Sustainable Spending:
The RealReal Measures Environmental Impact With New Calculator

Fuelled by Generation Z spending power and the circular economy, the market for reselling fashion is on the rise.

Photo: Courtesy of TheRealReal

With increasing popularity, reselling of clothing and accessories is striding away from notions of worn out, secondhand goods and becoming a positive force in fashion’s circular economy. One such company that is owning the luxury resale market and making positive change is TheRealReal.

To celebrate and showcase the positive impact of consignment on the environment, the company has just launched its own sustainability calculator. The science-based calculator, measured the greenhouse gasses, energy output and water usage to assess the overall environmental benefits of recirculating/consigning apparel. Focusing on the 2.5 million pieces of women’s apparel that were consigned on the website, the company revealed that it has offset 65 million car miles in greenhouse gasses and energy since 2012.

To create the tool, The RealReal worked with Oregon based sustainable consultancy agency, Shift Advantage, as well as experts from the World Resource Institute (WRI) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The calculator takes into consideration four areas:

-The impact of material: energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) and water consumption based on global averages for each material type.

-Item Archetypes: the most common women’s clothing The RealReal receives – 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.

When speaking about the growth within the fashion recommerse market, The RealReal says much of it can be attributed to Generation Z’s interest in ‘drop’ culture and the market for hype. The company’s 2017 State of Luxury Resale report showed that the online marketplace’s fastest-growing demographic is Generation Z, which is outpacing older demographics in sales by 35%.

Similarly, platforms such as the global online marketplace Depop, Stadium Goods, a resale marketplace that specializes in sneakers and footwear and the sneaker marketplace GOAT have all thrived by tapping into Generation Z’s resale mindset. The notions of both reselling and buying pre-owned, rather than buying new products, also sit in line with younger consumers’ desire to live more sustainable lives. With many studies now showing that a majority of Generation Z consumers are likely to buy a product with a social or environmental benefit.

The RealReal currently has 10 retail locations across the US and can be found online.