Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011
Today, we publish our Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011, marking ten years of sustainability reporting here at H&M.
We are one of the world’s leading fashion companies, and with leadership comes responsibility. H&M is fashion and sustainability – not one or the other. We want you to feel confident that everything you buy from us is designed, manufactured and handled with consideration for people and the environment.
The level of social and environmental responsibility we take, places our sustainability work at the forefront of the fashion industry globally. We want to be transparent about our progress and the report is an important part of that. We are proud about the achievements we have made during the year, but we are also aware of the challenges that H&M, and the entire fashion industry face.
There are a number of things that I’d like to highlight such as our plan to further support social development in one of our most important sourcing markets, Bangladesh as well as H&M being the biggest user of organic cotton in the world. Some of the great achievements from 2011 are;
• More than 442 000 workers in Bangladesh have been trained on their rights since 2008 by H&M
• H&M is the number one user of organic cotton in the world
• H&M saved 300 million liters of water in denim production
• Using reusable transport boxes to bring our fashion from distribution centers to our stores saves about 400 000 trees compared to if we would use conventional paper cartons
• 100 percent of our plastic bags are made from recycled material
• We used recycled polyester equal to 9.2 million plastic bottles
• More than 2.3 million garments were donated to charitable causes by H&M
If you want to learn more; the report and a summary of its highlights are available to read and download at hm.com/consciousactions2011.
Also check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9nDkoKpIys where you can watch me and Ann-Sofie Johansson, Head of Design at H&M talk more about our fashion and sustainability.
Helena Helmersson is our Head of Sustainability. Opinions expressed are her personal views and do not necessarily represent the official views of H&M. Do you have questions or feedback? Please click here.