Fast Fashion Footprint: An Online Tool to Measure Environmental Impact and Raise Consumer Awareness

Fast fashion is a rapidly expanding sector characterized by high production volumes, low costs, and short product lifecycles. While recent efforts have focused on improving sustainability within supply chains, consumer behavior remains a critical yet underexplored driver of environmental impacts. This study presents a web-based calculator tool designed to estimate both the carbon and plastic footprints associated with individual fast fashion consumption, with a particular focus on shopping behaviors, garment disposal, and laundry habits. Adopting a geographical perspective, the analysis explicitly considers the spatial dynamics of consumption and logistics within the urban context of Milan (Italy), a dense metropolitan area representative of high fashion activity and mobility. By incorporating user-reported travel patterns, logistics routes, and localized emission factors, the tool links consumer habits to place-specific environmental impacts. By involving over 360 users, the tool not only quantifies emissions and plastic waste (including microfibers) but also serves an educational function, raising awareness about the hidden consequences of fashion-related choices. Results reveal high variability in environmental impacts depending on user profiles and behaviors, with online shopping, frequent use of private vehicles, and improper garment disposal contributing significantly to emissions and plastic pollution. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating consumer-focused educational tools into broader sustainability strategies. The tool’s dual function as both calculator and awareness-raising platform suggests its potential value for educational and policy initiatives aimed at promoting more sustainable fashion consumption patterns.