Garment manufacturing
This survey aims to collect comprehensive information about the manufacturing process of your garment. We need details about the production location, the type of sewing thread used, and the primary transport mode from the manufacturing site to the central warehouse.
Additionally, we will ask for the cost of confection per garment, the complexity of sewing, any material loss during manufacturing and information on packaging types. If applicable, indicate any finishing treatments applied to the garment and any certification labels it may carry.
What you need to know
Environmental impact
The environmental footprint of garment manufacturing is calculated based on the resources used for cutting, sewing, and attaching trims - namely electricity, heat, and water.
The estimated resource consumption is linked to the complexity of the garment, which you can select on a scale from 1 to 5. Each complexity level corresponds to a sewing time (ranging from 10 to 180 minutes), which in turn determines the estimated electricity, water, and heat usage.
Where possible, we factor in the electricity grid mix of the country where the garment is produced, using data from Ecoinvent.
Social impact
The social external cost is calculated based on the country of manufacture and the garment's production cost. We selected the sector ‘manufacture of textiles’ in our database for this purpose.
If the specific country isn’t available in our database, we use a global average, reflecting the major textile-producing nations. Please note that transport is not yet included in the social impact calculation.
Exclusions
Due to limited data, the impacts of dyeing and finishing processes are not currently factored into the True Cost calculation.