Should H&M Really Be Considered Sustainable?
In recent years, H&M has begun advertising their brand as sustainable. On various platforms, the credibility of whether or not they are actually sustainable has been put to the test. In one of our previous posts, we discussed the sustainable procedures for upcoming brands. It is important to ensure that brands like H&M and Zara are not just throwing this term around like a label instead of actually embedding true ethical methods in the production and materials of their clothes. H&M labeled it the Conscious Collection.
As can be seen in the above images, they provide two very short paragraphs and simple infographics, which is what has led to the credibility and “consciousness” of H&M due to its briefness. Sustainability and ethical minded brands need to consider every aspect that comes with the various life stages in the cycle of a product.
They have provided bins, like the ones down below, where consumers can get discounts by donating clothes so that it can be recycled and used to remake and reuse the fibers of clothing into new trendy clothing. From garments they received as donations, only a small amount was used as recycled, making people question where the rest of the fibers were used for, and the vagueness that H&M had was not beneficial for their image.
H&M used a system “Looop”, which can be seen in the image below, when it came to remaking their clothing. Looop was an environmentally friendly method of cleaning and shredding fibers that would be made into the yarn for new garments. They have claimed their target of sustainability will be met by 2030, but in the past their promises and targets have failed to meet.
Sustainable clothing tends to be more on the expensive side. The price of items like the one in the photo below, made people skeptical over why the clothing remained at similar price ranges, questioning whether sweatshops or other fast fashion practices were still being used.
They are such a big retailer with an even larger impact on the environment, which is the reason that people might want them to consider sustainability. People want the actual practices and production methods of clothing to be ethical. The entire brand is slowly becoming ‘conscious’ but are still providing shoppers with fast fashion options. They describe that only certain parts of their brand can be considered sustainable, which they label with green tags like below.
Overall H&Ms efforts are being seen and are appreciated, but they need to ensure they are not only doing it to gain profit.
Sources:
https://tabitha-whiting.medium.com/sustainable-style-the-truth-behind-the-marketing-of-h-ms-conscious-collection-805eb7432002
https://www.coresponsibility.com/waste-fast-fashions-sustainability-promises/
https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/is-h-m-really-as-green-as-they-seem-to-be/2015100917940
https://about.hm.com/news/general-news-2019/on-the-way-towards-using-100--sustainable-materials.html
https://mengchunhung.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/hm-conscious/
https://www.ecotextile.com/2019061724415/fashion-retail-news/h-m-called-out-on-illegal-sustainability-marketing.html
https://qz.com/662031/is-hm-misleading-customers-with-all-its-talk-of-sustainability/
https://about.hm.com/news/general-news-2020/recycling-system--looop--helps-h-m-transform-unwanted-garments-i.html
https://currentlywearing.com/2020/09/28/is-hm-sustainable-how-to-understand-their-eco-conscious-line
https://currentlywearing.com/2020/09/28/is-hm-sustainable-how-to-understand-their-eco-conscious-line