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The Cleanest Line is one of the best customer blogs I've seen:

http://www.thecleanestline.com/

It is described as, "Weblog for the employees, friends and customers of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia."

It is actively monitored by the company and they respond to most reasonable exchanges of ideas ranging from praise to criticism.

Here's a Technorati link about how Patagonia is leading the outdoor industry in LCA, recycling more and more of their materials:

http://www.technorati.com/posts/8TxF_H4uVgO4FWemNKMMMKORzsyGba_T5y7sURqKtzc%3D

I know from working there that they are dedicated to being closed loop on all their shells -- 100% recycled, 100% recyclable -- by 2010. That's amazing.

Also to be reckoned with is The Footprint Chronicles, perhaps the most exceptional transparency tool yet developed:

http://www.patagonia.com/usa/footprint/index.jsp

It shows the footprint of each product (initially launched with 5 products and as of this writing at about 15) from beginning to end of life cycle. It includes energy consumption, waste produced, and CO2 emissions including product transport. It provides a refreshingly transparent insight into the process of producing clothing. Patagonia should be congratulated, not only for putting this together, but for their consistently self-critical tone -- the site does not smack of the trendy self-applauding CSR messaging, but of genuine consideration for important issues.

BRAVO, Patagonia!

For wool, one of my favorite product lines offered by Patagonia (I'm wearing a wool T as I write this and basically live in their wool), this means videos and information from product design to upbringing of the New Zealand sheep, the process of shearing, transport of materials in various stages, use by the customer, and end of life cycle recycling, through the Common Threads recycling program:

http://www.patagonia.com/pdf/en_US/common_threads_whitepaper.pdf

or, less technically:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CallW5kb2A

The Footprint Chronicles is done mostly in Flash, so it's not friendly for porting over text, but here are some examples:

The site covers 15 steps, including:

"Learn how wool, once shorn and cleaned, is carded, then spun into yarn and knit into fabric at the Kurabo Textile Corporation's mill in Tsu City, Japan."

1. Kurabo Textile Corporation, established in 1888, is one of the oldest textile mills in Japan. Their factory in Tsu produces wool – as evidenced by three statues of sheep grazing on the front lawn.
2. Meanwhile back at the ranch (in faraway) New Zealand: Raw wool, after shearing, contains dirt, other field detritus and lanolin. Scouring removes contaminants and excess lanolin, which is then sold separately, often for use in cosmetics.
3. Washed wool is light and fluffy – too fluffy. At a plant in Malaysia, the unruly wool is carded and combed to align the fibers in the same direction, as well as remove fibers too short to spin.
4. Washed wool after carding becomes the ropelike sliver (pronounced SLY-ver) shown above. This sliver will be shipped to Kurabo’s Tsu facility to be further spun into yarn, then knit into fabric.
5. To make wool machine washable (and thus easy care), the sliver undergoes the ozone-based ECO-WASH® process. Wool fibers have scales on their surface, similar to those on a fish. If left untreated, scales can lock after machine washing – and cause felting and shrinkage. An ozone wash prevents this.
6. We use an ozone-based rather than the more conventional chlorine-based process for two reasons. Both are energy-intensive but chlorine, a potential carcinogen, leaves residue in wastewater. This is environmentally unacceptable. Moreover, a chlorine treatment strips out the wool's natural lanolin, which contributes so much of wool's natural water repellency and soil resistance. ECO-WASH retains both properties."
   
   Note: The beakers contain, from left to right: untreated wool, wool treated with ECO-WASH, wool treated with chlorine. (Note that sinking feeling in the beaker to the right.)
7. The treated sliver comes out of the wash looking very much the same as it did going in!
8. The sliver is then separated into smaller and thinner slivers – then recombined. This blending process helps creates yarn of uniform thickness, for more consistency in dyeing.
9. The slivers are now combined on spools into roving strands...
10. ...and drafted (or separated) before twisting into yarn for strength.
11. A pneumatic splicing machine creates joins equally as strong as the rest of the yarn.
12. The yarn is then ready to be knitted on this circular knitting machine. (Note that although the yarn in this photo is dyed, we piece-dye our goods after knitting.)
13. Typically wool dyes employ heavy metals for colorfastness, but Kurabo uses alternative, far less toxic methods for Patagonia garments.
14. An inspector checks the bolts as they come off the line.
15. A final wrap, and bolts of Patagonia wool are ready to ship to the cutter.

There are images throughout which enrich the experience and certainly contribute to transparency.