{"id":1921,"date":"2019-04-30T06:45:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T10:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2019-04-22T18:14:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:14:59","slug":"value-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/2019\/04\/30\/value-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Value for All!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Elissa Eggers ’19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, during our Driving Sustainable Change<\/em> course, my classmates and I were fortunate enough to chat with Andy Ruben, co-founder and CEO of Yerdle. Yerdle is a \u201ccircular economy powerhouse\u201d driving change in the recommerce market by partnering with brands in a way that benefits consumers, companies, and the planet. For someone who came into this program looking to gain new skill sets and tools that would support me in my quest to change the fashion and retail industry for the better, it was exciting to have the opportunity to hear first-hand how Yerdle is disrupting the retail landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Currently, the fashion industry produces upwards of 100 billion pieces of clothing per year despite there being just under 8 million people on the planet. On average, we consume 400x more clothing than we did 20 years ago. Clearly, we have a consumption problem. However, we also have a lack of use problem. As Andy highlighted in our conversation, a large portion of perfectly wearable clothing in the world today sits unused in people\u2019s drawers and closets. That doesn\u2019t even take into account the 10.5 million tons of clothes tossed into landfills each year in the United States alone when people decide it is finally time to purge. So how do we address the growing mountains of clothing taking over the planet? Extending the life of our clothing by keeping pieces in circulation longer is definitely a key piece to this puzzle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, keeping clothing in use by passing it along is by no means a novel idea. Passing along hand-me-downs and buying from and selling to thrift stores are examples of ways people have long been extending the life of their clothing.\u00a0 However, if we are truly to stop the current systems of production, consumption, and disposal that currently define the retail landscape and result in wasted resources, then we need to innovate and expand on our current re-sale systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yerdle is doing just that. By\npartnering with brands to help them take control of their resale market and\nextract value from it in the form of profits and customer acquisition, Yerdle\nensures that all stakeholders (including the brands) benefit. A key theme woven\nthroughout our coursework in this program is the importance of expanding the\npie. In other words, for a solution to be truly sustainable and innovative, it\ncannot simply redistribute the value created to different groupings of stakeholders.\nRather, it needs to expand the pie to increase the value captured by all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandably, finding a solution\nthat truly expands the pie is easier said than done which is why listening to\nAndy was such a valuable experience. Ultimately, by making retail companies\npart of their solution and beneficiaries of it, Yerdle has created a solution\nthat other brands would want to be part of because the expanded value created\nextends to them. This makes integrating recommence into their businesses seem\nlike the smarter, more profitable option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my biggest takeaways from the conversation is that as my cohort and I move out into the world and start trying to tackle these big issues, we need to remember the importance of crafting solutions that reduce friction and do not force people to make trade-offs. The fact is, we are all passionate about different things and not everyone is going to care about or be willing and able to sacrifice something for the sake of sustainability. Nor should they necessarily be expected to. Thus, building a solution that requires stakeholders (businesses or consumers) to make a sacrifice of something they value in order embrace the greener option, is simply not a realistic and scalable alternative. Instead, businesses, particularly those in retail, need to embrace and develop strategies that make things easier and better for all. Yerdle is one example of a company doing just that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by\u00a0<\/em>Artificial Photography<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/em>Unsplash<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Elissa Eggers ’19 A few weeks ago, during our Driving Sustainable Change course, my classmates and I were fortunate enough to chat with Andy Ruben, co-founder and CEO of Yerdle. Yerdle is a \u201ccircular economy powerhouse\u201d driving change in the recommerce market by partnering with brands in a way that … <\/p>\n

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