Transparency Index ranks H&M group among the top five

The Transparency Index by Fashion Revolution raises important concerns for the fashion industry, such as traceability, circularity and working conditions. At H&M group we do not only agree on these important concerns, we have been working for many years to develop a more ambitious sustainability strategy for our business. We believe transparency plays a key role to build trust and credibility along our supply chain and empowers our customers to make more sustainable choices.

Supplier disclosure is a key factor of transparency and that is why in 2013, we were one of the first fashion retailers to make our supplier list customer-facing at hm.com/supplierlist. Today, our supplier list includes first tier manufacturing supplier factories for 98.5% of H&M group products. It also includes second tier factories which account for 60% of our products.

For the second year in a row, our Conscious Exclusive collection will go one step further on traceability, offering extended and detailed information on product level at our online store. Customers will be able to know more about where and by whom the garment was made. Information such as factory’s name, address, number of workers, materials, the design team behind the collection will be available as well as information on how to take care of the garment in a sustainable way. Publishing information about the Conscious Exclusive collection is an important step forward in our work towards a more transparent fashion industry.

Looking ahead, if we want future generations to enjoy fashion as we do today, we need to change the way fashion is made and used. As it is also stated at the Transparency Index, we believe that an industry-wide shift from a linear to a circular business model is the only way to go. We have set an ambitious goal for our business to become fully circular and renewable in our own operations. Our circular approach includes, among other things, our aim to only use recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030, to only use renewable energy for our own operations, or to offer our customers solutions for bringing their unwanted garments so we can give them a second life by reusing or recycling them.

As one of the founding members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), we share our commitment to drive transparency across the fashion industry. 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, something we think is positive.

Read more about our sustainability work at hm.com/sustainability

Read the Fashion Transparency Index published by Fashion Revolution at fashionrevolution.org.