Case study · Circular fashion · LCA
Envirly x Ubrania Do Oddania: measuring the impact of clothing reuse
Circular fashion, backed by numbers. How Ubrania Do Oddania built an LCA-based environmental impact calculator designed to withstand greenwashing scrutiny.
Every T-shirt passed on for reuse represents a measurable amount of greenhouse gas emissions and water withdrawal that can be avoided compared with producing a new garment. The question is: how much, and how can the result be substantiated?
Ubrania Do Oddania set an ambitious goal: to show users the real impact of their decisions in a way that could withstand detailed questions about methodology. No vague claims, no marketing shortcuts and no unsupported “we estimate that…” statements. Working with Envirly, the company rebuilt its environmental impact calculator around a full LCA approach and robust data for two comparable scenarios: producing new clothing and preparing used garments for recirculation.
Context: circular fashion needs credible numbers
The Ubrania Do Oddania model is simple: people send in clothes they no longer need, support a selected social initiative and help reduce textile waste. A few clicks, one parcel and a tangible result.
In environmental communication, however, a simple user journey is only half the story. The other half is answering the question increasingly asked by informed consumers and business partners: “Show us how you calculated it.”
UDO therefore needed more than an attractive website counter. It needed current, auditable data that could translate every kilogram of donated clothing into specific, explainable outcomes: avoided greenhouse gas emissions and reduced water withdrawal.
The project followed one uncompromising principle: the calculator was not to become a decorative website feature or a marketing counter. It had to be grounded in LCA, use a clearly defined scope and compare two processes that users could intuitively understand: the environmental cost of producing new clothing and the UDO process for bringing garments back into circulation.
The challenge: communicating impact without greenwashing
In the fashion industry, environmental claims are increasingly difficult to make without supporting data. Consumers, B2B partners and ESG teams ask about methodology, system boundaries and the sources behind reported indicators. This is particularly important in reuse models, where communication often starts from the intuitive assumption that extending a garment’s life is preferable to producing a replacement. Intuition is a useful starting point, but it is not evidence.
The Ubrania Do Oddania team needed clear answers to several practical questions:
The greatest risk was an overly general narrative. An environmental claim without a precise scope quickly loses credibility. The starting point was therefore not a slogan, but a functional unit: 1 kg of clothing.
How Envirly helped
Envirly supported Ubrania Do Oddania in updating its environmental indicators and impact calculator. The work focused on comparing two scenarios: the production of new clothing and the UDO process for preparing garments for recirculation.
The scope of the engagement included:
The most important outcome was a tool that allows users to see the effect of their own decision. People donating clothing can understand how much greenhouse gas emissions and water withdrawal may be avoided compared with producing new garments.
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