A new study has found that renting garments via the Australian peer-to-peer rental platform “significantly reduces climate change impacts per wear compared to traditional ownership.”
Titled How Australian Women Bought Less But Had More, the study was led by University of Technology Sydney (UTS) researchers at the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles, in partnership with peer-to-peer rental platform The Volte.
The study combined a life cycle assessment (LCA) of nine rented garments based on ISO 14040 alongside insights from The Volte’s community of users and super lenders.
Within the nine studied garments, some have been rented as low as 12 times, with others being rented as high as 47 times.
The LCA found that despite a higher operational burden associated with repeated use, rental garments still exhibit lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per wear than their owned counterparts. According to the report, these findings are consistent with another study in 2023, which emphasised that higher utilisation rates within rental models can substantially reduce the per-use environmental footprint.
The study also found that low-frequency use garments – such as rented wedding dresses – had the highest emissions per wear, with an average of 8.183 kg of CO2-eq for owning and 1.739kg of CO2-eq for renting.
Meanwhile, garments with high-frequency use have the lowest emissions per wear, averaging 1.041kg CO2 for owning and 0.581kg CO2-eq for renting. This is followed by medium-frequency garments, with average emissions of 1.944 kg CO2-eq for owning and 0.664 kg CO2-eq for renting.
“This pattern reinforces the earlier point that higher utilisation rates significantly reduce environmental impact: garments worn more frequently distribute their total lifecycle emissions over more use occasions, significantly reducing the climate impact per wear,” the report read.
The Volte co-founder and CEO Bernadette Olivier said the research confirmed what industry innovators have long believed.
“Rental is no longer niche. It’s essential,” Olivier said. “If we’re serious about reducing fashion’s environmental footprint, increasing clothing utilisation through rental must be front and centre of the solution.”
Lead researcher and UTS associate professor Timo Rissanen said rental isn’t just changing how Australians consume fashion, but also shifts the equation for sustainability.
“If consumers shift from ownership to access, we can drastically cut production, waste, and emissions across the supply chain,” Rissanen said.
The report also noted that the gap between current consumption levels and the sustainable target is a reduction of approximately 87 per cent, and represents a major issue for the fashion industry.
Olivier said the answer is peer-to-peer rental, where one high-quality dress can live many lives.
"Instead of being worn once and forgotten, it's worn dozens of times – maximising its value, minimising its footprint,” she said.
According to the co-founders, The Volte is now the world’s largest peer-to-peer fashion rental platform, specialising in premium occasionwear. The platform hosts over 70,000 designer pieces.