H&M and the Push for Sustainability in Fast Fashion - Technology and Operations Management (2024)

You have mentioned numerous initiatives which H&M has undertaken to combat climate change and its contribution to climate change. Has H&M taken any steps to establish board oversight of its practices or incorporate sustainability as part of its corporate mission (as we saw with IKEA)? Do you believe that it is truly possible for a firm to earnestly strive for sustainability without doing so? How genuine are these efforts?

Z, you bring to light an important and widespread tension: consumerism persisted by retailers is at odds with their actions to improve the environment. The information you provided on how quickly consumers dispose of clothing and how difficult it is for clothing to be recycled shocked me and should be a wake up call for the fashion community! Because retailers that deliver products at a low price point (like H&M) rely on volume to ensure profitability, they will not be an ally in this fight. It seems like we will have to look to other players in the fashion world to show that conscious consumption is indeed fashionable! In 2016, fashion addicts were captivated by the “capsule wardrobe” which favors a smaller selection of high-quality basics over a crowded closet of disjointed and lower-quality offerings. Will the capsule wardrobe be another fashion fad, or is it a popular way to educate shoppers about the choices they make?

This is a really interesting take on the impact of climate change on an industry that typically doesn’t associate itself with the environment. As a minimalist consumer, I find the rise of fast fashion brands very concerning, especially given H&M’s 10% 2015-2016 in retail footprint on a base of 4,000 existing stores. What was most alarming to learn was that it would take 12 years to recycle 1,000 tons of garment waste…the amount of clothing that’s produced every 48 hours! When we think about negative externalities, what usually comes to mind is power production, heavy manufacturing, and transportation, but your blog post brought to light a really important issue of rising consumerism, especially in emerging markets with a growing middle class. Unfortunately I can’t imagine a future for fashion where the incentives change such that companies like H&M stop offering such cheap, affordable, disposable fashion.

I wonder if any of the initiatives that H&M is proposing can be taken seriously, when H&M is the main driver of “fast fashion”, which relies on the production of low quality and low garments, which have an intrinsic shorter life cycle. I believe H&M should also attempt educating millenials to consider repairing garments, to minimize the number of disposed garments

Thanks Z! Building on the point you made about only 20% of used cotton actually being reused by H&M at the moment- has H&M considered the powerful impact of 2nd hand usage? The proposition to H&M would be to look into collecting clothes, perhaps in return for consumer discounts on next purchase, and then to try to distribute these clothes to communities or individuals in need. Several ways to go about this could be to pair with soup kitchens or with shelters networks. The way I would then think about it, if successful, the recycle or reuse rate would actually be closer to 100% of used cottons collected, and the social impact as well as the climate one would be tremendous.

This was a very informative article about the steps that H&M is taking to help reduce their carbon footprint. Despite these steps, I still think that H&M is incorrectly targeting the low hanging fruit. It hadn’t crossed my mind until reading the Ikea case that a number of retailers produce products that are disposed of in a relatively short amount of time after the consumer purchases the product. This to me represents the largest challenge facing these companies (and ultimately the environment) and where they should spend a majority of efforts. While it is admirable that H&M has launched initiatives reducing its carbon footprint in its supply chain, until they make a concerted effort to find ways to increase the life of their products (or increase ways to recycle products), they are not targeting the heart of the problem. A lot of H&M’s current initiatives might please consumers however it doesn’t seem to be a serious effort to reduce their overall carbon footprint.

Insightful analysis, zaradi! One question that sprang to mind was to what extent H&M’s efforts to educate customers on climate change can have a negative impact on their fast fashion business model, which is entirely based on the cultural norms around the disposability of clothing. Do you think that H&M will be willing to take the risk of having customers realize how damaging fast fashion is to the environment?

The article shares great insight into the industry of fast fashion, where constant renewal of designs and styles drives inherent consumer behavior that produces garment waste and significantly negative environmental impact. I have to agree with AZ, in that the very nature of fast fashion is conducive to exacerbating environmental challenges, and I am skeptical whether the H&M initiatives are really what the organization believes of simply another chapter out of its corporate responsibility for PR. Until the company actively promote and advertise their clothing as recycled fashion with a deliberate intent on revamping its manufacturing processes, I doubt that fast fashion would ever become truly environmentally-conscious.

Insightful article – thank you for writing about fast fashion, Zaradi. As you and several other posters have pointed out, the very nature of fast fashion seems at odds with the idea of sustainability. In fact, as can be seen in this photo and extensively throughout this article, the very existence of the trend is one of leading environmental crises the planet faces: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/09/old-clothes-fashion-waste-crisis-494824.html. The article points out that 80% of unwanted clothes end up in landfills and incinerators which could easily offset the good the company is accomplishing in its supply chain. I wonder if anyone has considered regulating these companies to internalize the negative eternalities their clothes produce? In the same way that various chemical plants are required to treat their waste, why not fast fashion companies? Finally, I want to point out that not all fashion companies let themselves off the hook. For example, Patagonia has famously tried to convince consumers not to buy its clothes should they already have viable alternatives. On of their famous initiatives (and ad campaigns) that I find extremely effective can be seen here: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-patagonia-136745.

Thanks for bringing light to an important issue, Z! One thing that H&M is doing right now that I think is pretty awesome is actually what Amir suggested! They provide 20% off your purchase if you bring in your old clothes. You can drop off your clothes at any location and claim the discount right away. http://twocents.lifehacker.com/h-m-offers-a-20-discount-if-you-give-them-your-old-us-1692304128

However, even with these results in mind I wonder whether the problem, like others have mentioned, is fundamentally with H&Ms business models. They pump out hundreds of styles and provide cheap quality. Much like IKEA they essentially, through their design choices, encourage and even force consumers to purchase new clothes much more often than needed. Even efforts to collect and donate use clothing are less impactful than we think. This articles describes what really happens to donated clothing and how the negative impact can cross oceans to developing countries. Furthermore, 11% of clothes donated to Goodwill end up in landfills. http://fashionista.com/2016/01/clothing-donation

Hi Z!

Thanks for the great post! Erik and others have basically made the same points as me, but I’ll share anyway…Disposable/fast fashion are modern trends I’ve certainly found myself caught up in, reaping benefits from, but often left wondering about whether or not the quality is worth the purchase. Similarly, I’m left questioning whether or not H&Ms (or Forever 21’s, Zara’s…) efforts in sustainability make up for the damage that they do on the environment. H&M has quite literally built a business model on mass-producing textile waste. To put in place corrective measures to problems that they created in the first place seems to be overstating the impact they are having. That said, customers are certainly demanding such fashion, so H&M isn’t entirely to fault. To Amir’s point in class, we the consumers have created this trend of disposables. However, if H&M really wants to be a thought-leader and influencer on the issue of sustainable clothing, I would encourage them to heavy-up on the “increased education and engagement with customers” piece you outlined in your post.

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/08/473513620/what-happens-when-fashion-becomes-fast-disposable-and-cheap