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57% of H&M's materials are now recycled or from sustainable sources

Alice Ierace
03 April 2019

The H&M Group has published its 2018 sustainability report, which reveals that 57% of the materials used during the past year by the company came from recycled or sustainable sources.

Other achievements include the reduction of CO2 emissions from their operations by a further 11% and the use of recycled or sustainable cotton rose to 95%.

Through its garment collecting initiative, the group has also collected 20,649 tonnes of textiles for reuse and recycling, which is 16% more compared to last year’s report.

During 2019, H&M and H&M Home are rolling out a new transparency tool in their online stores, which will enable customers to trace most of their products to the factory they have been made in and find further information to make more conscious choices.

Karl-Johan Persson

Karl-Johan Persson, CEO at H&M, said: “I am proud to say that our sustainability work is embedded in our culture and our values. A long-term approach is a natural and important part of our overall business strategy. We also believe that taking a long-term view is crucial when it comes to dealing with complex sustainability issues.”

The company’s sustainability vision is to use its size and scale for good and, with the help of technology and innovation, lead the change towards circular and renewable fashion while being a fair and equal company.

Anna Gedda

Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability at H&M, added: “As a major player in the industry, we are well-positioned to not only be part of, but to also lead the change on this journey. We are constantly innovating and developing our sustainability work in line with other developments in the industry.”

H&M’s sustainability report follows last week’s news reporting a 10% sales increase in Q1.

10 H&M Group Sustainability highlights from 2018
• H&M Group reduced the CO2 emissions from its operations by a further 11%.
• To take this even further, new goals were set, for example to reduce the absolute GHGemissions in the company’s own operations by another 40% by 2030. The new goals, which are part of the vision to become climate positive by 2040, were approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
• 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.
• H&M Group set a new goal that all packaging used should be made of 100% recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030, a goal which is part of a newly developed packaging strategy.
• H&M Group 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.
In June, the company launched Afound; a brand with the mission of giving unsold products a new life.
• 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 930,000 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).
• H&M Group accelerated its work with AI to make it easier to ensure a good match between production and demand, thus saving energy, transport and resources.

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