Biodiversity

Biodiversity supports the ecosystems that H&M Group depends on, such as fertile soil, forests, clean water and pollinators.

Our sourcing of raw materials, such as cotton, and our production activities are dependent on healthy ecosystems, and we acknowledge that these activities can also have an impact on ecosystems. This is why understanding and managing this topic is essential to our long-term success.

We recognise that biodiversity loss is a complex, systemic challenge influenced by many factors. The impacts on Earth’s systems, including biosphere integrity, which is the health and diversity of species and ecosystems, and land-system change (how land use affects natural habitats and ecosystem functions) are something that affects us all. Our long-term ambition is to help reduce pressure on biodiversity and ecosystems in areas connected to our value chain, while contributing to broader efforts to protect and restore nature.

To guide our work, we have set science-based targets for our land-related impacts. These include targets for avoiding land conversion, reducing land footprint, and engaging in priority landscapes. In the autumn, we will publish our transition plan, setting out how we are working towards them over time. These targets are reviewed year by year, and our progress is followed up regularly and subject to independent third-party verification. We are committed to adapting our approach over time as scientific understanding, regulatory frameworks and industry practices evolve. By taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality and efficiency, uphold chemical management and shift materials, we also help mitigate key pressures on ecosystems, such as climate change, water pollution and soil degradation.

Our ambition is based on the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which is a global agreement adopted on 19 December 2022 at the United Nations conference COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

All our actions are based on the Avoid, Reduce, Restore, Regenerate, Transform framework (AR3T) developed by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), which is a multi stakeholder initiative that develops science-based methods, tools and guidance to help companies set targets for nature, including biodiversity, land and water.

The AR3T framework originates from SBTN’s work to translate planetary boundary science into clear and actionable pathways for companies. Designed as a sequencing tool for effective nature strategies, AR3T helps organisations understand which interventions must come first and how different types of actions complement one another. As a core SBTN-defined structure, it is embedded throughout SBTN’s guidance for corporate nature strategies and target setting.

AR3T represents a hierarchy of action:

• Avoid: focuses on preventing new environmental harm from occurring in the first place. This includes avoiding ecosystem conversion, protecting natural habitats, and preventing additional pollution or intensive resource use.
• Reduce: addresses existing pressures by lowering impacts, resource use and emissions wherever avoidance is no longer possible.
• Restore and Regenerate: covers actions that help ecosystems regain functionality, productivity, and biodiversity. Examples include agricultural practices that support soil health, such as improved land management planning, crop rotation and cover crops.
• Transform: refers to the broader systemic changes needed to create lasting change, such as engagement in policy and regulatory change, collaboration with our suppliers across our value chain, investment in innovation, and piloting new business models with a lower impact on biodiversity, such as resale and rental.

As a participant in the Science Based Targets Network’s Corporate Engagement Programme, we apply the methodology developed by SBTN to guide our nature work. Based on this framework, we established our first long-term biodiversity targets in 2026. The transition plan will set out the broader action pathway, including milestones, assumptions and dependencies; this includes the following land-related targets:

• Avoiding conversion of natural ecosystems (Avoid)
  Key actions: Applying material sourcing criteria, traceability work and risk mitigation processes to identify and manage conversion-related risks in selected raw material supply chains.
• Reducing the land footprint associated with agricultural materials such as cotton, wool and leather (Reduce)
  Key actions: Reviewing material choices, sourcing practices and risk mitigation processes linked to agricultural materials such as cotton, wool and leather, including the use of recycled materials where relevant.
• Engaging in initiatives that involve multiple actors within the same sourcing regions (Restore and Regenerate)
  Key actions: Financing selected landscape-level initiatives in sourcing regions relevant to our value chain. Through our partnership with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), an international organisation dedicated to conserving nature and protecting endangered species and their habitats, SEK 11.5 million has been allocated for 2026–2030 to two WWF-led projects connected to cotton farming in Madhya Pradesh, India, and sheep grazing in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The transition plan will set out how these initiatives relate to our science-based targets for nature.

In September 2026, H&M Group plans to disclose its transition plan, outlining the actions required to achieve these ambitions.

We finance selected projects connected to materials and sourcing regions important to our value chain, such as cotton and wool. Although these projects focus on areas that are relevant to our business, they may not always be directly linked to our own supply chains or sourcing volumes. Instead, they are intended to support our long-term biodiversity work and contribute to progress towards our science-based targets for land.

Biodiversity is a long-term area of work that depends on action across value chains, sourcing regions and wider systems. Our focus is to keep strengthening our approach over time, guided by science-based methods, and informed by improving data and traceability.