Vaayu

Q: What makes Vaayu's work with Otrium unique?
A: Vaayu’s work with Otrium is the first of its kind to investigate the carbon emission and waste saving potential of off-price business models. As one of the largest primary datasets on unsold stock practices, it’s a major contributor to the understanding of sustainable fashion and its environmental impact, bringing us one step closer to eradicating fashion industry pollution. Compared to an alternative scenario in which off-price businesses like Otrium do not exist, Vaayu calculated that:- Otrium prevented 6,496 tonnes of carbon emissions (CO₂e) in 2022- Otrium prevented 104 tonnes of waste in 2022- Equivalent to 2,219 round-trip flights between Amsterdam and New York for one passenger, or throwing away 130,524 pairs of jeans


Q: What does Vaayu mean?
A: ‘Vaayu’ is the Sanskrit word for ‘Air’ and its origin extends to other derivations — atmosphere, weather, breeze, gas, wind and the Sanskrit word ‘Jalvaayu’, meaning climate. The name is reflective of Vaayu's work to protect the natural environment surrounding the Earth and those that exist within it.


Q: Who does Vaayu work with and where?
A: Since it was founded in 2020, Vaayu has onboarded more than 60 global brands and retailers including Klarna, Veja, New Balance, Axel Arigato, ASKET, Missoma, Ace & Tate, Vinted, Otrium, Redcare, Carousell and Wunderman Thompson Commerce.Vaayu currently works with businesses across Europe, North America and Asia.


Q: What are some of the retail verticals Vaayu covers?
A: Vaayu recently expanded to calculate the climate change impact of more leading retail verticals, now covering:👕 Fashion, Apparel & Footwear💍 Jewellery, Eyewear & Accessories🧴 Consumer Health💄 Beauty🏡 Homewear & Garden📺 ElectronicsAs the only carbon accounting software specializing in retail, this is a crucial step in ensuring Vaayu can continue to support all brands and retailers in helping drive down the industry’s emissions at scale. As Vaayu continues to grow its LCA database and increase the volume and diversity of the data processed, its learning models will be able to support the engine in reaching more precise and granular results.


Q: Which methodology did you use to calculate and evaluate data through LCA Modelling on Klarna Products?
A: The footprints were computed using Vaayu’s proprietary technology and an ever-expanding database of over 600,000 data points. Vaayu modeled each product’s climate change impact from Cradle-to-Grave using a product life cycle assessment. Complete product carbon footprint modeling included the emissions released from stages in the supply chain and product life cycle, such as raw material extraction, material manufacturing, product manufacturing and assembly, transportation and distribution, product use and end-of-life.Using mostly activity-based data for the product life cycle assessment and carbon calculations, the remaining data points were enriched with the best-suited secondary data to give a complete picture of the emissions released. Vaayu’s activity-based product carbon footprint LCA approach is TÜV Rheinland-certified and is also the method preferred by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. The method ensured quality data and emissions calculations that reflect actual scenarios.Vaayu’s team of in-house data scientists and LCA specialists worked to create a database that allows us to automate the product carbon footprint of over 122 million products across Klarna’s Fashion, Home & Garden, Jewelry & Accessories and Electronics categories, creating the largest cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment dataset using good practice LCA activity-based methodology. The carbon data has the potential to reach 240,000 Klarna shoppers.