Swedish brand H&M will have switched to 100% use of the recycled and organic materials in production of all its products by 2030. This is stated in the report of the company on work on sustainable development 2016.
H&M has plans to switch to a completely closed production cycle. The company is the largest consumer of organic cotton, recycled polyester and tencel and lyocell.
Today, H&M's share of processed materials is 26% of the total production, the share of organic cotton in total cotton consumption is 43%. The volume of recycled polyester used by H&M in 2016 is equal to 180 million plastic bottles. In 2016, the company collected 16 thousand tons of old clothes for recycling, in total H&M stores have collected 39 thousand tons of textiles since the beginning of the Garment Collecting initiative in 2013. H&M has set the goal to collect 25 thousand tons of textiles annually by 2020. The Swedish manufacturer closely cooperates with various scientific organizations. Together with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Stockholm Resilience Center, a research project on studying the closed production cycle and use of textiles has been launched at the Stockholm University, which will have reduced the use of scarce natural resources. As part of the program for development of innovations in the closed production cycle, H&M produces H&M Conscious Exclusive fashion collection that is created from organic and recycled materials. The soft polyester Bionic is made wholly of the plastic recycled from the shoreline waste. This year, men and children clothes, as well as organic perfumed oils, were presented in the collection for the first time.
Natalia Vodianova became the face of the collection. "We want to use our scale and resources to continue to implement the principles of sustainable development in the fashion industry; it will make our company even more honest and fair. We developed a new strategy for moving our work in sustainable development to a new level - Anna Gedda, an expert in sustainable development at H&M, says - We want to set an example, to pave the way and try new strategies, both in ecological and social aspects, in order to make eventually the fashion conscious and conscious consumption fashionable. Our strategy on the fashion industry's positive impact on climate is one of the projects within the new strategy."
It is planned that in 2040 the entire company's production chain will make a positive impact on the climate: carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced (in 2016, H&M reduced them to 47% in comparison with 2015), the use of energy resources will be optimized, the company will use 100%-renewable energy in all its operations (in 2016, the share of renewable energy made 96% compared to 78% in 2015).
In addition, the H&M Foundation annually conducts the innovative Global Change Award which defines the best ideas for improving the clothing production process. As we mentioned in our previous posts, the finalists of this year's ceremony became such original developments as a digital thread that facilitates the processing of clothes, nylon made of carbon fiber, vegetable leather made of the waste products of wine production, old denim fabric that can be used for painting new denim products, and a unique project for production of biodegradable fabric from bovine manure.