We told you about how H&M had plans to make things at the company more sustainable. Now the company is making waves because of its new video campaign, which, coincidentally, is promoting its sustainable efforts.

The company’s new campaign features an array of models: a transgender model, plus-sized model, older models, a person with a prosthetic limb, Sikh men, and a woman in a hijab. Watch the campaign below.

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H&M has been on a bit of a conscious company terror over the past few months. Just recently, the fashion retailer committed to helping animals and reducing waste. I know. We couldn’t believe it either.

Let’s talk about H&M’s animal welfare pledge first. According to Humane Society International, H&M and the Humane Society are working together to protect animals from suffering for human fashion whims. The joint venture is part of H&M’s sustainability commitments.

While H&M has previously supported animal welfare (its H&M-brand cosmetic products and its ingredients aren’t tested on animals), the company has now pledged to support the Humane Society International’s #BeCrueltyFree campaign.

The “#BeCrueltyFree USA campaign is leading efforts to achieve a nationwide ban on cosmetics cruelty,” the Humane Society reports. This past June, the organization began working with legislators to launch the Humane Cosmetics Act in Congress.

“Passage of the HCA would bring the US in line with more than 30 other countries that have already implemented similar bans on cosmetics animal testing and the sale of animal tested cosmetics,” says the organization.

The H&M collaboration also includes the “commitment to pursue policy change in countries around the world, such as national legislative bans on animal testing of cosmetics, as well as the cruel practices within wool and down production.” That’s a pretty big commitment. If this collaboration is successful, a lot of animals will be helped.

H&M plans to promote the campaign by communicating with key stakeholders on the issue, conducting consumer advocacy, and by supporting training and education programs.

And earlier this summer, H&M announced the launch of its “H&M $1 million closed loop challenge.” The challenge was created to “engage innovators, technologists, scientists and entrepreneurs to find a solution to a growing problem in the clothing industry: waste and pollution,” The Guardian reports.

This challenge is pretty cool, but like The Guardian states, some people are wondering if this “challenge” is really a “side step,” considering the company has yet to address “overproduction and worker rights by emphasizing materials innovation and technology – especially when recycling the mixed fibers so common in fast fashion is proving tricky.”

Fast fashion will most likely prove difficult for the brand to conquer, considering that’s kind of what it’s known for. But still, we’ve got to commend the brand for having a pretty great summer. Let’s hope it does even more this fall.

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If you were beginning to feel swayed by all those trendy frocks and jumpers you’ve seen at H&M lately, DON’T BUY THEM.

John Oliver recently reminded us all why it’s a terrible idea to give into fast fashion. His argument against fast fashion is hilarious, and so spot on.

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H&M, the poster child for confusing fashion—is it sustainable and responsible or not?—is poised to boost the quality and ethics of Ethiopia’s textile industry.

Along with Swedfund, a development financial institution, H&M wants to improve the social and environmental standards in Ethiopia’s nascent textile industry after a visit to the region earlier this year highlighted the country’s needs and viable offerings. Beginning this fall, H&M will start purchasing textiles from companies Swedfund is investing in. Swedfund has invested in more than 230 companies with a focus on responsible fiscal and environmental values, the institution claims.

“Swedfund will provide local market expertise and will invest in Ethiopian suppliers,” reports the Guardian. “This cooperation will also involve both parties setting standards for sustainable production and monitoring indicators such as water use and wages.”

“We see the cooperation as an opportunity to get involved in Ethiopia’s growing textile industry at an early stage and to contribute to more jobs. We have for many years worked in existing manufacturing countries to improve working conditions and the environment,” Karl-Johan Persson, CEO at H&M told the Guardian.

H&M’s interest may lie more in the fact that partnering with Ethiopia’s textile industry will cost the retailer less than purchasing from China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and other textile-producing countries. According to Thomas Ballweg, a procurement and technical consultant at GermanFashion, “On the one hand are the lower costs – much lower than in China – with 80 million people living there. And, it’s near the sea – and quick to get to Europe via the Suez Canal,” Ballweg told DW.

“Through this unique partnership with H&M, our goal is to contribute to developing the textile industry in Ethiopia, thus creating jobs with good working conditions that lift people out of poverty, especially women” Anna Ryott, managing director at Swedfund told the Guardian.

But will the move bring responsible textile manufacturing to the African nation or open the door to more sweatshop conditions and environmental hazards?

Responsible textile manufacturing is a necessary component to an ethical fashion industry, but the best step forward may be in reduced clothing manufacturing efforts in the first place—and a more focused effort in recycling, upcylcing and the creation of longer-wear products that decrease the need for new textiles altogether.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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ColumnFast fashion has ramped up the cycle of consumption to head spinning levels of (economic) efficiencies. Despite multinational corporations fueling boatloads of money into glossy marketing campaigns to keep us buying more, trends no longer represent an era of style and fashion, but one of profit. And now, the new trend is “conscious.”

Decades from now, when future generations look back on our times they will see profit was the trend. We can’t pinpoint a general style trend of the ’00s because the concept of fashion is so wrapped up in driving sales.

It wasn’t always that way. Looking back, fashionable style unraveled a rich history lesson. In all it’s grandeur, Style of the Decades was a lens to understand the zeitgeist of the times. The 1890s Gibson Girl, the 1920s rebellious flapper, the 1950s bourgeois housewife, the 1980s powersuit for work, and neon spandex for play — all allow us to sketch a silhouette and describe an era through fashion. Sure, we can certainly describe our era though fashion style, but today, instead of a silhouette, there would be a dollar sign.

Trends are tripping over themselves: Bell-bottoms to skinny jeans,  A-line dress to shift dress, above the ankle pant legs to palazzo pants, wedges to stilettos. The trend-mill of fashion is overwhelming, unfulfilling and has 99 problems — the overflowing closet being one.

What do we do with all this stuff? We put it in storage units. “There’s a lot of them. 2.35 billion — with a B — square feet in the United States, according to the Self Storage Association,” says Ira Glass in Act One of “This American Life: Contents Unknown.”

“That, in case you’re wondering, is 7.4 square feet of self storage for every man, woman, and child in this country, meaning all of us, all of us, could stand inside self storage at the same time.”

We are now surrounded with more stuff than ever before, but are undoubtedly less happy because of it. In the U.S., we spend three to four times more hours shopping than our counterparts in Europe do, says Annie Leonard of the Story of Stuff. Yet, we rank 17th in the World Happiness Report.

The newly published book, “Stuffocation” by James Wallman, closely examines the hard research and psychology on the ultra importance of why now we need to spend our money on experiences more than ever.

So if we know this stuff isn’t making us happier, why do we keep buying?

To understand we’ve got to look back. Throughout the 1950s, as consumerism began to run rampant, TV dinners, laundry machines and the hamburger swept the United States. The key to this wave of efficiency could not have changed family lives forever without the skilled help of the “Mad Men”; the men of advertising that oh-so-suavely sold us polished shit, and called it gold.

The psychology of advertising, both then and now, is so good it’s scary. Campaigns expertly poke and stroke our the deepest folds of our subconscious to sell us goods we don’t need. Just like over the decades we’ve slowly been sold the idea buying more clothes is better than buying well made clothes.

“No matter how contrary, rebellious or bloody-minded you are, it is a virtual impossibility to escape the constant, dedicated, ubiquitous onslaught of marketing, and the collective mindwarp it wreaks upon society, in subtle and pervasively corrupting ways.” says Olympian wordsmith and fiery writer Cintra Wilson. “The marketplace is now so devastatingly effective at turning our desires on and off that we virtually have no unpolluted pathways through which to experience love, sex, work, family, ambition, community, identity.”

Take Febreze for instance: During the first market testings of Febreze, nobody found a habitual continued use for the product. Procter & Gamble’s heads were spinning as to why this revolutionary product wasn’t of interest to consumers. How to get it to sell? They realizes they had to make Febreze part of the cleaning routine, and change people’s habits. So Febreze was advertised as the icing on the cake after you cleaned your house — the final touch, the cherry on top. It was a matter of leading the consumer in the right direction, to sell them the illusion of completion.

Now, sixty years since the peak era of “Mad Men”, the United States is trying to cling on to meaning again. On top of the skewed relationship between our happiness and accumulation of stuff, add on environmental degradation and climate change and we don’t know where to turn.

So, how are modern companies reacting to the dismay? The multinational corporations, fast fashion chains included, are soothing our frantic conflicted conscience with “conscious” products.

I can’t help but feel manipulated by H&M’s new Conscious Collection for hitting the soft spot of the emerging value-based customer. I found myself (a true anti-H&M-er) entertaining the idea I might buy a new pair of shoes from the new ‘conscious’ collection. WAKE UP. Its business is to play on our most subconscious desires. In this case — spend as little money as possible to look like you can afford better. Add on Miranda Kerr wearing a $4.95 T-shirt; the tattooed, toned David Beckman running in boxer briefs; and now the Conscious Collection, and you’ve whipped a pleasure sensory experience for everyone. H&M is capitalizing on the current atmosphere of the market to put itself ahead, and it is a great marketing strategy. But are its seven commitments enough? Do they address the systemic issues for fast fashion, or is it just a patchwork approach? I don’t think a fast fashion company like H&M can ever be sustainable.

Plus, H&M just took second place in Ethisphere’s Wold’s Most Ethical Companies for apparel in 2014! Do you agree?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, right? And undoubtedly, our choices (our vote, our dollar, our decisions on where and how to shop) can affect directly thousands of people.

So what are companies like H&M’s modern solutions? Many are running conscious collections, yet still employing the same exploited workers to make the garments. Giving the buyers the illusion of providing them with greater values than are actually being given, and with little to no concrete social changes to their business structures.

I can hear the ad execs soothing me now:

You’re right darling, consumption is not helping us… the environment… or the poor people who put the crap together for no money or respect. But consumption is at the heart of America’s soul, isn’t it? So it’s easy, now shop over here, it’s made with a conscious.

Fast fashion wants us to keep buying clothes with the illusion that; a) new is better, and b) the new trends that spring up every two weeks are what you need to be cool, connected and authentic.

Let’s keep it real. If we know more things don’t make us happy, then DO something: Look into the tactical marketing campaigns of companies like H&M — are the seven commitments enough or is it just well-spoken lip-service?

Wilson said it best: “If you aren’t consciously using fashion to empower yourself, fashion is mostly likely using you to empower a brand.”

Keep in touch with Juliette on Twitter @spadesandsiLK

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image: pennuja

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Swedish retail giant H&M may be moving on to another continent to meet its growing worldwide presence. This expansion is occurring instead of addressing the deep issues within the fashion supply chain and making dramatic changes to prevent incidents like the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh.  The African continent—Ethiopia specifically—is reportedly the next victim of the fast fashion mogul’s low-cost production cycle–but can H&M turn the tide and approach the situation less problematically in this country?

A spokeswoman for H&M recently told press officials that the company has already placed test orders with Ethiopian suppliers. Satisfactory results from the test orders indicate that large-scale production will begin sometime this fall, with suppliers providing the company with up to 1 million garments per month. H&M is constantly expanding its number of retail stores worldwide, meaning that continuous expansion of production, the ‘fast’ behind the fast fashion moniker, is also necessary. While Bangladesh is still the most used country for apparel production by H&M, less controversial options are becoming more attractive.

The choice to opt for production in Ethiopia is not merely for appearances’ sake, since production in Africa means lower shipping costs, tax breaks from the government and shorter lead times. Production is also cheaper in Ethiopia than in China, where costs are constantly rising. H&M claims that lower production costs aren’t the key driver behind its choice to take on Ethiopia, but rather the possibility of finding suppliers that satisfy capacity and quality and can meet conduct rules and safety regulations.

The Ethiopian textile industry has been in existence since 1939 (when the country was occupied), and has plans to revitalize itself over the next few years. Foreign investors with the financial ability to modernize machines and factories are part of the plan, which aims to move the country from a primarily agricultural economy to an industrial one. Economists believe that foreign investment and industrial boosts could lead to infrastructure development and better living conditions for Ethiopians. But will labor rights organizations and supposed stricter regulations on the part of labels like H&M prevent Ethiopia from becoming the new Bangladesh?

Image: Cosmikaa

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H&M teams up with fashion students at Beckmans School of Design in Sweden to launch a one-of-a-kind upcycled collection that will be auctioned off to benefit UNICEF.

For the first time ever, H&M has teamed up with Beckmans School of Design in Sweden to work on a project to raise awareness around sustainability and the power of upcycling. This comes on the heels of the fast fashion retailer being one of few large fashion brands signing an industry agreement aimed at preventing future garment factory disasters.

One of the winning designs by Leonard Kocic

Thirteen design students were given a week to design unique outfits made from recycled garments collected through H&M’s takeback program, launched earlier this year. A jury consisting of H&M’s own Margareta van den Bosch and Catarina Midby as well as Swedish fashion industry insiders judged them on how well they pulled off a design that was sustainable, wearable and high fashion.

One of the winning designs by Jonna Ru

“It’s been a fun project and exciting to see how the students in a playful way created unexpected outfits that are very fashionable and of the moment,” says van den Bosch. “The winners have been very creative and thought of sustainability when they’ve, for example, used a maximum of two recycled garments in the creation of their design in order to avoid textile waste. One example is a bomber jacket that was turned into a dress by repurposing the lining.”

The winners were Jonna Ru, Leonard Kocic och Malin Unga, whose outfits will be exhibited at H&M’s flagship store in Stockholm for a week before being auctioned off on Swedish site Tradera. All proceeds will be donated to UNICEF, and H&M will also match the winning bids.

One of the winning designs by Malin Unga

“With this collaboration we want people to realize that you already have the very latest right in your closet,” says Pär Engsheden, project manager at Beckmans School of Design. “With just a few simple adjustments you can create tomorrow’s trends, and that’s what these students have shown with this design project.” So, next time you feel like buying something at H&M, just repurpose something from your closet instead!

Images courtesy of H&M

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On May 13^th, 2013 H&M signed the Accord of Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

Nearly three weeks after the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed and killed more than 1,120 people and injured many more, H&M signed an agreement with the mission to prevent similar disasters.

The Accord of Fire and Building Safety was drawn up by a labor coalition including IndustriALL Global Union, Clean Clothes Campaign and Workers’ Rights Consortium, and was published over a year ago. The Accord calls for a safe and sustainable Bangladeshi Ready Made Garment (RMG) industry where workers do not have to fear fires, building collapses or any other accidents that could be prevented with sensible health and safety measures.

Basically, the agreement requires companies to provide suppliers with more financial support in order to make the necessary factory safety upgrades. The plan established in the agreement is for a five-year period, during which the signees would actively take part in reviewing, implementing and enforcing factory safety regulations. Working together to develop a worker complaint process and a method for employees to report risks are also part of the agreement, which will be overseen by the International Labor Organization.

The aim of the agreement is to develop a nationwide factory safety initiative, which would require collaboration between a broad coalition of brands, the Bangladeshi government, industry associations and trade unions. There are more than 5,000 garment factories in Bangladesh where workers often make no more than $40 a month.

“Fire and building safety are extremely important issues for us and we put a lot of effort and resources within this area. H&M has for many years taken the lead to improve and secure the safety of the workers in the garment industry,” says Helena Helmersson, Head of Sustainability at H&M.

This Accord was drawn up and published on May 13, 2012 and activists have been pushing companies to sign it ever since. Why has it taken such a horrible event to spur agreement? Although H&M has implemented some factory assessment measures in the last few years, they obviously were not effective or worthy of a leadership title in garment worker safety.

The Accord was signed last year by PVH (Tommy Hilfiger  and Calvin Klein) and German retailer Tchibo, all of which have just been joined by several European companies including Inditex (Zara), H&M, British retailers Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Primark, and Benetton. Today is the final date for companies manufacturing in Bangladesh to sign the agreement, the measures of which need to be implemented within 45 days of signing. Wal-Mart, the second largest retailer to outsource garment manufacturing to Bangladesh, refuses to sign the agreement. Target, JC Penney, Sears, The Children’s Place and The Gap have yet to sign. If the carnage of the Rana Plaza collapse wasn’t a wake up call, what will be?

Image: rijans

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ColumnIs H&M as conscious as it claims to be?

The notion of H&M as a sustainable fashion brand might strike you as an oxymoron. How can the Swedish retailer, best known for pioneering wasteful, disposable, trend-driven fast fashion, possibly claim to be socially responsible?

It might take time, but that is H&M’s aim, if the company’s latest Conscious Actions Report is any indication. The 93-page document outlines in detail H&M’s goals, actions, and progress toward becoming a more sustainable fashion brand. Along with the report, H&M recently released its full supplier list for the first time, a significant move toward greater transparency for the multi-billion dollar corporation. And then there’s H&M’s new Conscious Exclusive Collection, the latest in a line of fashionable capsule collections featuring eco-preferable fabrics, like organic cotton and recycled polyester.

According to CEO Karl-Johan Persson, H&M doesn’t just want to improve its own sustainability – it wants to create long-lasting systemic change in the fashion industry. “Our size gives us the opportunity to promote such change well beyond our own operations,” Persson says in the report. “Together with our millions of customers we can bring massive change – from improving the livelihood of a cotton farmer to how our customers care for the clothes they buy.”

But how does H&M’s words stack up against its actions? Last year, we launched Behind The Label with a look at H&M’s conscious efforts. This week, we return to see how far the company has come.

The Good

Some fashion brands launch capsule eco-collections, promote them to death, then call it a day. But for H&M, its Conscious Collections are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social responsibility efforts.

At the latest collection’s launch in New York City last week, I caught up with Caterina Midby, director of fashion and sustainability communications, to discuss how H&M incorporates sustainability into the design process. Turns out, the first step is having high expectations.

“We never start the design process by seeing what’s available,” said Midby. “We would rather design the garment, decide on how it looks, then go out and look… some of these fabrics have never been available on the market. It’s been up to us to request them and for our suppliers to develop them.”

Indeed, H&M’s size has allowed it to demand from suppliers what other brands can’t. But in that power lies great responsibility, which the company appears to be taking seriously. In its Conscious Actions Report, H&M identifies seven major areas of commitment:

1. Provide fashion for conscious consumers
2. Choose and reward responsible partners
3. Be ethical
4. Be climate smart
5. Reduce, reuse, recycle
6. Use natural resources responsibly
7. Strengthen communities

Alone, the commitments sound pretty innocuous. However, the Conscious Actions listed beneath each commitment reveal a strong understanding of the challenges facing the global apparel industry, as well as the extenuating factors that make those challenges difficult to overcome. For instance, under “Choose and reward responsible partners,” commitment number one is for H&M to be a good partner to suppliers, “by providing fair lead times, fair pricing, on-time payments and clear communication.” Too often, brands blame their suppliers when labor abuses occur. Here, H&M asserts that it, too, bears the responsibility to be a good partner.

Some other highlights from the report:

• For the second year in a row, H&M was the largest purchaser of organic cotton in the world – an amount totaling only 7.8 percent of its total cotton use, which is indicative of the power a brand has at H&M’s scale. The company’s goal is to convert entirely to more sustainably sourced cotton by 2020.
• In 2012, H&M became the first global retailer to start a system to collect and recycle old clothing. Customers now have the opportunity to drop old clothes, from any brand, in collection bins at H&M stores. H&M will then reuse and recycle those clothes in an effort to close the textile loop.
• Also this year, H&M launched a new three-year partnership with the World Water Fund to create new standards for water stewardship in the fashion industry, starting from the design of a garment all the way to advocating for public policy changes.

The Bad

It wasn’t too long ago that clothing was something that people valued. Garments cost a bit more, but they lasted for decades. If you ripped your shirt, you would mend it. You left the mall with one or two purchases, and you would wear them to pieces.

But today, you can find H&M shirts for $3 and jeans for $15. If you rip your shirt, you throw it away and buy a new one. You leave the mall with 15 purchases, and some you don’t even get around to wearing.

Through sophisticated marketing and merchandising, fast fashion brands like H&M have fundamentally changed the way that consumers approach shopping, leading many to consume more than they actually need and dispose of everything else. H&M’s rock-bottom pricing model has also had a profound effect on the rest of the fashion world, forcing other brands to lower their prices in order to compete. What this usually means is lower quality fabrics and production methods across the board, as well as lower wages for garment workers.

But when questioned about the (un)sustainability of its business model, H&M’s sustainability executives seem to shrug off the company’s responsibility. At an H&M- and Vogue-sponsored panel on conscious fashion last week, head of sustainability Helena Helmersson dodged the fast fashion question by saying, “For us it’s about reducing impact. Still we’re going to expand, so how do we reduce the impact and our footprint?”

Caterina Midby, who also sat on the panel, placed the onus for responsible consumption on the consumer: “It’s not how like it used to be when I started in the business, when trends change from one season to another,” she said. “Now it’s all about personal style. You don’t really need to renew your wardrobe every six to seven months. It’s really up to the consumer.”

The Questionable

H&M prides itself on democratizing fashion, on “bringing it to the masses,” if you will. It’s a lovely thought – who doesn’t love democracy? – but too often it leads to overconsumption. According to Elizabeth Cline, author of “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Fast Fashion,” the average American purchases 68 garments and seven pairs of shoes each year. Compare that to 1929, when the average woman had just nine outfits total.

I place part of the blame on H&M for getting us to this point. Whether H&M wants to admit it or not, it’s due to its sophisticated marketing and merchandising engine that consumers now feel the need to buy more of what they don’t need.

That said, I am encouraged by H&M’s stated commitment to sustainability. One has only to visit HM.com or walk into one of its retail stores to see the marketing power that the company has put behind its Conscious campaign. The flora and fauna swathing spokeswoman Vanessa Paradis may be a bit overkill, but the message is pretty clear: H&M is going green, and it’s taking you with it.

If H&M was able to change the way we view the fashion calendar in the course of just a few decades, I hope that now, it will use its power to make us view fashion more responsibly. A brand of its scale has the ability not only to have a positive effect through its own behavior, but also to influence its peers and its customers. I hope it is conscious of that fact.

Images: H&M

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H&M released its supplier list just days after the launch of its “sustainable” Conscious Exclusive collection.

Swedish fashion giant H&M released its 11^th Sustainability Report last Thursday, which included a list of its global suppliers. The list accounts for 95% of the order volume for all its brands, which are H&M, Cos, Weekday, Monki, Cheap Monday and & Other Stories. The label claims to have done this in order to “take another step in making our industry more transparent and ultimately more sustainable.” But is that what they are truly doing?

H&M claims to have published this list in order to create clearer communication along the supply chain, which is laudable indeed, and a huge step towards inspiring industry-wide transparency. The company says that due to its established and strategic bonds with suppliers, it is not concerned about releasing information on factory names and locations. The reason for previously keeping supplier lists private was the risk of competition trying to use the same factories for the best available production capacity. Alongside promoting transparency, the company also wants this publication to  “incentivize our suppliers to take ownership over their sustainability and recognize the progress they are making.”

Taking a look at the supplier list reveals that H&M works with a total of 785 different suppliers, which subcontract a total 1,798 factories for garment and accessories manufacturing. Of these factories 760 are located in the Far East, 499 in Southern Asia, and 539 in the EMEA. While H&M’s 2012 Sustainability Report demonstrated that the company has noticed several of the issues omnipresent in many of its suppliers’ the factories, it didn’t seem to offer up a realistic and responsible solution for issues such as overtime hours, living wages, workers basic rights, chemical handling or concrete plans for re-usable energy sources.

Hopefully the list has been published in a genuine attempt to foster true transparency within the industry, and to to collaborate with governments, human rights organizations and suppliers on pressing issues within the supply chain. Although H&M has actively worked on training factory workers and managers about workers rights, a large percentage still earn far less than what is considered a sustaining wage. The current minimum wage for a factory worker in Cambodia (where H&M’s suppliers have 33 factories) is 75 USD per month, and the calculated basic, monthly living expenses for a Cambodian worker and her family is about four times as much at 274 USD. In 2011, over 2400 Cambodian factory workers passed out in factories as a direct consequence of insufficient wages, mostly because they couldn’t afford to properly feed themselves. As far as the number of workers in H&M’s supplier factories who actually know how their wages have been calculated goes, percentages have fallen since 2010 in Bangladesh and practically slumped in Turkey, although they have slightly risen in China and India.

Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M says, “our customers should feel confident that everything they buy from H&M is designed, manufactured and handled with responsibility for people and the environment.” Really? How can that be possible when the company itself has not assured a fair living wage to many of the individuals involved in manufacturing? The response of Helena Helmersson, Head of H&M’s Sustainability Team is: “We buy garments from suppliers. Hence, we don’t pay the wages to the factory workers.” How does that type of statement foster transparency? If the processes that make up the value chain of H&M’s products aren’t entirely understood by the company itself, how can it possibly claim to ensure customers of the sustaianiblity or ethicality of these products?

Don’t get me wrong – it’s great to see this supplier list. The company’s mission to “use our scale to bring about systemic change to our industry and across our entire value chain” can have an amazing impact on the fashion and textile industries. They are working towards this change through sourcing of organic cotton and Better Cotton, water use reduction, banning certain toxics, clothing recycling schemes and by investing in poverty reduction charities. But we really need to see a lot more integral changes happen before their claims of transparency and being “at the forefront of sustainability” can be held true. H&M’s revenue (or turnover) in 2012 reached a massive 17 billion Euros, and their profit topped the 2 million Euro mark. This money is not being fed back into the system that makes it, and the means for obtaining it is costing human lives, the environment and our conscience. As Niels Oskam, founder of Rank-a-Brand says, “The turnover of H&M grows year after year, planet earth does not.” Neither does human tolerance for starvation, 16 hour working days, and miserable living conditions.

Image: H&M Conscious Exclusive Collection

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