Introduction

Folkcharm is a Thai social enterprise dedicated to 100% hand-spun and hand-woven natural cotton products. By partnering with rural weavers in Loei Province and urban tailors in Bangkok, Folkcharm promotes chemical-free, rain-fed cotton and traditional craftsmanship.

Despite their low-impact artisanal model, Folkcharm faced significant hurdles in quantifying their environmental benefits. The decentralized nature of their supply chain led to a lack of structured emission frameworks and a difficulty in communicating verifiable sustainability claims to eco-conscious consumers. This project bridges that gap by establishing a standardized, Cradle-to-Gate carbon footprint calculation system aligned with international ISO standards.

Key Features

• Customized Web-Based Calculator: A user-friendly React interface designed for non-technical staff to input activity data (mass, distance, electricity) and receive instant CO2e estimates.
• Thai-Specific Emission Factors: Unlike global tools, this calculator uses verified factors from the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) and T-VER standards.
• Artisanal Farming Module: Specifically modeled to reflect Folkcharm’s unique practices, accounting for the zero-emission nature of manual harvesting and rain-fed irrigation.
• Closed-Loop Recycling Integration: A specialized module to calculate the environmental benefits of recycling fabric offcuts into new yarn, supporting circular economy initiatives.
• Transparent Reporting: Outputs are normalized per 1 kg of finished fabric, providing clear, defensible data for internal reporting and brand messaging.

Development and Innovation

The project moved beyond generic "global average" data to create a bottom-up calculation engine that accurately represents the low-carbon reality of hand-made textiles.

Methodological Excellence

The tool implements the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol across relevant scopes:

• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchased electricity for sewing and finishing.
• Scope 3: Upstream emissions from raw material logistics and purchased services.

The Calculation Framework

The system uses a modular formula-based approach to sum emissions across the lifecycle:

$$CF_{Total} = CF_{Farming} + CF_{Transportation} + CF_{Electricity} + CF_{Water} + CF_{ClosedLoop}$$

Technological Stack

To ensure a robust and maintainable tool, the development utilized:

• React & Vite: For a high-performance, responsive frontend interface.
• TypeScript: To ensure type-safe implementation of complex mathematical formulas, reducing logic errors in emission reporting.

Impact and Future Directions

Empowering Social Enterprise

By providing Folkcharm with a verifiable methodology, the project eliminates "greenwashing" risks and allows the brand to back its sustainability claims with hard data. The results show that by replacing industrial spinning with manual hand-spinning, Folkcharm avoids up to 60% of the carbon intensity typical of the global textile sector.

Future Roadmap

• Live API Integration: Transitioning from hard-coded emission factors to a backend service that automatically fetches real-time national data from TGO and global LCA databases.
• Expanded Supply Chain Mapping: Enhancing the "Digital Twin" of the supply chain to include more granular data on natural dyeing processes and community-specific water usage.
• Consumer Education: Utilizing the calculator's outputs to create "Carbon Labels" for products, further educating the public on the impact of artisanal production.

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