SUSTAINABILITY THE H&M WAY

SUSTAINABLE clothing – some fashion houses pay little more than lip service to this concept. H&M, however, claims to embrace a raft of ethical practices that it says it counts on for its own longevity, given that consumers worldwide are increasingly aware of “green” ways of doing business.

One of the world’s biggest users of organic cotton, H&M won’t buy it from Uzbekistan for example, where children are used as labour in the cotton fields, according to Morten Bredal, H&M’s PR co-ordinator in Stockholm.

“Our suppliers are also trained and incentivised by us to improve their own sustainability, especially in saving water. We regularly audit our suppliers to ensure they uphold acceptable practices,” says Bredal.

Where possible, H&M uses other sustainable materials, like polyester.

Of the thousands of tons of textiles that people throw away each year, as much as 95 percent could be re-worn or recycled. So, as part of its recently announced “Close the Loop” campaign, each H&M store has a garment collection box and invites customers to bring in their unwanted clothing to be re-used or recycled.

H&M also transports its product by sea or rail (as opposed to flying it in), in an effort to lessen its carbon footprint, and recycles up to 91 percent of the packaging it comes in, says Bredal.

The company itself has a “flat” organisational structure that is not hierarchical and 70 percent of its staff, including at board level, are women. “The percentage of women in the company is not because of any quota, but because, simply, they were the best people for the job,” said H&M chief executive Carl-Johan Persson, grandson of the brand’s founder.

Persson says the company is built on the ethics his grandfather put in place, based on the belief that ethical business practices, even if they cost the company more, equate to longterm sustainability.