Our Stories
Fashion pact and Bangladesh
In April, our CEO Helena Helmersson was named Co-Chair of Fashion Pact, a coalition of CEOs working on improving the impact of our industry on climate, biodiversity and oceans. The following month, she visited Bangladesh to meet the Prime Minister and discuss developing a circular and climate neutral garment sector in the country.
Design
Throughout the year, we improved how we make our products so that they can be used for longer and are easier to recycle, like these collections and our denim assortment. At the same time, we’ve been trying out new and exciting ways bring second-hand fashion and interior pieces to our customers.
Emissions
A lot of our focus was on reducing emissions both within and beyond our own operations. Most of our impact comes from making products and we’re working with our suppliers to help them switch to lower impact processes and renewable energy sources. We also co-invested in a wind farm in Bangladesh to increase the availability of renewable energy in one of our most important production countries. What’s more, Stand.earth rated us as the top brand out of 43 for our work on cutting our emissions.
Top company for women
We received some amazing news in November, when Forbes ranked H&M #7 out of 400 in their top companies for women, recognising how we support women both in and outside the workplace.
Investing in the future
As well as looking back at the past year, we should also look to the future of fashion. In the summer, the H&M Foundation announced the latest winners of the Global Change Award. This year, the 10 winners included a company that transforms food waste into biodegradable polyester, and another that extracts dyes from old fabrics and transfers them onto new ones.
Meanwhile, H&M Group Ventures, our investment arm, continued investing in the start up world by backing a company that makes bio-based and biodegradable polyester amongst others.
So, we say cheers for this year and thank you to all our partners and colleagues who made this possible. We look forward to seeing you in 2024.
