Press Release
Which Brands Are The Least Environmentally Aware?
Research has revealed that Adidas ‘Into the Metaverse’ NFT drop transactions used more electricity than 2.5k U.S. homes in one year. To learn more about Which Brands are the least Environmentally Aware, read more.
Indeed, the Fashion industry and sustainability are constantly at odds. After all, clothing and sustainability are not a match; this is especially true in the current climate. Waste is a problem; the fashion industry has massive waste problems, and some brands have no clue. These brands are the least environmentally aware. Americans generate an average of around 75 pounds of textile waste annually – a more than 750% increase since 1960. And not only this, but the production methods, water usage, and supply chains involved in clothing manufacturing leave a significant environmental impact.
However, one thing that isn’t considered regarding fashion’s carbon footprint is the non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In the past 18 months, most big fashion houses and brands, including Gucci, Balmain, Burberry, and GAP, have jumped on the NFT bandwagon. Similar to cryptocurrency, NFTs require large amounts of energy. The Digiconomist ‘Ethereum Energy Consumption Index’ found that every proof of work transaction taking place uses more than 260 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. This is equivalent to the average U.S. household over nine days.
To see the environmental impact of NFT drops from some of the biggest fashion brands in the world.
TRG Datacenters has analyzed ten specific NFT releases from 10 well-known fashion brands and estimated how many kilowatt hours (kWh) all the transactions of each launch consumed based on their research, Adidas ‘Into the Metaverse’ NFTs, launched in partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punks Comics, and GMoney, were the least environmentally friendly. They sold almost 30,000 NFTs, making 5,924 ETH, roughly over $23 million in profits.
Each NFT cost an average of 0.8 ETH, which equated to about $765 at the time. Due to the substantial amount of transactions related to the Adidas release – and the fact that gas prices were high at the time of research – we found that this would use around 25,000,000 kWh.
To put this into perspective, in 2020, ‘the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,715 kWh’, so the transactions of Adidas NFT drop alone used more electricity than 2,500 US homes would in one year.
Of those analyzed, the most environmentally friendly NFT release was from Balmain. The French fashion house introduced Barbie to the digital art world with ‘authentic pieces of collectible, digital fashion. ‘
Buyers could purchase the three unique Barbie avatars wearing digital versions of the collection via an auction. The highest bid was $20,000. The top bidders also received a physical set of doll-sized Balmain clothing.
Each NFT used 1 kWh per NFT, all down to the blockchain they used. Flow blockchain provides environment-friendly transactions with little to no fee. In a 2021 tweet, they claimed, “Flow leverages an environment-friendly design via Proof-of-Stake that consumes thousands of times less energy than Proof-of-Work blockchains like the current Ethereum network.”
Which brands are the least environmentally aware| Fashion & NFTs:
The Ten Least To Most Environmentally Friendly Brands Are
| Brand | NFT | kWh | |
| 1 | Adidas | Into the Metaverse | 25,000,000 |
| 2 | Nike | Cryptokicks | 672,810 |
| 3 | Burberry | Blank Block Party | 379,562 |
| 4 | Gucci | Gucci Aria & Super Gucci | 324,037 |
| 5 | Louis Vuitton | Louis: The Game | 20,000 |
| 6 | Asics | Sunrise Red Collection | 17,518 |
| 7 | Dolce & Gabbana | Nine-piece collection | 17,014 |
| 8 | Ray-Ban x Extraweg | The first ever NFT Ray-Ban Aviator | 1,824 |
| 9 | GAP | DAP x GAP collaboration | 1 |
| 10 | Balmain x Barbie | Barbie tries a new look: NFTs | Less than 1 |
Chris Hinkle, CTO of TRG Datacenters, said: “The sheer number of transactions needed for the Adidas NFT release resulted in an astounding level of energy usage.” Our research showed that although brands publish much information about their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, NFTs and their environmental impact don’t appear in any of their mission statements.
