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ABOUT H&M
HMs business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price. Quality also means that the products have to be manufactured in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable. Like all HMs activity, our CSR work is based on a drive for continuous improvement.
We have a responsibility towards everyone who contributes to our success, including those who are not employees of HM. That is why we work closely with our suppliers to develop a long-term, sustainable social and environmental standard in the factories that manufacture HMs products.We have to ensure that our employees human rights are not violated, and the same applies to employees of our suppliers and other cooperation partners, and to our customers.We apply the precautionary principle in our environmental work and have adopted a preventative approach with the substitution of hazardous chemicals.We strive to use resources as efficiently as possible and to minimise waste. By adopting new technologies and methods, we can work preventatively to minimise our environmental footprint through improved production processes and our choice of materials. We must continuously review the companys goals and strategies to reduce the companys climate impact.Our decisions are based on careful consideration, where shorter or longer-term environmental benefits are weighed up in order to ensure that we choose solutions which are sustainable in the long term.We want to be a good global citizen and act responsibly in our business relations. We take a clear stand against all forms of corruption. We engage in dialogue with all our various stakeholders to build trust in our operations within the environment we rely on for our long-term success.H&M Releases Conscious Actions Sustainability Report
“With size comes responsibility and influence. I want our customers always to feel that we do our best to ensure that the fashion we offer has been made, transported and sold responsibly. To achieve this, transparency is key and our Sustainability Report is an important tool to show our progress and challenges,” says Karl-Johan Persson, CEO at H&M. To clarify and guide H&M’s sustainability work we identified seven ambitious commitments in 2010. All our work-in-progress for a more sustainable fashion future is now also gathered under one name, H&M Conscious. Among other things, the report shows that: • H&M announced a target for all cotton to come from more sustainable sources by 2020. • A total of 68,000 cotton farmers were educated on more sustainable farming practices through our active engagement in Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). 2010 also saw the first cotton harvest from the BCI. • H&M used more organic cotton than ever before in our products, a total of 15,000 tonnes. This is an increase of 77 percent compared to 2009 and it makes H&M one of the largest users of organic cotton in the world (2009: rank 5). • 1,600 tonnes of recycled materials were turned into new clothes. • H&M played an active role in forming the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, working to create a universal index to show the environmental impact and fair labor practices for clothing and footwear production. • More than 300,000 workers in Bangladesh have been educated on their rights since 2008. H&M will expand this to India in 2011. • H&M announced a global ban on sandblasting for all our products. • H&M saved 50 million litres of water in denim production relative to previous production methods. We plan to introduce this technique for all our denim suppliers in Bangladesh. • H&M reduced the energy use per square meter in all H&M stores by 8 percent from 2007-2010. This shows a good progress against the target to achieve 20 percent reductions by 2020. “I am happy to see good progress in our sustainability work. To remain at the forefront of our industry we will gradually broaden our scope to take into account every part of our product’s life cycle. Our engagement in the Better Cotton Initiative and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition are two important initiatives to increase this influence,” says Helena Helmersson, Head of CSR at H&M. For more information, please contact: H&M Media Relations Telephone: +46 (0)8 796 53 00 E-mail: mediarelations@hm.com Press pictures and background information for editorial use can be down loaded from www.hm.com User name: press. Password: trend. Both the report and a summary are available to read online and to download at www.hm.com/consciousactions2010 H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is quoted on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. The company’s business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday as well as H&M Home. The H&M Group has more than 2,200 stores in 39 markets, including franchise markets. In 2010, sales including VAT were SEK 126,966 million and the number of employees is more than 87,000. For further information, visit www.hm.com.










