thredUP’s interactive tool gives consumers new personalized insights on their fashion habits and provides simple, actionable steps to reduce their environmental footprint.

April 5, 2023 (Oakland, Calif.) – thredUP, one of the largest online resale platforms for apparel, shoes, and accessories, today launched its Fashion Footprint Calculator, a personalized tool designed to empower and educate consumers on the environmental impact of their fashion habits with the goal of lessening their impact. The tool was inspired by thredUP’s 2023 Resale Report, also released today, which found that 63% of Gen Z and Millennials believe they can reduce their individual footprint. 

As many consumers are inundated with conflicting information on how to participate in sustainable fashion, the Fashion Footprint Calculator helps consumers learn if their habits are as sustainable as they think, how their choices fit into the larger fashion ecosystem, and how to reduce their footprint.  

“Over the past several years, we’ve grown increasingly aware of fashion's environmental impact. What remains murky is how individuals can make a real difference in the face of greenwashing, overproduction, and underutilization of clothing. We know it will take an all-hands-on-deck approach to combat fashion waste, but individuals can still make small changes to their daily lives that will ultimately drive industry-wide change. We hope our Fashion Footprint Calculator can serve as a guide to empower everyone in doing their part to help us collectively move toward a more circular fashion future.” -- Erin Wallace, VP of Integrated Marketing at thredUP

How thredUP’s Fashion Footprint Calculator Works:

thredUP’s Fashion Footprint Calculator offers simple, actionable tips for reducing your footprint. In just three minutes, you can learn what habits make the biggest difference when it comes to making your closet - and the fashion industry - more sustainable. 

• Answer ten questions about how you buy, wear and care for your clothes.

• Each question includes tips and stats to teach you how each fashion habit contributes to your footprint. 

• thredUP will reveal the total carbon your closet generates annually, along with how you compare to the average consumer.

• Learn the top ways to reduce your footprint (it’s easier than you’d think!), and check out thredUP’s top 12 tips to transform your sustainable fashion journey. 

The Top Three Actions That Will Shrink Your Fashion Footprint (based on Calculator data):

1. Buy half of your clothes secondhand. 

   • Buying half of your clothes secondhand can save 656 lbs of carbon annually. That’s equivalent to 715 miles of driving emissions or a round-trip drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  

   • By shopping secondhand, you’re avoiding the carbon, waste, and water footprints generated from producing new garments. In fact, buying – and wearing – secondhand clothes instead of new reduces carbon emissions by an average of 25%.

   • thredUP’s 2023 Resale Report found that U.S. consumers bought 1.4 billion secondhand apparel items in 2022 that they normally would have bought new, up 40% from 2021. As consumers swap new purchases for used, the ripple effect could force the industry to make seismic shifts in reducing the overproduction of new garments to meet demand.

2. Extend the life of your clothes through reuse.

   • Donating or reselling your clothes gets them into closets instead of landfill. Doing so can save 522 lbs of carbon annually. That’s equal to nearly 215 hours of energy use in the average U.S. household.

   • Mending your clothes is also an easy way to add years to the lifespan of your item. 

   • With 75% of laundry’s total carbon impact coming from machine drying, switching to air drying is another way to keep your clothes in better shape and reduce your carbon footprint. 

3. Avoid returns.

• While shopping online has a 79% lower carbon impact than shopping in-store, online returns create a massive carbon footprint.

• Limit returns by shopping with intention: Know your measurements, find three things in your closet to wear with your prospective item, and buy fewer, high-quality items from brands you’re confident will work for you.

Younger Generations are Powering a Circular Future:

thredUP’s Resale Report found that 2 in 5 items in Gen Z’s closet are secondhand. As younger consumers continue to swap new purchases for used, the potential for the industry to shift toward a more circular future is massive. thredUP’s Resale Report also found: 

• 58% of millennials and Gen Z say their closet contributes to climate change.

• 61% of Gen Z and millennials consider themselves eco-conscious or sustainability-focused, compared to 51% of consumers overall. 

• Gen Z is driving online resale’s growth: 58% of Gen Z who bought secondhand apparel in the last 12 months made at least one purchase online - more than any other generation. 

• More than half of Gen Z are more likely to shop with a brand that offers secondhand apparel alongside new, up 6 points from 2021. 

• 64% of Gen Z look for an item secondhand before buying it new, up 4 points from 2021. 

Resale Report Methodology: thredUP’s Annual Resale Report contains research and data from GlobalData, a third-party retail analytics firm. GlobalData’s assessment of the secondhand market is determined through consumer surveys, retailer tracking, official public data, data sharing, store observation, and secondary sources. These inputs are used by analysts to model and calculate market sizes, channel sizes, and market shares. Further, for the purpose of this report, GlobalData conducted a December 2022 survey of 3,012 American adults over 18, asking specific questions about their behaviors and preferences for secondhand. GlobalData also surveyed the top 50 U.S. fashion retailers and brands in January 2023 to gather their opinions on resale. In addition, thredUP’s Resale Report also leverages data from the following sources: thredUP’s Recommerce 100, Green Story Inc. research, internal thredUP customer and brand performance data, and McKinsey & Company.

Fashion Footprint Calculator Methodology: thredUP partnered with 3rd party life cycle assessment specialists Green Story Inc. to measure the footprint of garments under both linear and secondhand use systems in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, energy, and water consumed for each wear. The impacts and savings compared to linear systems are estimated based on the independent LCA study conducted by Green Story Inc. For the data, Green Story leveraged peer-reviewed studies, verified datasets, primary operational data from thredUP and supply chain databases to analyze each garment category. Consumer surveys were also performed to analyze consumer behavior towards the usage and disposal of clothing types, including the efficiency of the reuse of secondhand garments by examining the displacement rate. For example, the surveys found that not every secondhand garment purchased completely replaces a new purchase, this only happens 72% of the time. View all sources here.