Why Vestiaire Collective is now selling carbon credits

For years, reducing environmental impact has been a key marketing tool for second-hand fashion companies. By announcing the sale of carbon credits, the platform Vestiaire Collective is now taking a significant new step.

An original approach

“It is much more than a financial innovation: it is proof that circularity generates a concrete and measurable impact,” states Dounia Wone, chief impact officer at Vestiaire Collective, in a press release. The expert is applauding a unique operation within the second-hand fashion sector. This involves converting CO2 savings, achieved through the purchase of pre-loved items instead of new ones, into carbon credits.

In other words, Vestiaire Collective issues credits that quantify the emissions avoided when consumers buy second-hand clothing and accessories on their platform, rather than new items.

The company’s objective is twofold. Firstly, it is a marketing initiative designed to demonstrate the measurable environmental benefits of its business model. It is also a financial move, as the company offered 55,000 certified carbon credits for sale in early October. Vestiaire Collective states that the revenue from these sales “will be reinvested in activities that directly strengthen the robustness and volume of emissions avoided by Vestiaire Collective, such as catalogue curation or impact marketing.”

As a reminder, a carbon credit is a certificate representing the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) or an equivalent greenhouse gas. In this case, the 55,000 certified credits are not linked to projects like reforestation or renewable energy, as is traditional. Instead, Vestiaire Collective explains they correspond to “emissions already avoided at the very moment a customer chooses a second-hand item over a new one.”

An approach that raises questions

By adopting an approach that considers a pre-loved garment to enter the second-hand market with zero ‘environmental baggage’ from production, the French company is venturing into risky territory. The methodology used by Inuk, the certification company commissioned by Vestiaire Collective, is indeed questionable.

According to the document detailing the approach, the methodology focuses solely on the impact of purchasing a second-hand item versus a new one. It excludes the environmental impacts associated with Vestiaire Collective’s platform operations. These include article transportation; packaging; office operations; IT servers and marketing.

Furthermore, the sale of carbon credits supports the purchase of clothing, which remains problematic even if it is second-hand. It could be argued that the credits should not fund ‘classic’ expenses such as marketing, but rather contribute to funds dedicated to climate solutions.