From the Cradle to the Gate, a Life Cycle Inventory on Cotton Trousers

Our common future involves many important challenges. People and nature need to improve the relationship in order to reach an ecologically sustainable development. In a society where consumption of products steadily increases, the consumer awareness about social and environmental issues connected to the products becomes an importent factor. More and more companies choose to work more actively with these issues and more and more products get labelled by some of the eco labelling organisations. From the cradle to the gate means that a study has been done on a part of a products life cycle. In this master thesis a pair of cotton trousers has been followed from the cotton field and through the manufacturing chain in order to sees how much resource that are connected to the cultivation and to the production. Methological approach has been Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) according to ISO 14040. The empirical material is collected in South India, in an area known for its intense cotton manufacturing. Studies like this can be a good way of showing the environmental impacts of a certain product. LCI can for example work as a criterion for eco labelling, but the methodology could also support the overall environmental work in companies