One water definition.
The input is freshwater consumed, in litres. Do not mix withdrawal, irrigation applied, rainfall embodied in cotton and grey-water dilution. Scarcity, treatment quality and receiving waters are not weighted.
GFT instruments / Resource accounting
Every garment
carries an inventory.
Trace an illustrative cotton garment: 246.735 L of water, 3.2355 kWh of delivered energy (including 1.8045 kWh of electricity) and 1.577025 kg CO2e from fibre to delivery gate. Replace every factor with your own inventory.
Operate the instrumentProcedural visualisation. Schematic, not a facility.
01 / An instrument for the decision
Which production stage carries the resource demand?
Change the inputs. Read the result. Keep the assumptions visible. Every number on this page is an illustrative teaching value until you replace it.
ILLUSTRATIVE · EDITABLE
Cotton fibre → spinning → fabric → wet processing → cut, make, trim → delivery gate
Use and end of life excludedFreshwater consumption
L
per finished garment · illustrativeDelivered electricity
kWh
per finished garment · illustrativeDelivered energy
kWh
per finished garment · illustrativePartial carbon inventory
kg CO2e
per finished garment · illustrativeMEASUREMENT PRIORITY
Cotton fibre carries the largest carbon contribution in this illustrative inventory. Verify its factor before choosing an intervention.
0.225 kg enters upstream processing; 0.180 kg remains in the garment; 0.045 kg is the aggregate material loss.
RESOURCE CONVERGENCEPER FINISHED GARMENT
Water
Electricity
Delivered energy
Carbon
Cotton fibreSpinningFabric formationWet processingCut, make, trimTransport
02 / The ledger
Reconcile every contribution.
Each cell carries its share of the column as a bar. Choose a column heading to sort the stages by it. Choose a stage to light it on the garment beside the table.
SORTED BYStage orderPress a heading to re-sort. Press it again to reverse.
| 91% | 15% | 10% | 36% | |
| 0% | 37% | 22% | 21% | |
| 1% | 19% | 12% | 11% | |
| 7% | 25% | 49% | 27% | |
| 0% | 4% | 3% | 3% | |
| 0% | 0% | 4% | 2% |
03 / A decision trail
Keep A. Change B. Read the difference.
A starts as the illustrative reference. Move a slider, or press a preset row, and B diverges from it. Differences are B minus A; a negative value means less demand within this boundary.
A, savedB, live
A is preloaded with the illustrative reference. Changes remain in this browser until you share or export.
Water
A
B
B minus A
Press a row to load it as B
Electricity
A
B
B minus A
Press a row to load it as B
Delivered energy
A
B
B minus A
Press a row to load it as B
Carbon
A
B
B minus A
Press a row to load it as B
Preview rows are build-time arithmetic against the reference, illustrative, not forecasts.
04 / Method, step by step
A garment is a sum of stage inventories.
Scroll the five steps. The plate on the right redraws on each one, using your current inputs.
- 01
Start with the finished mass.
Weigh the dry garment as it leaves the gate. Every stage activity below is a multiple of this one number, so it is the first figure to verify.
finished mass = the dry garment - 02
Divide by yield to find the cotton that was bought.
Aggregate yield is the share of purchased textile material that stays in the garment. Finished mass divided by yield is the input for fibre, spinning, fabric and wet processing. Cut, make and trim use the finished mass.
input kg = finished kg ÷ yield - 03
Multiply each activity by an entered factor.
Water and electricity per stage are activity times intensity. Delivered energy adds electricity and thermal energy: a site sum, not primary energy.
resourceᵢ = activityᵢ × factorᵢ - 04
Turn electricity into carbon with one grid factor.
Carbon is electricity times the common grid factor, plus a non-electric term. That term must exclude electricity already counted, or electricity is counted twice.
carbonᵢ = electricityᵢ × grid + otherᵢ - 05
The boundary is part of the number.
The total runs from cotton fibre to the delivery gate. Use and end of life are outside it. Sum each resource separately across the stages and keep the boundary fixed when you compare.
total resource = Σ stage resourceᵢ
Read the full method note
Start with the dry mass of the finished cotton garment. The aggregate material yield expresses how much purchased textile material remains in that garment. Dividing finished mass by yield gives the input mass attributed to fibre, spinning, fabric formation and wet processing. Cut, make and trim uses finished mass instead. This is a deliberately simplified mass balance: it does not represent separate losses at each machine or allocate recovered scrap a credit.
For each stage, multiply its activity by the entered water and electricity intensities. Add delivered electricity and delivered thermal energy to obtain total delivered energy. This is a site energy sum, not primary energy. Calculate carbon by multiplying that stage's electricity by the common grid factor, then adding its non-electric carbon. The non-electric entry must include relevant fuel, chemical and other upstream burdens inside your boundary, while excluding the electricity already calculated here. An all-in LCA carbon factor must be decomposed before it is entered, otherwise electricity will be counted twice.
input kg = finished kg ÷ yieldtransport t-km = finished kg ÷ 1000 × kmwaterᵢ = activityᵢ × water factorᵢelectricityᵢ = activityᵢ × electricity factorᵢenergyᵢ = electricityᵢ + thermal energyᵢcarbonᵢ = electricityᵢ × grid + other carbonᵢtotal resource = Σ stage resourceᵢReconciliation: total carbon equals total electricity multiplied by the grid factor, plus total non-electric carbon. Transport factors may include electricity only if their non-electric factors exclude it.
Step 1 of 5. Finished dry mass: 0.180 kg.
05 / The default register
The teaching case exposes every assumption.
No garment inventory default is supplied by the shared GFT evidence register. These values are chosen for a transparent worked example. They are not published LCA averages, national electricity factors or measured GFT operating results.
INSTRUMENT B NOW246.735 L3.236 kWh1.577 kg CO2e
kg
Against the default:
Teaching garment mass; excludes packaging and trims outside the boundary.fraction
Against the default:
Aggregate retention, selected to make loss accounting visible.kg CO2e/kWh
Against the default:
One factor across stages; no country or year is implied.km
Against the default:
One finished-garment route; no separate upstream freight.Stage factors
Choose a stage, or point at a card, to tint the garment. Press a card to load that stage into the instrument and open its inputs. Chips show the factor per kg (transport: per tonne-kilometre).
Worked example: wet processing.
- Input mass
0.180 kg ÷ yield 0.80 = 0.225 kg - Water
0.225 × 80 = 18.000 L - Electricity
0.225 × 2 = 0.450 kWh - Carbon
0.450 × 0.45 + 0.225 × 1 = 0.4275 kg CO2e
Every factor here is illustrative. Changing a factor changes a scenario, not an observed factory result.
06 / What the number does not say
Inventory volume does not establish local impact.
Energy is a site sum.
Delivered energy adds electricity and thermal energy in kWh. It is not primary energy. Heat demand alone changes energy; its carbon needs a matching edit to the non-electric factor.
Carbon is a partial inventory.
It is not a certified life-cycle assessment. There are no biogenic credits, allocation rules, uncertainty intervals or avoided-production credits.
Read the remaining limits
A process may return much of the water it withdraws; a withdrawal meter therefore does not directly measure consumption. The Water Footprint Network distinguishes water categories and explains why location and timing matter. Keep thermal energy on a consistent delivered basis across stages; do not mix fuel input and useful process heat. If your decision concerns boilers, retain a fuel and heat balance alongside this tool. The single grid factor is a scenario simplification and should be replaced by stage-specific accounting in a detailed study.
Cultivation, ginning, chemicals and inbound transport are included only to the extent that your stage factors contain them. Packaging, accessories, storage, retail, consumer washing, product durability and end-of-life treatment are not separately modelled.
The GHG Protocol Product Standard provides a framework for defining a product inventory. It also explains that meaningful product comparisons need more specific product rules. Saving two scenarios here helps test assumptions; it does not supply those rules. Confirm comparable quality, service life and delivery terms before treating a lower per-garment number as an environmental improvement. An investor should request the supporting measurements and allocation method, and an engineer should reconcile each meter and mass balance.
07 / Keep the method with the decision
Keep the method with the decision.
Six readings sit behind this instrument. Press a card, or use the arrows, to see what was taken from it and what was not.
GHG Protocol: Product Standard ↗
Boundary and product-comparison guidance.
No numerical factors were taken from this page.
Water Footprint Network: what is a water footprint? ↗
Definitions and location-sensitive interpretation.
No numerical factors were taken from this page.
Water, Dye and Energy per Unit (wp06)
Planned paper on wet-processing resource intensity.
A related title from the programme register, not a released publication.
Carbon per Garment (wp16)
Planned paper on product accounting.
A related title from the programme register, not a claim of release.
Related working tool: the OEE instrument
Reconcile production time and good output before allocating utilities per saleable unit.
A factory decision may need both inventories: resource per garment and time lost before it.
The model stays visible.
Stage inventory = activity × entered intensity. Upstream activity = finished mass ÷ material yield; CMT activity = finished mass; transport activity = finished tonnes × kilometres.
Method source: GHG Protocol Product Standard (boundary guidance); all numeric defaults illustrative ↗. A planning aid. Not investment, legal or tax advice. Verify inputs and boundaries before an operational decision.
TakenBoundary and product-comparison guidance.
Not takenNo numerical factors were taken from this page.
Both web pages are undated and were accessed on 30 October 2026; the source-open record is retained with this tool.
08 / Measure the factor first
Measure the factor before choosing the intervention.
This partial inventory helps locate a measurement priority. It does not establish a verified product footprint or a comparative environmental claim. Replacing illustrative inputs is the first operating decision.
Sweep the electricity emission factor
- Against instrument B
- 0.000 kg CO2e
- Electricity share of carbon
- 0 %
- Instrument B now
- 1.577 kg CO2e at 0.45 kg CO2e/kWh
The sweep never changes the instrument until you apply it. Illustrative factors throughout.
09 / Carried to the gate
Three totals, one delivery gate.
Each thread is one production stage, as thick as its share of that total. Press a total to follow it. These are the current instrument values, illustrative until you replace them.
- Cotton fibre
- Spinning
- Fabric formation
- Wet processing
- Cut, make, trim
- Transport
CARRIED NOW L kWh kg CO2e
Replay with your factors ↑