Sustainability
A lighter way to make imagery.
Traditional product photography carries a real footprint: samples shipped around the world, crews flown to locations, runs manufactured on a guess. Setset moves that work into a digital pipeline, so brands waste less and decide faster.
Less waste, less carbon, faster decisions
Each step of a conventional shoot consumes physical resources. Generative AI lets brands replace much of that with a digital workflow, without lowering the bar on visual quality.
Fewer physical samples
Generate imagery directly from design files, before a physical sample ever exists. Teams can preview a garment on model, in studio, or on location while it is still a tech pack. Fewer samples cut, shipped, and discarded means less material waste and less carbon spent moving prototypes between factories and studios.
No travel for location shoots
Produce on-location lifestyle imagery without flying a crew anywhere. The environmental cost of a traditional campaign shoot is significant: flights, freight, sets, and equipment all add up. Setset makes that travel optional, so a beach, a city street, or a mountain backdrop is a setting choice rather than a logistics project.
Less overproduction
Industry estimates suggest 20 to 30 percent of garments produced are never sold. Validate product imagery before committing to a full production run: test designs visually, gauge response from customers and merchandisers, and manufacture closer to real demand, so fewer units end up marked down, warehoused, or destroyed.
Digital-first production
Moving commercial content production from physical studios to digital workflows reduces the overall resource footprint of fashion merchandising. There are no studio rentals to power, no sets to build and tear down, no lighting rigs running for hours. The same catalog can be refreshed and re-shot as a file, not a full-day production.
Fewer returns
Industry estimates put online fashion returns at 25 to 40 percent, and reverse logistics can double or triple the carbon footprint of an item. Showing products on a broader range of representative models, with accurate imagery, helps customers judge fit and style before they buy, so more orders stay sold.
Built to report
Creative production increasingly falls under Scope 3 reporting through frameworks like the GHG Protocol, CDP, and the EU CSRD. Moving shoots into a digital pipeline is a measurable reduction, avoided travel, sample shipping, and vendor work, that is straightforward to document and report.
What about AI's energy use?
Generating images uses energy, and AI gets fairly criticized for it. We would rather be straight about that than gloss over it. The exact energy cost of the specific models we run is not published yet, so we will not put a precise number on it, and we are watching the research closely as it develops.
What the independent research does show is the comparison that matters. A peer-reviewed study found AI image generation emits hundreds to thousands of times less CO2 per image than human-created imagery, and a physical photoshoot stacks crew flights, shipped samples, and a powered studio on top of that. A single long-haul flight burns far more fuel than our image generation ever will. So the honest question is not whether AI is free of energy cost, because it is not, but whether it is a large reduction against flying a team to a location. It is, and we will keep measuring and update this page as better data emerges.
What about creative jobs?
It is a fair question, and we will not pretend otherwise. We do not see Setset as a replacement for creative teams, and sloppy automated output is not the goal. The work that defines a brand, the art direction, the styling, the taste, the call on what a campaign should feel like, stays with people.
What we automate is the slow, repetitive part of production: casting logistics, studio days, retouching, and reformatting the same shot for a dozen placements. Handing that to a system lets creative teams spend their time on the work only they can do, and create with fewer boundaries. The aim is more range and more output from the same team, with considered human direction on every result, not fewer people making worse images.
A practical lever for sustainability goals
Most brands already have sustainability commitments, and content production is rarely the first place teams look to meet them. Yet samples, travel, and overproduction are tangible sources of waste. Producing imagery digitally is one concrete, repeatable change that supports those goals while also moving faster and spending less.
Sustainability questions
Does AI image generation use a lot of energy?+
It uses energy, and we would rather be straight about that than gloss over it. The exact energy cost of the specific models we run is not published yet, so we do not claim a precise number, and we are watching the research. Independent peer-reviewed work found AI image generation emits hundreds to thousands of times less CO2 per image than human-created imagery, and a physical photoshoot adds crew flights, shipped samples, and studio power on top of that.
How much carbon does switching to AI imagery save?+
We do not put a single universal figure on it, because it depends on what you would have done instead. The savings come from avoiding crew flights, sample shipping, set builds, and studio power. The biggest lever is usually travel: a single long-haul flight outweighs the generation itself by a wide margin.
How does this help with overproduction?+
Industry estimates suggest 20 to 30 percent of garments produced are never sold. By visualizing collections digitally before committing to a production run, brands can test demand, refine assortments, and manufacture closer to what actually sells, which means fewer units marked down or destroyed.
Can better imagery actually reduce returns?+
Online fashion returns run around 25 to 40 percent, and reverse logistics can double or triple the carbon footprint of an item. Showing products on a broader range of representative models with accurate imagery helps customers judge fit and style before they buy. Studies on improved product representation show returns dropping by 5 percent or more.
Can Setset support our Scope 3 or CSRD reporting?+
Creative production increasingly falls under Scope 3 frameworks like the GHG Protocol, CDP, and the EU CSRD. Moving shoots into a digital pipeline is a measurable reduction, avoided travel, sample shipping, and vendor work, that is straightforward to document and report.
Does Setset replace creative teams?+
No, and we are deliberate about that. Art direction, styling, and taste stay with your team. What Setset automates is the slow, repetitive part of production: casting logistics, studio days, retouching, and reformatting. The goal is to give creative people more range and more output with considered human direction on every result, not to ship sloppy automated images with fewer people.