Environmental impact measurement methodology - understanding our calculations (original) (raw)
Our Environmental Impact Measurement Methodology sets out Depop’s approach to estimate the environmental impact of secondhand purchases made on Depop compared to brand-new items. We estimate the avoided environmental impact through secondhand purchases made on Depop for two major areas: greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) / carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and water consumption. Our objective is to help our community better understand the environmental impact of resale. We provide below more details about our calculations and the sources we used.
We estimate the GHG and water savings based on a calculation of the GHG emissions avoided and water consumption avoided from secondhand purchases on Depop since 2021, compared to brand new purchases. The categories included are bottoms, tops, shoes, outerwear and dresses. We use the average category weight per item and exclude non-comparable stages of the product life cycle such as assembly, retail, distribution, use and disposal. Read our methodology to learn more.
In our communications, we may use comparisons to illustrate the size of the environmental benefits of shopping on Depop in simple terms.
GHG savings in the equivalent of...
- Number of miles driven by car, assuming an average US gasoline-powered passenger vehicle is used for US users (source) and an average UK petrol car for UK and Australian users (source).
- Number of times travelled around Earth, assuming an average US gasoline-powered passenger vehicle is used (source) and the Earth’s circumference is 24,898 miles.
- Number of trees planted from seeds and grown, assuming the volume of carbon sequestered by an average tree planted in an urban setting (source).
Water savings in the equivalent of...
- Number of glasses of water, assuming an average glass of water is 200ml.
- Number of olympic swimming pools, assuming an olympic swimming pool measures 50x25x2m (source).
- Number of baths, assuming an average sized bath of 1.5x0.7x0.5m.