"TRUE COST" COTTON T-SHIRT RESEARCH FORUM (For curious "true cost" cotton t-shirt buyers who want to know the research details of their shirts) For those who don't know what this is about, visit the "TRUE COST" COTTON T-SHIRT PAGE (click photo to see more shirt photos or to purchase the shirt for $15/shipping included)

 

*True Cost, Real Cost, Hidden Costs*
(of products & services)
from
Source to Shelf. Farm to Kitchen. Field to Fabric to Fashion...to the trash.

+ Sources/origins + Processes involved, human labor, energy use, water use + Path of a products migration + How various elements/products are inter-connected + Type and amount of pollution released + Health effects + Potential to be recycled + Price (and cost differences throughout the world, historic cost patterns & public record as to why the costs increased or declined) + How to make true cost information more publicly accessible?

 

Overview of the "True Cost" Meme

Examples below
(will eventually be posted in the True Cost Forum)

Database for Chinese Made Products

How Stuff Works dot Com

Science News article on Wealth of Nations in relation
to data on the networks of product relations + Accompanying Link

Energy Costs in Relation to Transporting Bottled Water

"True cost" of bottled water

"Full Cost Accounting Wikipedia Entry"

Farm to Kitchen Restaurant Named "FLOW" in Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania

"Story of Stuff"
(over 4 million viewers)

Amazon.com increasingly selling books on the "true cost" subject
The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction
Papertrails: From Trees to Trash--The True Cost of Paper
Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy

BBC's "The Cost of..."
BBC mention of the True Cost of Coffee
BBC mention of the True Cost of Cotton

Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (CSPAN bookTV)

NPR's 5-part audio series "the world in a t-shirt" on issues surrounding cotton shirts

"Water Footprint"
(closest website to a true cost database)
Analysis: The Water Footprint of Cotton Consumption (.pdf)
White Gold: The True Cost of Cotton & Accompanying Document/Report

Energy & Water Consumption for a Cotton T-Shirt (graphic)

Cotton Process Resources ("from field to fabric")

China's High Tech Misery--factory working conditions report by the National Labor Committee (Feb. 2009)

Partial true cost of a cheeseburger (more "carbon" related)

Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use | related link

http://www.fieldtomarket.org/tool.php
http://realcostofprisons.org/blog
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122304950601802565.html
http://www.scienceinthebox.com/en_UK/sustainability/lifecycleassessment_en.html
http://ecofx.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/pp/projects/allwood-research.html
http://www.massbalance.org/projects/
http://www.sustainability-ed.org/pages/example1-1.htm
http://www.iisd.org/publications/pub.aspx?id=1065
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2009/life_cycle_costing.pdf
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2008/china_sd_cotton.pdf

"True cost" of printer ink ($2,700/gallon)