H[&]M Hennes[&]Mauritz AB has published its Conscious Actions Sustainability Report for 2010. To clarify and guide H[&]M’s sustainability work the brand identified seven ambitious commitments in 2010. All work-in-progress for a more sustainable fashion future is now also gathered under one name, H[&]M Conscious.
“With size comes responsibility and influence. I want our customers always to feel that we do our best to ensure that the fashion we offer has been made, transported and sold responsibly. To achieve this, transparency is key and our Sustainability Report is an important tool to show our progress and challenges,” says Karl-Johan Persson, CEO at H[&]M.
Among other information, the report shows that H[&]M announced a target for all cotton to come from more sustainable sources by 2020 and used more organic cotton than ever before in its products, a total of 15,000 tonnes. This is an increase of 77 percent compared to 2009 and it makes H[&]M one of the largest users of organic cotton in the world. What’s more, the brand played an active role in forming the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, working to create a universal index to show the environmental impact and fair labor practices for clothing and footwear production. The brand also announced a global ban on sandblasting for all our products and saved over 50 million litres of water in denim production relative to previous production methods. Above that, it reduced the energy use per square meter in all H[&]M stores by 8 percent from 2007-2010. This shows a good progress against the target to achieve 20 percent reductions by 2020.
H[&]M is also committed to educating both workers and farmers not only about sustainable production but also on their rights as workers of the Swedish brand.
“I am happy to see good progress in our sustainability work. To remain at the forefront of our industry we will gradually broaden our scope to take into account every part of our product’s life cycle. Our engagement in the Better Cotton Initiative and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition are two important initiatives to increase this influence,” says Helena Helmersson, Head of CSR at H[&]M.
