H&M Group has released its sustainability report for the year 2018. The 109 page report shows the brand’s strong progress towards the goal to only use sustainable materials. H&M has the vision to lead the change towards a circular and renewable fashion industry, while being a fair and equal company. Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability, H&M, says, “From the beginning, our role has been to democratise fashion. Today, that means making it sustainable: it’s the only way we’ll keep making great fashion and design available today, tomorrow and for generations to come. We will continue our work to lead the change towards a sustainable fashion industry.”
Given below are the 10 highlights from report:
- 95% of all cotton used by H&M Group came from recycled or sustainable sources.
- 57% of all the materials used by H&M Group came from recycled or sustainable sources.
- 655 factories and 9,30,000 garment workers were covered by one or both of H&M Group’s key programmes for workplace dialogue and wage management systems (84% of the product volume).
- It reduced the CO2 emissions from its operations by a further 11%.
- The company will reduce the absolute GHG emissions in its own operations by another 40% by 2030.
- The Take Care concept went from an initial pilot to now having been launched in further four markets, offering customers guidance, repair services and products to care for their garments so they can live a longer life.
- It set a new goal that all packaging used should be made of 100% recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030.
- It developed a new water roadmap, supported by WWF, including the goals to reduce water usage by 25% in production and to recycle 15% of wastewater back into production processes by 2022.
- The company accelerated its work with AI (Artificial Intelligence) to make it easier to ensure a good match between production and demand, thus saving energy, transport and resources.
- Last year, the company launched Afound; a brand with the mission of giving unsold products a new life.
