Queen of Raw and MIT Solve Release Fabric Footprint Impact Report

What if you knew the true cost of your clothing? Not just the price of the tag, but the cost to the planet as well? What if you can discover the amount of water, carbon emissions, chemicals, and water saved by each of your purchases? Did you know that one t-shirt takes an average of 700 gallons of water to produce? That’s enough clean water for one person to drink for three years. With the global textile market expected to hit $1.23 trillion by 2025, less than 1% of the material used to make clothing is recycled.

Now there’s a way to discover the sustainability score of each of your purchases via Queen of Raw’s marketplace. Queen of Raw now calculates the water, toxins, carbon emission, and waste saved by upcycling the $288 billion worth of excess textiles (raw materials and finished goods) rather than manufacturing new ones. Presented with sustainability metrics backed with authenticity on the blockchain, consumers can have a more engaging journey. 

“Consumers want to see sustainability metrics when making sales decisions, and in fact, 43% Gen-Zers seek out companies with a solid sustainability reputation. With $360B in disposable income, this seems like a significant opportunity for brands and retailers,” Stephanie Benedetto, co-founder, and CEO, Queen of Raw, told CoinGeek. 

Queen of Raw, together with MIT Solve, released a no-code mobile e-commerce impact measuring tool on the blockchain. The Fabric Footprint Impact Report meets the increasing consumer demand for greater transparency. It allows buyers, sellers, and consumers to see sustainability metrics quickly and easily where they can make informed choices with the swipe of a smartphone, track progress, and get rewarded for brand engagement. The impact report is also available to brands as a white-labeled offering, with a single sign-in for ease of use.

“The Fabric Footprint Impact Report empowers all participants across the supply chain in real-time and utilizes impact-analysis technology that requires no more than a smartphone to access,” Phil Derasmo, Co-Founder and CTO of Queen of Raw, said. “Removing any guesswork and keeping track of environmental and economic progress while accessing a trusted network, so companies can solve a very real problem in the face of climate change quickly, easily, and cost-effectively with no-code,” because everyone needs to understand the impact of their purchasing decisions.

Role of MIT?

Queen of Raw, a blockchain and AI-powered platform that pairs buyers and sellers of unused fabrics, is among the three of 302 companies that received funding in 2019 via MIT Solve, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology initiative. MIT launched Circular Economy Challenge, which asked innovators from across the world how people can create and consume goods that are renewable, reusable, and recyclable? Only three were selected, of which one was Queen of Raw, led by Benedetto, announced as the 2019 Circular Economy Solver.

“Working with Queen of Raw on the Fabric Footprint Impact Report is exciting because it allows everyone to participate in the circular economy,” Casey van der Stricht, Principal, Solve Innovation Future, said. This slows the overall rate of textile production and waste, keeps beautiful materials in circulation for longer, and gives consumers concrete information on the sustainability factor of each product. 

How does Queen of Raw calculate the resources saved?

For each piece of fabric sold on Queen of Raw, the company takes the content, weight, and delivery and tells the consumers the water, chemicals, carbon emissions, and waste offset by their purchase. Orders can vary from one yard to 1million yards. The company claims to have saved more than 1 billion gallons of water through its efforts.

Everything is measured by Queen of Raw’s proprietary algorithm and scoring methodology, developed with the support of Solve Innovation Future (MIT Solve’s groundbreaking philanthropic venture fund), backed with authenticity by their Raw Chain blockchain, and powered by their software Materia MX.

Can consumers access designers and resources in your marketplace? 

“We integrate our queenofraw.com deadstock catalogue and our impact measuring tool powered by our software Materia MX with on-demand manufacturing. Our goal is to democratize access to all these resources! Our community is full of amazing independent designers, makers, creators, and tailors, and bringing them together in the digital space for the first time is our goal,” Benedetto explained.

How to join Queen of Raw?

Simple and easy, you can be a global brand like J Crew or Gucci, an individual designer, a student or working professional who wants to buy a piece of fabric from anywhere in the world to have it tailormade to your liking. Visit queenofraw.com to create an account. Browse through a range of fabrics from world-famous brands, and purchase what you like. You can buy one yard of fabric, monitor your purchase’s impact on the environment, and become part of the solution. And suppose you made a dress from that fabric; you become part of the Queen of Raw tribe on chain.

What’s next?

According to Benedetto, one of their enterprise customers saw three times the conversion rate in their online DTC business just by measuring and communicating impact. She said that this isn’t just for Queen of Raw, and she hopes that by giving the QR code to their users, they can, in turn, share this robust impact data with their customers and grow their own branding, storytelling, and sales. 

“We will report back on our results soon! Transparency is the future. Taking our solution across raw material categories and waste streams, across industries, and around the World! Together we will change the World,” Benedetto affirmed.