How a dress rented 53 times saved the equivalent of 159 trees

This red dress by Australian designer Sonya Moda has been rented 53 times, saving the equivalent of 159 trees or a car trip from Canberra to Brisbane.

If 53 people had bought the dress new rather than renting it, the equivalent carbon emissions would be 11,236 kilograms and the water usage would be 1628 litres.

The blue-and-black frock from Suboo Shibori, another Australian brand, has been rented 41 times, saving greenhouse gases equivalent to 10,086 kilograms of carbon and 1259 litres of water.

Belinda Birt with two of the dresses she rents out: a red Sonya Moda and a blue-and-black Suboo Shibori.Credit: Wayne Taylor

The dresses are two of the 70,000 available on clothing rental site The Volte, which has partnered with the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles to research the sustainability benefits of the business model.

The initial calculations are from Cogo’s carbon calculator, a tool used by the fashion industry internationally, based on the materials used in the garment. The UTS research will delve deeper and consider factors such as shipping the clothing for each rental, and whether the dresses were dry-cleaned, machine-washed or hand-washed.

The Volte co-founder and chief executive Bernadette Olivier said: “Sustainability is at the core of what we do, but with the rise of greenwashing in the fashion industry, we are conscious [to ensure] that everything can be backed up, that’s why this research is so important to us.”

The fashion industry has faced a backlash particularly the fast-fashion sector where there is a constant turnover of designs and ultra-cheap clothing often only survives being worn once or twice.

The Australian Fashion Council’s 2023 Clothing Data Report says Australia is the second-largest consumer of textiles after the United States. On average, every Australian buys 56 items of clothing a year, and more than 200,000 tonnes of clothing are sent to landfill.

Timo Rissanen, an associate professor in the UTS School of Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, said research suggests individual consumption should be closer to five new items a year – excluding underwear – to stay within the Paris Agreement commitment of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

He said the environmental benefits of sustainably made clothing were lost if the items were only worn a few times.

“The real good happens when a garment is worn as many times as possible because it really makes the most of the investment in materials and also in manufacture,” Rissanen said.

Rissanen was interested from a design perspective in which garments were most popular and why, and also which ones have materials that last and still look good after a high number of wears.

The Volte is a peer-to-peer site for designer clothing, meaning it provides a platform to connect lenders and borrowers. Olivier said the Perth-based company also pays royalties to the designers to make it financially profitable for the industry.

Designerex and High Street Runway have similar business models. There are also rental sites including Glamcorner, Style Theory, All the Dresses and RNTR that either hold stock directly or partner with professional offline rental businesses or directly with designers.

Both the Sonya Moda and Suboo Shibori dresses are owned by Belinda Birt, who owns a physical dress rental store Your Secret Closet in Hampton, Melbourne, and operates nationally via The Volte.

“Our customers like the fact that it doesn’t clutter up their wardrobe, they can wear something different to every event without a huge financial impact, and that 35-45 age group is a market that really is thinking about the environmental impact and the future they’re leaving for their kids,” Birt said.

Trent Rigby, director of consultancy Retail Oasis, said younger consumers were interested in sustainable fashion, but often affordability was a bigger concern. The environmental impact was also becoming increasingly important for older consumers who often had more money to ensure their purchases lived up to their ideals.

“Sustainability is continuing to be one of the biggest trends in the fashion industry, but progress has been somewhat slow, particularly from many retailers,” Rigby said.

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