Legal

Environmental Policy

How ReNew Market measures, reduces, and reports our impact · Effective April 28, 2026

Mission

ReNew Market is a circular commerce platform: every transaction on the site keeps a piece of clothing, furniture, or home goods out of the landfill by routing it to a new owner instead of into waste. We do not manufacture anything new. The full economic activity of the platform is the resale, repair, and upcycling of existing goods.

Our environmental policy is structured around three principles:

  • Reduce by design — make reselling and repairing cheaper, faster, and more visible than buying new.
  • Measure what we ship — surface real waste-diversion and carbon estimates at the transaction level instead of in vague company-wide claims.
  • Redistribute the upside — return a portion of every sale to sustainability charities, local artists, and the sellers leading the change.

Built-in Practices

The following sustainability features are operational features of the product, not marketing copy. Each one is observable in the live application and can be referenced by line on the repository.

  1. Resale-only inventory. Every listing on ReNew represents a pre-owned, repaired, or upcycled item. We do not host new-from-factory goods.
  2. Eco scoring system. Each user accumulates an eco score based on reused purchases, items resold, local purchases, and shipping choices. Scores roll up into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels with shoppable badges.
  3. Smart sustainability badges. Sellers can flag individual listings with attributes such as Reused, Repaired / Refurbished, Upcycled / Altered, Sustainable Materials, Low Shipping Impact, Carbon-Offset Shipping, and Locally Made. The badges surface in search results so eco-conscious buyers can filter for them.
  4. Local-first marketplace mode. Buyers can filter listings by distance and arrange in-person pickup. Local transactions skip carrier shipping entirely and are flagged with a 0 g CO2 shipping estimate.
  5. Carbon awareness at checkout. The cart shows the estimated CO2 footprint of the chosen shipping option, with local pickup as an explicit lower-impact alternative when both are available.
  6. Repair-services directory. Sellers offering repair services display a Repair badge so buyers can keep existing items working instead of replacing them.
  7. Digital closet. Members can catalogue what they own, surface dormant items as resale candidates, and publish a public closet for friends to browse — a soft incentive against new purchases.
  8. One-click resale. Items already in a member’s digital closet can be listed in seconds, lowering the friction that keeps unused goods stuck in storage.
  9. Weekly eco challenges. Recurring opt-in challenges (e.g., “buy local this week”) reward verifiable behaviors with eco-score points.
  10. Transparent fund accounting. Every sale routes 1% into the ReNew Sustainability Fund. The full ledger (contributions and disbursements) is publicly readable at /eco-fund.
  11. Public scaling commitment. The Sustainability Fund rate increases from 1% to 2% of every sale once monthly GMV reaches $500,000 or the platform supports 5,000 active sellers. A public progress bar tracks both metrics in real time.

The ReNew Sustainability Fund

1% of every transaction is allocated to the ReNew Sustainability Fund. The fund is split across three channels:

  • 40% — Sustainability charities. Recipients are chosen by an annual community vote open to all verified users.
  • 35% — Local artist grants. Disbursed quarterly to artists who apply via the public grant flow and are selected by community vote.
  • 25% — Seller eco awards. Auto-allocated to top eco-score sellers each quarter, recognising the members who most actively practice circular commerce.

The fund ledger is published in full at /eco-fund. Every contribution and disbursement is recorded with the source order, recipient, and channel; we do not aggregate or anonymise outflows.

Measurement & Reporting

We measure what is verifiable at the transaction level rather than estimating company-wide totals. Today the platform records:

  • Number of items resold (landfill diversion proxy).
  • Number of items repaired or upcycled.
  • Number of local-pickup transactions (zero-shipping carbon).
  • Estimated shipping CO2 at checkout.
  • Sustainability Fund balance, contributions, and disbursements.
  • Eco score events per user.

We do not publish single-number lifecycle-impact totals (e.g., “X tonnes of CO2 saved”) because the assumptions required to produce those numbers from resale data are not standardised across the industry. Instead, our public dashboard exposes the underlying counts so external researchers can apply their own conversion factors. This decision is in line with FTC Green Guides §260.5.

Eco Badges & Verification

Eco badges on listings are seller-attested. Each badge requires the seller to specify which materials, processes, or sources justify the claim, and that information is shown publicly on the listing. Verification posture today:

  • Self-attested badges are accepted at listing time and remain visible immediately.
  • Buyers may report inaccurate or misleading eco claims via the existing reporting flow (the same flow that handles counterfeit and prohibited-item reports).
  • Reports are reviewed by ReNew staff. Substantiated claims are removed and repeat offenders lose access to eco badges.
  • Where third-party certifications are available (e.g., GOTS, Fair Trade), sellers may attach certificate numbers; we do not yet require them for badge eligibility but plan to add structured fields for them as the catalogue grows.

Marketplace facilitators in the United States cannot directly audit every claim made on every listing. We mitigate this risk by combining seller attestation with public transparency, buyer reporting, and progressive enforcement — the same approach adopted by Etsy and Depop.

How Sellers Participate

Sellers do not need to opt in to be part of ReNew’s environmental program — every listing inherently contributes to waste diversion. Sellers can deepen their participation by:

  • Tagging each listing with applicable sustainability badges and providing supporting detail (e.g., “reupholstered with offcut wool”).
  • Offering local pickup so transactions can avoid carrier shipping.
  • Enabling the Repair-services badge on their profile.
  • Completing weekly eco challenges to grow their eco score (which unlocks visibility rewards including homepage features and additional free promoted listings).
  • Authoring shop policies that disclose product origins, modifications, and care instructions in clear, non-promotional language.

Public Goals

We commit to the following measurable goals. Progress against each is published on /eco-fund and the platform homepage progress bar.

  • Fund rate increase. Raise the Sustainability Fund allocation from 1% to 2% of every sale once monthly GMV reaches $500,000 OR 5,000 active sellers participate, whichever comes first.
  • Local-pickup share. Grow the share of orders using local pickup (zero-shipping carbon) to at least 15% by month 12 of public operation.
  • Repair badge participation. Have at least 250 verified repair-services sellers on the platform within the first 12 months.
  • Independent reporting. Publish an annual environmental impact report summarising measured behaviors, fund disbursements, and goal progress, with the same data dump available to academic researchers on request.

Anti-Greenwashing Posture

Per the seller agreement and our prohibited-items policy, listings may not make environmental claims that are unverifiable, materially misleading, or that violate the FTC Green Guides (16 C.F.R. Part 260). We treat the following as actionable:

  • Unqualified claims of being “biodegradable,” “compostable,” or “non-toxic” without supporting detail.
  • “Carbon neutral” claims without naming the offset program or methodology.
  • Use of sustainability badges that do not match the underlying item (e.g., a Reused badge on a new-with-tags item).
  • Imitation of recognized third-party certifications (FSC, GOTS, Fair Trade) without holding the certification.

ReNew responds to substantiated reports by removing the listing, notifying the seller, and recording the violation against the seller’s account. Three substantiated violations within 12 months result in suspension of badge eligibility; further violations result in account termination per the seller agreement.

Governance & Review

This policy is reviewed annually, on the anniversary of the effective date, by ReNew leadership in consultation with the Sustainability Fund advisory board (when one is seated). Material changes are announced on the homepage at least 30 days before they take effect.

The platform participates in voluntary state and regional environmental programs where eligibility applies, including (but not limited to) the Maryland Green Registry. Membership status and most-recent submissions are noted in the annual report.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or report a misleading eco claim:

  • Environmental policy contact: sustainability@renew.market
  • Sustainability Fund disbursement records: /eco-fund
  • Report a listing with misleading eco claims: use the “Report this listing” link on any product page.

This policy is published alongside the Terms of Service, Seller Agreement, and Prohibited Items Policy.