Metaverse: An Environmental Sustainability Tool?

To be genuinely competitive today, organizations cannot ignore ethical issues and their impact on the environment and the community. In the fashion industry specifically, the issue of sustainability has become central as the socio-environmental impact of the industry is enormous. The fast fashion model adopted by so many companies operating on the global market is the exact opposite of the ethical dimension of fashion that has been needed in recent years. Can innovation and the opportunities the Metaverse offers be the way to a more sustainable fashion? In recent years, many start-ups have sprung up that exclusively produce digital fashion, and many other companies whose core business is mainly in real life (IRL) have integrated digital fashion into their business strategies. Through the investigation of four case studies, the paper aims to investigate the lights and shadows of digital fashion in the Metaverse, trying to clarify whether this model is compatible with the need for a more sustainable fashion, especially from an environmental point of view.