Square Your Circle: How to Assess the Environmental Impact of Reuse Business Models in Apparel

The 'Square Your Circle' guidebook, co-developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), provides a three-step methodology for apparel companies to measure and ensure the environmental benefits of reuse business models to avoid greenwashing and decouple profit from resource use.

• The apparel industry loses an estimated $500 billion globally every year due to clothes being disposed of before their useful material life has ended.
• To accurately assess the environmental footprint of reuse business models and avoid greenwashing, the guidebook proposes a three-step process: first, estimating and increasing the number of wears compared to traditional lifespans; second, using lifecycle comparison to ensure the reused garment's impact is lower than a traditional model's; and third, focusing on displacing new clothing sales to decouple profit from resource use.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Square Your Circle: How to Assess the Environmental Impact of Reuse Business Models in Apparel. https://www.wri.org/research/square-your-circle-environmental-impact-reuse-model

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Square Your Circle: How to Assess the Environmental Impact of Reuse Business Models in Apparel. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/square-your-circle-environmental-impact-reuse-model.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Square Your Circle: How to Assess the Environmental Impact of Reuse Business Models in Apparel |url=https://www.wri.org/research/square-your-circle-environmental-impact-reuse-model |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendsquare, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Square Your Circle: How to Assess the Environmental Impact of Reuse Business Models in Apparel}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/square-your-circle-environmental-impact-reuse-model}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }