H&M ranks top three in transparency index
Fashion Revolution has, together with Ethical Consumer, published their latest Fashion Transparency Index, evaluating supply chain transparency and working conditions in textile factories. We are very happy to be ranked number three out of 100 companies in the list. Fashion Revolution Week creates awareness on some of the most important issues in the textile industry, issues that are important parts of our sustainability work to create greater transparency and good working conditions across the fashion industry.
At H&M we are serious about transparency and – despite the challenges – are making good progress towards it. Transparency is also an important corner stone of our new sustainability strategy. We believe that supplier disclosure is a key factor of transparency. That is why we were the first fashion retailer to make our supplier list public in 2013 and why we continuously add more information to the list. As part of our new strategy, we have recently updated our supplier list again which now covers 56% of second tier factories.
For this year’s Conscious Exclusive collection, that was launched April 20, we introduced a transparency pilot and present a transparency layer on hm.com for all products in the women’s collection. Information that is communicated on hm.com includes: the factory’s name and address, number of workers, worker interviews, information about the materials, information about the design team and how to take care of the garment. To be able to publish this detailed information is an important step forward in our work toward a more transparent fashion industry.
As one of the founding members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), we share our commitment to drive transparency across the fashion industry as well. One goal is to develop a consumer labelling system that allows customers to compare products’ sustainability performance, also between different brands. This will make it possible for customers to influence companies to a much greater extent than today. The more informed customers become the more pressure they will put on companies to act sustainably.
Read more about our sustainability work at www.hm.com/sustainability.
Read the Fashion Transparency Index published by Fashion Revolution.