Modern Retail had the pleasure of speaking with Austin Simms, co-founder of Dayrize. In this Q&A, Austin Simms explains how Dayrize began, sharing everything you need to know, before explaining the importance of retail moving to a greener future.
1. What is Dayrize?
Dayrize is a climate-tech company that provides environmental and social impact transparency to bring global consumption within planetary boundaries. It’s technology rapidly and cost-effectively evaluates the environmental impact of consumer products at global scale.
Existing impact measurements for consumer products are time-consuming and expensive, making them out of reach for most businesses. Dayrize’s new assessment technology evaluates the environmental impact of a product in minutes instead of months, reduces the cost from up to $30K per product to $60 per year — the equivalent $5 per month — and makes the impact measurement of consumer products cost effective and accessible to both large and small companies. As a result, brands have the ability to drive more sales with climate-conscious consumers, build higher brand value and reduce costs, while consumers have the ability to shop for the most sustainable products all in one place.
2. Why is Dayrize impactful/important for the industry?
Dayrize’s new technology makes understanding the environmental and social impact of products accessible for all businesses, large and small. The detailed reporting allows businesses to understand where their impact is in the production of their products, and how they can address this to reduce their impact. It also provides consumers with easy-to-understand tools that allow them to easily compare the sustainability of products for the first time.
3. What was the inspiration for Dayrize?
Most consumers are looking to make more sustainable choices in their lives, but until now there has been no way of understanding the environmental and social impact of products when you shop. The reason is that understanding the impact of products is complex and time-consuming for businesses, so not many of them don’t do it.
We decided to solve this and make impact assessment accessible for all businesses by pulling together a team of 20 of the world’s best environmental scientists, industrial ecologists, and technology experts.
The result is the most advanced impact measurement technology ever created which provides transparency throughout the entire production process. This makes it easy for both consumers and businesses to understand and ultimately reduce their environmental and social impact.
We have reduced the time it takes to assess the impact of a product from months down to minutes, at a fraction of the cost of existing assessments, making it accessible for all businesses, large and small.
4. How can brands use Dayrize?
Until now understanding the environmental and social impact of consumer products has been complex and time-consuming for businesses. We have made the process simple using the latest in technology and sustainable science. Brands can use our Scoring-as-a-Service technology to understand in detail the impact of their products, and receive information about how they can reduce the impact of their products by making changes through their supply chain.
5. How does Dayrize work?
How Dayrize Works and Dayrize Scoring Methodology
Dayrize’s new environmental impact assessment technology uses complex algorithms combined with geospatial mapping to assess the environmental impact of any consumer product. The complex scoring system aggregates the information for each product into a simple score out of 100 called the Dayrize Score, which allows consumers to easily understand and compare the sustainability of products as they shop. The Dayrize Score is based on the principle that a truly sustainable product is one that fulfils a meaningful purpose, it is designed in a circular manner, it is non-hazardous, responsibly sourced, fully recyclable and regenerative. The Dayrize Score evaluates five key factors across the entire product cycle — from raw material extraction to disposal — to provide a holistic assessment of sustainability performance:
- Circularity: How well an individual product minimises waste by reusing and recycling resources to create a closed loop system.
- Climate Impact: How greenhouse gas intensive the production of the product has been.
- Ecosystem Impact: What the impact of the product is on biodiversity and water depletion.
- Livelihoods and Wellbeing: How each product impacts the health and wellbeing of the people involved in creating it.
- Purpose: How meaningful a product’s purpose is by looking at the value that it provides, and the potential it has to be an accelerator for good.
Following the robust scoring process of each product, Dayrize provides brands with a consumer-facing widget that lists the water, land and CO2 impact and planetary savings of each product scored and also includes the Dayrize score icon. Brands can use the widget(s) on their website to display the sustainability credentials for each of their scored products. Additionally, brands who partner with Dayrize receive ongoing, detailed knowledge and insights on methods to reduce their impact, improve the sustainability of their products and raise their Dayrize Score. Dayrize also commits to reinvest 5% of its annual profits to support its brand partners in redesigning their products and value chains to lower their environmental impact.
1. Why is it important for retail to move towards a greener future?
Consumers are looking for business to take a leadership position on climate change. With the rise in eco-conscious consumers, it is important that retailers adapt their processes and messaging to appeal to this growing consumer base. Consumers are looking for increased transparency from businesses so they can make informed decisions, which until now has been difficult for businesses to deliver. However, with the Dayrize technology retailers can make it easy for consumers to assess and compare the sustainability of products for the first time – helping consumers make better informed decisions and retailers speak to a broader consumer.
2. Why is this launch important for our readers and what problem does this fix?
Dayrize is a climate-tech company that provides environmental and social impact transparency which rapidly and cost-effectively evaluates the environmental impact of consumer products at global scale.
Existing impact measurements for consumer products are time-consuming and expensive, making them out of reach for most businesses. Dayrize’s new assessment technology evaluates the environmental impact of a product in minutes instead of months, reduces the cost from up to $30K per product to $60 per year — the equivalent $5 per month — and makes the impact measurement of consumer products cost effective and accessible to both large and small companies. As a result, brands have the ability to drive more sales with climate-conscious consumers, build higher brand value and reduce costs, while consumers have the ability assess and compare the sustainability of products for the first time.
“Dayrize eliminates greenwashing and transforms the way environmental impact measurement of consumer products is done. Our technology helps companies improve the sustainability of their products and also answer the accelerating consumer demand for sustainable goods. Consumers are looking to buy more sustainable alternatives, but are unable to make informed decisions due to a lack of information on the environmental and social impact of products. Dayrize offers tremendous transparency by accurately assessing the environmental impact of all consumer products, making it accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes to make shopping for sustainable products a reality,” said Austin Simms, co-founder of Dayrize.
3. What’s next for Dayrize?
We have secured contracts with over 500 brands and assessed tens of thousands of products – but we are just getting started. Our ambition is to assess every consumer product in the world making it easier for business and consumers to reduce their environmental footprint.
4. Do you have any case studies or data to back why/how this launch is impactful for small brands?
We have signed over 500 brands since launch and are signing up to 100 new brands per month. The reason for this fast growth is that we are providing impact transparency for brands for the first time – at a fraction of the cost of existing assessments. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the case studies is via the quotes from our partner brands.
