This week, a handful of Sweden’s leading fashion and sustainability journalists and I were invited to the Stockholm showroom of our mega-fashion retailer, H&M. The purpose was to create an “open dialogue about H&M’s sustainability efforts,” driven by the “guests’ thoughts and questions.”
The initiative was spearheaded by their newish Regional Head of Sustainability & Public Affairs, Marcus Hartman, a friendly and bearded gentleman who’s been on the job a mere three years (a rookie by H&M standards).
I was excited to go to the event. This time last year, I visited a similar event by Uniqlo in London, where a long line of Japanese executives held an “open discussion with leading fashion sustainability journalists”. Coming home from that trip, I wrote in this column:
”I’m hard-pressed to think the above-mentioned H&M would arrange a similarly transparent event.”
I don’t know if Marcus and his colleagues read my column, but it wasn’t a unique statement. H&M has been famous for secrecy and lack of openness, especially after the disastrous stories that emerged in 2023, when Swedish daily Aftonbladet released an exposé on H&M’s involvement in clothing landfills in the global south. Perhaps that experience sparked this newfound willingness to be more open about their work.
Marcus came off as genuinely interested in sharing more, and he had a competent team from people with titles such as “Resource Use & Circular Impact Lead” and “Climate Impact Lead”. From what I’ve learned about the company in the last few years, good things are being done on the inside, from work to minimise dependency on coal to working directly with suppliers to increase social responsibility.
Their Head of Circular Business Models, Linn af Klint Kansmark, guested on our podcast a few months ago to discuss their bet on secondhand.
However, the conversation last Wednesday ran into a wall several times when the team could not share the embargoed numbers and facts until their upcoming sustainability report releases on March 27.
Journalist and lecturer Anna Blom, another guest on our pod, strongly demanded information about their total production volume. “Numbers will be released on March 27.”
How much of their second-hand assortment are they actually selling? “Numbers are being released on March 27.”
There were some interesting topics raised, and here are a few takeaways:
Hartman underscored their focus on minimising overproduction, which damages the environment and their bottom line.
They are committed to decoupling growth from resource usage ahead of their goal to reach net-zero in 2040.
TikTok influencer and activist Emily Dahl, founder of Modemassakern, asked about their dependency on trend-driven collections, which sparked an interesting discussion about whether collections that are “on trend” are good or bad for the environment. On the one hand, something that is trend-driven will, by default, be “out of trend. On the other hand, if it’s not in style, it might not sell, leaving unsold clothing in warehouses.
I inquired how they are tackling the upcoming EU requirement to implement a Digital Product Passport and whether they are willing to lead in setting the standard for the rest of the industry. The answers were less than satisfactory, but they did concur with my assessment that the overall industry is very hesitant to bet on data-sharing platforms and other tools that they were unsure would live up to the EU’s demands.
“It’s a complex thing”, they said repeatedly throughout the session.
I can sympathise with that. Making a sustainability transformation at this behemoth of a brand must be daunting, and I generally felt that they wanted to be more open. It’s just that they were utterly unable to.
Maybe we will get more information after March 27. I certainly will ask them about it then.
