Today The RealReal announces the launch of an exciting sustainability calculator that aims to quantify the positive effects of buying secondhand clothing. The initiative coincides with National Consignment Day (today, October 1) and began with the measurement of 2.5 million women's clothing items consigned to The RealReal since 2012. The results showed that these purchases offset a whopping 65 million car miles in greenhouse gasses and energy during that six-year time period.
"It takes my breath away that people consigning apparel alone have made such a tremendous impact — the equivalent of 340,000 trees planted,” founder Julie Wainwright said in a press release. Keep scrolling for more on the new calculator.
The initiative applies a four-pronged methodology when calculating the environmental effects on the planet. If you are actively consigning the four pillars outlined by The RealReal below should make you feel pretty amazing about yourself:
Impact by Material: Energy, greenhouse gas (GHG), and water consumption were estimated based on global averages for each material type. The RealReal does not own the manufacturing process of its goods.
Item Archetypes: The most common women’s clothing types were used to develop four archetypes for calculation: dresses, tops, jackets, and knitwear.
Fabric Composites: The RealReal defragmented the inventory mix into the most common item-fabric combinations (i.e., silk, cotton, polyester, viscose, wool, and linen).
Product Type Composites: Since every item consigned is unique, The RealReal used sample weights to develop average weight measures for each archetype fabrication group.
In the near future, consignors on The RealReal "will be able to track the cumulative impact of their consignments with The RealReal, e.g., they'll be able to see in their dashboard, based on their consignment history, how many car miles they've offset, how many seedlings they've planted (GHG emissions), and water saved," the press release went on to state. Pretty exciting, right? Scroll down to shop a few standouts from The RealReal while also helping preserve our planet, and click to learn more about the calculator.
Click for five simple ways to make your shopping habits more sustainable.
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