Poznàn University of Economics and Business

Methods and Instruments of Marketing Communication

Sustainable fashion: the case of H&M

“Can fast-fashion industry lead the change?”

Elena Cucciatti

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Fast fashion is a contemporary term used to express that fashion designs move quickly from

catwalks to retailers in order to capture current trends. Historically, runways and fashion shows

were the biggest inspiration for this industry, previously restricted to designers, buyers and other

fashion managers. However, since the 2000s, fashion shows and catwalks became a public

phenomenon: following the development of the new mass media, photographs of the latest fashion

shows could be seen in magazines or in the first blogs. As a result, consumers were anyway

exposed to restricted by pictured designs and styles inspired from runways. Then, retailers such as

Zara, H&M, Mango, New Look, and Top Shop started to adopt such models rapidly to attract

consumers and introduce interpretations of the runway designs to the stores in a minimum of five

weeks and with lower prices. Fast fashion, therefore, now refers to clothings that are low cost and

imitate the present luxuriousness fashion trends. Fashion, more than any other industry in the world

has the obsolescence as a primary destination, and with fast fashion, it finds a quickly respond.

However, this fast reaction relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption and short-lived

garment use, leading to a serious environmental concern. The textile and fashion industry has a long

and complex supply chain, starting from agriculture and fiber production to manufacturing, logistics

and final retail. Each production step has a markable environmental impact due to water, material,

chemical substances and energy used. The fashion industry is facing increasing global scrutiny of

its environmentally polluting supply chain operations. Despite this, it continues to grow, testifying a

double increase in the clothing production, compared with the first 2000s. The precise negative

environmental impact of the fashion industry remains unknown, but it is sizeable. It seems that fast

fashion businesses are not making concrete efforts to achieve sustainable and eco- friendly

products, suitable customer service, fair employment opportunities, and fair allocation of profits,

diversity of quality and design, and ecosystem promotion. Even tought, there is no such thing as

being 100% sustainable with fashion (jsut thinking about that washing clothes infuses nature with

microfibers, in addition with the use of water, electricity, and not eco-friendly laundry detergents),

this industry have no choice rather then take its own responsabilities and facing all the problem it is

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causing. This means creating brands that take in consideration humanity and the environment, with

a system which works without leaving a negative footprint. From the consumers prospection, means

thinking about what to buy, knowing which philosophies are supporting the brand and so the

purchases, learning how to read and interpretate labels in the correct way, and, finally, also asking if

it’s really necessary buying.

Despite the changing dynamics of the fashion industry, in the last two decades, that have forced

retailers to desire low cost and suppleness in design, quality, and speed, to maintain a profitable

position in the increasingly demanding market, many fashion companies are, in the last years, trying

to follow more suistainable values, incorporating green practices into their supply chain. Examples

of this kind of fashion companies include H&M.

The Swedish multinational fashion company, with about 3100 stores across 53 markets, is one of

the most influence brand in the fast fashion scene, offering from 12 to 16 new clothing collections

each year and refreshing them weekly. Many accusations have been leveled against the company

regarding the incorrect practices supported by it, but since the arrival, in 2020, of the new CEO,

Helena Helmersson, it is clear that things are changing. During an interview released to the well-

known fashion magazine Vogue, the Chief Executive Officer declared how she doesn’t believe that

fast fashion should be a dirty word, from her point of view “Having people all over the world be

able to express themselves through fashion and design — that should be something beautiful,”

adding also “The problem is that the system behind it needs to be changed.” These affirmations lay

behind the launch of H&M’s sustainability program, called “Conscious Action”. The programm,

described in details in the Performance Report 2020 released by the company, establishes the aim of

a market and supply chain more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. As part of

its bid to become more eco-friendly, H&M has set a target of achieving 100 per cent recycled or

other sustainably sourced materials by 2030, along with the ambitious goal of becoming climate

positive by 2040; the ultimate step is moving to a 100 per cent circular model — one in which all

products can be reused or fully decomposed — although the way is still long. 

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Three are the strategic areas on which the promised change is based: “Leading the Change”,

“Circular & Climate Positive” and “Fair & Equal”.

The commitment in Leading the Change starts with improving sustainability performance in the

value chain and demonstrating the resilience of sustainable business. The strategy focus on three

key points: a continuous stimulation by identifying, testing and scaling new solutions and business

models with “Innovation”; an open share of progress and challenges made by the company and

providing product sustainability information to customers to make informed choices with

“Transparency”; an open engaging with decision makers on policy issues such as wage setting

mechanisms, labour law, climate change, due diligence, circular economy and biodiversity with

“Inspiring sustainable actions”. Following this values H&M group was ranked at the first place in

the Fashion Revolution “Fashion Transparency Index” in 2020, beating all the other competitors.

Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence helped the company to better exploit resources and

improve forecasting of demand.

Climate change remains the centre issue of this blasting industry. Recent data show how clothing

production consumes one tenth of all the water used industrially to run factories and clean products;

this means, for instance, 10,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of cotton or approximately

3,000 liters of water for one cotton shirt. Furthermore, textile dyeing requires toxic chemicals that

subsequently end up in the oceans. Another cause of plastic microfibers to enter the oceans is the

use of synthetic materials, characterized by low prices and quality and high carbon emissions. More

public health and environmental dangers are represented by toxic substances and poisonous gases

released because of burning landfill of thrown away clothes. For these, an many other reasons, the

fashion industry is currently responsible for more annual carbon emissions than all international

flights and maritime shipping combined. If the industry maintains its course, an increase of 50% in

greenhouse gas emissions is expected within a decade. The necessity of Circular & Climate Positive

actions is now stressed more than ever. H&M response can be found in the use of sustainable

materials made by natural products such as pineapples, algae and citrus; in the opportunity for

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customers to enjoy repair or rental solutions; and in general, in the exploration of new models that

enable a more circular industry, using options such as on-demand, resale and manufacture.

Although the previous strategies cover the main part of the fashion industry’s weaknesses, what’s

still missing is any information on workers’ treatments. Fair & Equal tries to find an answer to the

question of how it’s possible that all the individuals involved in the supply chain are paid a fair

wage, considering the average price of an H&M T-shirt equal to £3.99. For the Swedish company

it’s all about buying big volumes, to get more productivity and better prices. H&M environment

counts more than 1.1 million workers along the entire supply chain, for whom the company

provides Industrial Relations and Workplace Dialogue Programmers. It also has been improved the

Wage Management System to provide benefits for the employees; as it has happened during the

pandemic, despite the many orders cancelled, the company ensured all workers a proper wage. New

training programs share with employees the respect for human rights, gender equality, social

inclusion and diversity, to create a more balance environment; it’s the company’s CEO who

declares that “A big company like H&M can be part of something truly amazing, especially when it

comes to job creation, and especially for women and helping families out of poverty”. However,

plenty of goals are still not reached: an industry-wide minimum wages are not established and the

excuse of helping developing countries may cover the convenience of cheap labour sources. 

The critics moved about the fast-fashion company are not over. H&M, as many other retailers in the

industry, has faced accusations of “greenwashing”, a term coined by ex-investor Duncan Austin,

which stands for the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information

about how products are more environmentally sound, to deceive consumers into believing that a

company's products are eco-friendly. Despite H&M’s Conscious collection is currently made from

at least 50 per cent sustainably sourced materials, the brand doesn’t currently give any specific

details on the fabric that each product contains, meaning that customers aren’t able to assess the

eco-credentials of the item they’re buying. An additional complication comes from what materials

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the brand considers sustainable, since, for instance, H&M lumped two very different materials, such

as organic cotton and recycled polyester, in the same category, when there’s a substantial difference

between the environmental footprint of the first one, which will decompose, and the second one,

which will never biodegrade. Moreover, the fact of replacing traditional envelopes with

biodegradable paper ones is certainly a positive aspect, but it represents an infinitesimal percentage,

compared to the effort that must be made in the right direction. It is certainly much more

appreciable than the simple use of green labels or patterns that recall nature, to make consumers

believe that the company is actually following a green approach.

Nevertheless, the gap between sustainable communication and concrete actions toward an

environmentally friendly production from fashion industry, also includes costumers’ behaviour, and

the interpretations of fashion sustainability terminology communicated through labelling. Marketing

research examined how consumers interpret and understand sustainable fashion production and how

this influences their fashion consumption practice. The findings show that sustainable production is

generally not understood, leading to scepticism for higher pricing and marketing claims. When it

comes to environmental issues, positive perceptions regarding the companies’ social responsibility

efforts are vital to enhance both consumers’ trust towards the brands and their individual feeling of

empowerment.

If the fast-fashion industry doesn’t put effort in leading this change, the shift to environmental life

saver manners should be conducted through the introduction of new marketing solutions, instructing

consumers to more eco-friendly and ethical behaviours. The new frontier of fashion relies on

concepts such as clothing swap, secondhand shopping, slow, fair and vegan fashion, local

production, mininalist approaches and the use of 100% pure materials, easily biodegradable.

Despite the existance of these replacement opportunities, their global effectiveness remains limited;

fast fashion industry has a too incisive influence on the market, given the low sales and production

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prices and the "real time" offer of always new clothing items. Obviously, it’s easier for a start-up to

build sustainability into its business than for a global corporation like H&M to overhaul

longstanding manufacturing processes overnight, but it’s the last one that must work on it. The

technologies and natural and human resources to start this process exist, the hypothetical mindset

too; what it’s needed is a call to action.

Fashion is commonly said to both reflect and lead culture, the industry has a once-in-history

opportunity to demonstrate that creativity and respect for the nature and the human rights can lead

to authentic sustainability. The planet’s future lies also on this.

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References:

The Myth of Sustainable Fashion. (2022, January 14). Harvard Business Review.

https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-myth-of-sustainable-fashion

Sustainability efforts in the fast fashion industry: consumer perception, trust and purchase intention

| Emerald Insight. (2020, July 29). Emerald.

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SAMPJ-11-2019-0405/full/html

Consumer interpretations of fashion sustainability terminology communicated through labelling |

Emerald Insight. (2021, November 23). Emerald.

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFMM-03-2021-0075/full/html

P. (2020, July 20). The Impact of Fast Fashion On the Environment. PSCI.

https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment

Niinimäki, K. (2020, April 23). The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-020-0039-9?

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Chan, E. (2020, October 14). H&M’s CEO Wants To Make Fast Fashion Sustainable. Is That

Possible? British Vogue. https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/article/helena-helmersson-

interview

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE FASHION? (2021, August 2). Sustainable Fashion Matterz.

https://www.sustainablefashionmatterz.com/what-is-sustainable-fashion

Segran, E. (2019, August 8). H&M, Zara, and other fashion brands are tricking shoppers with

vague sustainability claims. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90385370/hm-

zara-and-other-fashion-brands-are-tricking-consumers-with-vague-sustainability-claims

HM-Group-Sustainability-Performance-Report-2020.pdf (hmgroup.com)

Sustainability - H&M Group (hmgroup.com)

Sustainability and sustainable development (ue.poznan.pl)