WANTED: ideas that can turn the fashion industry planet positive

The world’s largest innovation challenge to transform the fashion and textile industry is now open for applications.

The Global Change Award – called the ‘Nobel Prize of Fashion’ – is part of transforming fashion and turning the entire industry planet positive. Now, we are calling innovators and entrepreneurs to apply for the GCA 2023. Five winners share a grant of 1 million euro, provided by the H&M Foundation, and get access to our one-year long GCA Impact Accelerator.

The Global Change Award is one of the world’s leading challenges for early-stage innovation, and the largest of its kind in the fashion industry. Since the start in 2015, several former GCA winners have scaled up their innovations and are now helping drive the planet positive development forward. Neither H&M Foundation or H&M Group take any shareholder equity or intellectual property rights in the innovations. The winners can collaborate with whomever they want, and the aim is to find innovations that allow major change for the entire industry. For GCA 2023, we are updating our scope to cover more ground, raise the bar on innovation and help shift the industry into a planet positive one. The winning innovations or solutions should fall into one of three categories.

• Regenerate. Solutions towards positive effects
• Repurpose. Solutions towards circularity
• Reimagine. Solutions we have not even thought of yet

Circularity isn’t enough, we need to raise the bar and become planet positive. That’s why we’re looking for solutions that enable a planet positive fashion future where both people and the planet not only survive but also thrive. I am confident there are great ideas out there, ready to accelerate and scale – and we’re here to support them!

Christiane Dolva, Strategy Lead at the H&M Foundation

A panel of experts will select five winners who get to share a 1 million euro grant and get access to our one-year long GCA Impact Accelerator programme, which includes invaluable coaching and support from the H&M Foundation and our partners Accenture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and The Mills Fabrica. The programme is tailored to support each team in developing and scaling their innovation for impact. The application period runs from 20 October 2022 to 8 December 2022 and the winners will be announced in June 2023.

The Global Change Award has become a force to support early innovation and accelerate the transformation of our industry. It attracts some of the most disruptive and creative people I have ever met, and following their development is really impressive. I am excited to see what game-changing innovations the seventh round generates.

Karl-Johan Persson, board member of H&M Foundation and Chairman of H&M Group