the value of social sustainability – particularly in a local context.
Social sustainability is one of the three pillars that form the foundations of sustainable development, together with environmental and economic sustainability. The development of robust methods to measure these, is one of NORSUS’ key focus areas.
An important tool in the development of good ways to measure these, is life cycle assessments (LCA) – a methodology to examine the environmental impacts of products and services. The same life cycle perspective is the foundation of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) (S-LCA), som er utviklet for å evaluere den sosiale påvirkningen av produkter og tjenester. Metoden er dog langt yngre enn LCA, og er fortsatt under utvikling.
On May 5th, Erik Svanes and Clara Valente participated in the yearly project meeting of EFRE-Green at NIBIO, Særheim.
The main goal of EFREE-Green is to develop an economic, environmental, and socially sustainable system for year-round smart farming to deliver safe and healthy vegetables.
In line with the political goals towards reducing emissions, increasing self-sufficiency and increasing the consumption of vegetables, it is crucial for greenhouse vegetable producers to implement measures to achieve these goals while maintaining good quality in the vegetables.
However, investing in technologies places large economic risks and burdens on individual growers. Hence it is important that technologies that save energy and reduce emissions are tested and optimised by researchers
During the meeting, the NORSUS researchers presented the progress in our work package (WP6): “Environmental and social analysis”.
NORSUS’ work package aims to quantify the environmental and social impacts of smart greenhouse systems for producing more sustainable Norwegian tomatoes by using the methodologies of environmental (E-LCA) and social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA).
Svanes and Valente reported that there are research gaps in both environmental and social sustainability in the field of fresh vegetable production in greenhouses not only in Norway, but also in other European countries
Read more about the research project EFREE-Green.
All human activity affects people and the environment.
Livsløpsvurderinger (LCA) gjør alle disse potensielle påvirkningene om til resultater som er lettere å lese og sammenlikne. Blant annet viser resultatene hvor i produktets livsløp påvirkningene er størst, og hvor store de er relativt sett.
The assessments provide knowledge that enables decision-makers and others working towards a more sustainable world to make more informed choices.
Weighting is an optional step that makes it even easier to communicate and compare the LCA results. In practice, weighting works by combining the results across all impact categories in the life cycle assessment into a single aggregated score.
Som vi ser i illustrasjonene under gjør dette det enklere å se hvilket scenario eller produkt som har størst miljøpåvirkning samlet sett, og ikke bare innenfor hver enkelt påvirkningskategori.
The figures below are simplified examples of how weighting can work in practice, and are intended for illustrative purposes only.
Vekting er i praksis en prosess hvor miljøpåvirkninger vurderes i forhold til hverandre, basert på verdivalg. Dermed blir valget av vektingsmetode og -faktorer viktige, ettersom disse er med på å legge føringer for valgene, og dermed i stor grad er med på å avgjøre vurderingens utfall.
Nå har en ny studie med NORSUS-forsker Cecilia Askham som førsteforfatter undersøkt 27 forskjellige metoder for vekting, delt inn i fire kategorier: Multi-kriterie beslutningsanalyse (MCDA), monetære metoder, datadrevne metoder og avstand-til-mål metoder. Studien er publisert i The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
The aim is to provide a useful starting point for practitioners seeking to identify suitable weighting methods for specific LCA applications.
The results are presented in a structured table, where colour codes indicate to what degree each method meets the study's evaluation criteria.
Forfatterne har også utviklet et interaktivt verktøy som er nyttig for de som skal gjennomføre LCA studier, slik at de kan identifisere den mest hensiktsmessige vektleggingsmetoden.
The tool, WEMSS — Weighting Methods Selection Software, is available the following link.
The study is part of the project "Global Guidance on Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators and Methods" (GLAM), which is part of the UN Life Cycle Initiative.
Prosjektet har som mål å etablere konsensus om standardiserte indikatorer og metoder brukt i livsløpsanalyser, og inkluderer arbeid med å lage et sett med globale metoder for vekting, som ledes av Marco Cinelli fra Leiden University og Askham.
