We evaluated the environmental sustainability of the fashion industry business models to learn what is the most sustainable option to buy clothing. We compared the environmental impact of a monthly rental subscription model (ie. Rent the Runway), to a peer-to-peer rental model (ie. MeetUp) versus buy and wear once (traditional shopping methods).
Although new business models in clothing industry (i.e. circular rental models) may actually represent a more environmentally friendly approach to the consumption of clothing, the possibility to lower the environmental footprint by adopting these models is highly dependent on the customer and company transportation, and increased intensity of such transportation based on customer behavioral patterns.
While looking at rental subscription methods, the returns, cleaning, and transportation activities of moving all these clothes make it have a higher impact than just regular delivery of fast fashion clothing. What’s more, rented clothes often come wrapped up like new, contributing to packaging waste. An article rented a few times means that the packaging and transportation on those items are vastly higher than the traditional shopping methods.
Considering the CO2 emissions per wear of the garment in wear-once consumption business model’s onsite and online retail channels versus month-to-month subscription clothes rental model, the latter model is more sustainable only under special conditions. Using subscription services and wearing each of the garments only once account for 1.998 kg of CO2 per wear, while wearing each of the garment from the order of 4 twice result in 0.999 kg of CO2 per wear.
The results indicate that instead of purchasing the garment and wearing it only few times, renting it is a more sustainable option.
However, casual clothes or the ones that one wears often (more than 6 or 8 times per garment’s life time) should be purchased instead of rented.
As for the garments that are used for special occasions, the CO2 emissions per wear calculated for different models seem to indicate that, when a person needs a garment to wear only once, it should be renting it instead of buying. However, in the month-to-month subscription model 4 garments are delivered in a single order, making the total emissions of the order higher than the emissions of the purchased garment. Moreover, even in the case of one rented garment, the emissions per delivery of that one order would generate higher emissions than purchasing the garment. Considering the current emissions of month-to-month subscription rental model, it is more sustainable than wear-once consumption business model in the case of the special occasion only when 2 garments are needed.
