When we include the total energy required to produce and transport an item to the consumer it is usually true that what costs more in terms of energy is what costs more in dollars. Since we have used up most of the readily available high quality oil, what we are pumping now is becoming increasingly expensive to obtain and refine. The concept of a material's total energy content has begun to receive more attention since the cost of energy has increased and environmental concerns like global warming and ground water pollution have become better understood. Ground rules for what energies should be included and how much energy is contained in an item are not consistent from source to source. This should not be surprising for a nation and an industry that has continually failed to come up with any semblance of an energy policy.
Energy is expended at many different points and in many different ways in the manufacture of a coat.
The following table summarizes some of the more obvious energy expenditures in the manufacture of a full length coat made from fake fur, trapped fur and ranched fur. Values for the total energy content of the plastic used to make things like synthetic fur are available from several sources. A typical full length fake fur contains at most 3 lbs. This is the total energy content of the raw material from which a fake fur is manufactured. Ranched fur costs over 15 times as much as fake fur in energy terms.