Life Cycle Inventory for Cotton

Cotton, Inc. 2009 (pdf)

Report Cover

This document is a summary of the publically available information and data on land, water and energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem services for cotton production in the United States. The data are derived from U.S. government sources, United Nations documents and from publications in established, peer-reviewed scientific journals. This self-evaluation of cotton production’s impact on the environment conducted by Cotton Incorporated forms the basis of a life cycle inventory (LCI) of the agricultural production of cotton, a prerequisite for conducting the more comprehensive life cycle analysis (LCA) of a cotton product.

Land Use

Land required for the production of 1 Mg of fiber (1 Mg = 1 metric ton) (Meyer et al., 2008)

Although cotton’s global land use has remained fairly stable, cotton yields and the land used for cotton production can vary depending on the region and the year. Environmental conditions, crop management practices and genetic potential contribute to this variation in yield. Figure 5 illustrates cotton yields (production per unit area of land) based on average production levels from 2005 to 2008 (Meyer et al., 2008; USDA, 2008a) for the overall world average, and then average yield levels in the U.S.