The RealReal Event Recap
Courtesy of TheRealReal
Written By: Arieta Nasto
On October 18th, the Villanova Business of Fashion Society was joined by James Rogers, the Sustainability Director at The RealReal. We had a great turn out and thank everyone for joining! For those of you who couldn’t make it - read below for a recap of the questions asked at the event!
What is The RealReal?
The RealReal is a luxury consignment store both online and with 14 stores across the US. Their items range from apparel, jewelry, and handbags to art and home goods with the goal of “taking items that exist and keeping them in circulation longer” (Rogan). The RealReal is all about sustainability and has large distribution centers and offices to reduce the impact of operations and carbon emissions.
“We’re mining people’s closets rather than mining the earth”
What is James’ role at The RealReal?
James is the sustainability director, meaning he is in charge of reducing The RealReal’s carbon emissions and making The RealReal a leader in sustainability both in the fashion field and policy making.
What are some of The RealReal’s goals?
Reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
Reduce carbon emissions to 0 by 2050.
Become a leader in sustainability both in the fashion field and policy making.
Engage employees from executives all the way to office and warehouse workers in sustainability efforts.
Educating employees, policy-makers, and consumers about the environmental damages of the apparel industry and stressing the importance of reselling and buying used.
What are some obstacles The RealReal is facing?
James noted two obstacles:
The low impact business model
The RealReal has a low impact business model, meaning emissions are small and harder to reduce because they are already crazy low. A way The RealReal is working to create a greater impact is through a utility called VPPA (virtual power purchase agreement). VPPA is a way The RealReal can balance their emissions by generating renewable energy off-site. The RealReal is also looking to reduce emissions by teaming up with similar companies.
Lack of education
People don’t realize that there’s value in their clothes, causing consumption of fast fashion to increase and overconsumption.
What is the TRR calculator?
The TRR calculator quantifies the environmental savings of buying consignment. Since 70-90% of carbon emissions come from the material manufacturing stage of production, The RealReal has saved 3.3 billion liters of water and 63,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Check out their TRR Sustainability Calculator White Paper to see in detail how the TRR calculator works and their new categories.
“For every dress someone buys on The RealReal, that’s one less person buying new items”
What does James think about Patagonia’s new ownership?
James gives patagonia lots of credit, but Yvon Chouinard did not need the money anyway so it’s not like a huge loss on him personally. While James is impressed with what Chouinard did, he doesn't expect other companies to follow suit soon, but he hopes it pressures other companies to do the same.