A "first-of-its-kind" study on the carbon emissions and waste-saving possibilities of off-price business models has been undertaken by fashion outlet platform Otrium in collaboration with climate tech start-up Vaayu.

Otrium and Vaayu have joined forces to produce a thorough examination of the waste and reduced carbon emissions of contemporary off-price business strategies. Fashion shops will be able to use these scientifically supported insights to harness generative AI and machine learning technologies to compute emissions in real-time and then cut them.

In order to calculate carbon at a precise scientific level, Vaayu has used its in-house team of life cycle assessment experts and its proprietary AI and machine learning technology to gather insights from over 45 fashion brands (both available on and off Otrium) and data from nearly five million fashion products live on Otrium.

By offering a substitute for waste streams for unsold products, the research examines the broader role that contemporary outlet business models like Otrium can play in enabling a more circular fashion sector. One of the biggest data sets on unsold stock practices, it makes a new contribution to understanding the end-of-life phase of fashion products.

According to these figures, in 2022, Otrium claims that by giving fashion designers a profitable way to get rid of unsold inventory, as opposed to a scenario in which off-price companies like Otrium do not exist, it will have averted 6,496 tons of carbon emissions (CO2e) and 104 tons of garbage. That is the same as taking 2,219 roundtrip trips from Amsterdam to New York City for one person, or 130,524 pairs of jeans.

Otrium is collaborating with sustainable and ethical brand rating organization Good On You, which compares the companies on Otrium based on their social and environmental effect, to help its five million members around the world make informed decisions outside of trend and seasonal patterns. Additionally, Otrium revalues broken things like returns, fixes them, and reintroduces them into the cycle.

Marlot Kiveron, head of sustainability at Otrium, explains: “Our ultimate goal is to have a net positive impact. This means giving back more than we take through our business model, and operations. Creating impact is constant. The goal of this report is to measure our progress and to stay accountable by sharing this externally. Understanding the impact of both our business model as well as our operations in real-time, helps us to accelerate positive change.”

Namrata Sandhu, co-founder and CEO of Vaayu, said: “We’re at an inflection point when it comes to the climate and new research shows that we’re currently not on track to keep global warming below 1.5C. Retailers have long been transitioning reactively; thinking about systems change and circularity, and wanting to truly understand and lower their impact. But Vaayu actually enables them to work proactively, by harnessing our generative AI and machine learning technology to calculate emissions in real-time, and then lowering them using these science-backed insights. Our work with Otrium is the first of its kind to investigate the carbon emission and waste-saving potential of off-price business models.”