Is Clothing Rental Sustainable?

Nuuly was born to help you change your relationship with clothing—wherever you are on your sustainability journey, at whatever pace feels right for you—so we dug into our operational, process and rental data to learn more

Nuuly’s Circularity Ethos

For most of us, fashion starts and ends with a purchase: an item is bought, worn, discarded and eventually replaced with something new. Nuuly’s clothing rental ecosystem shifts fashion from a cycle of one-off buying and discarding to a system that minimizes ownership and maximizes novelty—less cycle, more circular. Beyond renting, here’s how we practice circularity and how you participate by Nuulying

Nuuly’s Responsibly Made Styles

Each style in our edit of Responsibly Made Styles comprises at least 50% third-party verified, certified materials sourced with environmental considerations, in addition to upcycled + vintage styles. We carefully track the certifications for all of our Responsibly Made styles to ensure they meet our standards

More About Our Responsibly Made Styles’ Fabric Content

Organic cotton: Grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers; a safer option for farmers + the environment than conventionally grown cotton
Regenerative cotton: Farmed with a focus on enhancing soil health + protecting biodiversity
Recycled polyester: Made from post-consumer and post-industrial rigid plastics; gives materials another life + reduces use of non-renewable virgin resources
European flax linen: Traceable back to its farm of origin; grown with less water, fertilizers + pesticides than conventional cotton linen
Birla™ viscose + rayon: Wood-based, sourced from responsibly managed forests + produced using a process that recycles water and chemicals
LENZING™/TENCEL™: Plant-based cellulose fibers (viscose, modal, lyocell); LENZING™ products are >99% sourced from controlled or certified wood sources
Upcycled + vintage: Extends the life of clothing, reduces use of virgin materials and the associated impacts of raw material sourcing + fiber manufacturing

Nuuly’s Dynamic Data Model

Nuuly worked with Third Partners, a sustainability consultancy, to develop a dynamic data model to assess the lifetime carbon and water footprint of three garment types available for rent from Nuuly—jeans, occasion dresses and puffer jackets—and normalize those impacts across the average number of wears.

Our top line findings are that these rented garments generally have a greater expected lifecycle carbon impact, but their higher number of wears over their lifecycle reduces carbon intensity vs. their purchased alternatives. Nuuly rentals also typically use less water over the course of their lifecycle than purchased alternatives.

Ready to rent? Check out our Responsibly Made + Circular Styles edit