H&M Case (4645)

case W93C73
February 8, 2014
revised: September 2022
H&M’s Global Supply Chain Management Sustainability:

Factories and Fast Fashion
Helena Helmersson, head of sustainability at Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), was startled awake by a phone
call at 5 a.m. A factory had collapsed in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The building
was Rana Plaza, owned by wealthy Mohammad Sohel Rana.1 Helmersson’s informant assured her that H&M
did not directly contract clothing manufacturing from the factories in Rana Plaza. However, given the
complicated supply chains of the apparel industry, there was no guarantee that H&M garment manufacturing
had not been indirectly subcontracted to the Rana Plaza factories.
Even if no H&M clothes were found in the ashes of the collapsed factory, Helmersson sensed that H&M
would be put under a spotlight by consumers and labor rights groups as H&M was the largest exporter
of clothing from Bangladesh.2 There would certainly be a flood of media coverage on labor conditions in
Bangladesh. While Helmersson felt confident that H&M was an industry leader in sustainability, she was
concerned that the media would conflate the egregious working conditions of some Bangladeshi factories
with the H&M brand.
At 7 a.m., she would meet with Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M, to devise a response to the factory
collapse. Fortunately, H&M already had a good track record of engaging with the Bangladeshi government,
factories, and workers. In 2012, Persson had met with Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, to
advocate for higher minimum wages, regular wage adjustments, and fire safety in the garment industry.3
Additionally, H&M partnered with 18 other brands to provide 3 million workers in Bangladesh with additional
fire safety training.4 Yet beyond these facts, Helmersson still had some troubling issues to contend with:
How should H&M respond to this catastrophe? Should the company be on the front lines in dealing with the
aftermath of the factory collapse, or should it step to the side and let those companies implicated by the
disaster deal with the situation? How should she advise Persson to respond to the media? How could H&M
prove that the company took social and environmental issues seriously?
The Rise of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion, an operations strategy where fashion retailers quickly move designs from runway to stores,
rose to prominence in the mid-2000s in companies such as Zara, H&M and Forever 21. By democratizing
couture and bringing trendy, affordable items to the masses, fast fashion created an era where designs
Published by WDI Publishing, a division of the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan.
©2014 Marianna Kerppola, Ryan Moody, Likangjin Zheng, and Amaryllia Liu. This case was written under the supervision of Andrew
Hoffman (Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business) at the University of Michigan by graduate students
Marianna Kerppola, Ryan Moody, Likangjin Zheng, and Amaryllia Liu as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either
effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.
This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Vinay Kalakbandi's Retail Supply Chain Management - 2022 at Institute of Management Technology - Hyderabad from Oct 2022 to Jan 2023.
H&M’s Global Supply Chain Management Sustainability: Factories and Fast Fashion W93C73
moved from catwalk to store within weeks to capture current trends in the market. Zara delivered new
styles to stores twice a week, while H&M and Forever 21 received daily shipments of new styles, therein
revolutionizing the cadence for fashion merchandising.5
Before fast fashion transformed the industry, clothing retailers maintained a seasonal sales cycle where
new trends were introduced only four times a year.6 Over the course of a season, traditional retailers would
mark down clothing to sell excess inventory. Traditional retailers might not be able to sell clothes with
particularly poor design, thus entirely losing the sale.
Pioneers of fast fashion, such as Zara, recognized the seasonal sales model was sluggish and detached
from consumer preferences. Instead of making large bets on styles, fast fashion retailers test new styles rapidly
to determine which offerings customers favored with purchases. Donald Sull, Professor of Management Practice
in Strategic and International Management at London Business School, and Stefano Turconi, Strategy Research
Associate at London Business School, found that fast fashion retailers are “able to respond quickly when items
sold better than expected and also to cut off production when demand for particular items fell.”7 Moreover,
fast fashion retailers easily incorporated “fresh information that might inﬂuence fashion, including everything
from regional weather forecasts and international events, to the vagaries and whims of admired social ﬁgures.”8
As a result, customers visited stores weekly or even daily to discover the latest trends and deals.
Fast fashion retailers also prided themselves on affordability. In 2010, H&M advertised a dress modeled
after an Alexander Wang design for $4.95.9 Jennifer Uglialoro, the company’s PR director, explained that
“this season we’re focused even more on a lower price. We’re very cost-conscious; for fall you’ll be seeing
trench coats for $20.”10
Furthermore, fast fashion companies were immensely successful financially. A study by Bain & Company
found that fast fashion retailers put only 15% of inventory on sale, whereas the industry average was 50%.11
Further, fast fashion retailers enjoyed a profit margin of 16% while the typical specialty-apparel retailer
earned a margin of 7%.12 How did fast fashion retailers maintain low price and high margins? Uglialoro
explained, “We have over 2,000 stores in 37 countries. This provides high volume and there is no middleman.
We have our own team of over 100 in-house designers and we do all our own production.”13,14
Since the mid-2000s, the fast fashion market segment grew to a record high of $26 billion in revenue
for 2012, up 2.75% from 2011.15 The fast fashion segment primarily targeted women and by virtue of its
fashion know-how and its adeptness in anticipating trends, the fast fashion industry achieved popularity
among consumers. As a result, fast fashion companies grew at a formidable rate despite overcrowding in the
clothing market and, at times, sluggish consumer spending. As of 2012, the top five players in the market
were: H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein (Please see Figure 1).16
Environmental Concerns of Fast Fashion

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “textile-making is one of the most polluting
industries in the world.”17 One cotton T-shirt uses a third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers, four square
meters of land, 25.3 kilowatts of electricity, and 50 to 75 liters of water (see Exhibit 1).18,19 Resource usage
in the fashion industry posed a significant burden on the planet, considering that the industry produced 150
billion garments per year, approximately 20 garments per person.20
Fast fashion retailers were criticized for creating disposable fashion that was worn only a handful of
times before being thrown away. In the past, cost-conscious consumers opted to buy affordable clothes from
thrift stores. However, with the rise of cheap clothing, cost-conscious consumers have flocked to fast fashion
retailers instead, consuming more natural resources in the process.21 In 2010, Americans threw away an
average of 85 pounds of textiles per person, double the amount in 1990 and quadruple the amount in 1970.22
Textile waste grew 644% from 1960 to 2010, indicating severe pressure on natural resource extraction (see
Figure 2).23 In fact, Deloitte published a report called “Fashioning Sustainability 2013,” where it warned
that fashion companies would be susceptible to resource scarcity in the form of price volatility already
witnessed in cotton, fine wool, and crude oil prices (see Figure 3).24
Figure 1
Fast Fashion Market Share and Growth
Source: Fashionbi. “2012 Fast Fashion Market Research Report.” 2013. http://fashionbi.com/market/fast-fashion/all.
Labor remains the largest cost in garment production, accounting for 20% to 40%.25 Yet the price
of a garment for a consumer has little to do with the wage paid to the worker. In fact, apparel prices—
particularly for common products such as T-shirts—are predominantly determined by brand name, rather
than labor practices.26 Because retailers chase higher and higher profit margins, labor costs are suppressed.
Sanjiv Pandita, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asia Monitor Resource Center, which tracks labor
conditions across the region, expresses that the fashion industry is “the ugliest race to the bottom because
the financial crisis in America and Europe means that people are getting very scared of buying expensive
things.”27 Similarly, Luis Restrepo, CEO of Crystal T-shirt manufacturing company in Colombia, says “our
industry follows poverty.”28
Apparel retailers can justify wages paid to the producers of their products through code of conduct
contracts for apparel manufacturers, which require manufacturers to pay at least the minimum wage allowed
in the country. However, countries with a strong garment manufacturing industry typically have minimum
wages significantly below living wages (see Figure 4).29 Living wage is considered to be the minimum income
needed for an individual to afford a basket of goods including food, water, shelter, utilities, transportation,
and healthcare. According to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), “garment workers in many of the leading
apparel-exporting countries earn little more than subsistence wages for the long hours of labor that they
perform.”30 The WRC completed a study which found that “prevailing wages in 2011 for garment workers in
China, Vietnam, and Indonesia provided 36 percent, 22 percent, and 29 percent of a living wage, respectively.
In Bangladesh, home to the world’s fastest-growing export-apparel industry, prevailing wages gave workers
only 14 percent of a living wage.”31
Figure 2
Trend in Textile Waste According to the EPA, 1960–2011
*Generation before materials recovery or combustion.

Source: EPA. “Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts and Figures.” 2012. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/
MSWcharacterization_fnl_060713_2_rpt.pdf.
Fast Fashion Labor Conditions

Critics of labor rights advocates such as WRC argue that “jobs in garment factories, no matter how low
the wages or how difficult the conditions, benefit low-skilled workers because they provide better conditions
and compensation than jobs in the informal and agricultural sectors of developing countries.”32 These critics
cite the apparel manufacturing industry in China, South Korea and Japan, which served as a stepping stone
for those economies to support higher wage industries, such as electronics manufacturing (see Figure 5).33
Apparel retailers are often implicated in wage and working condition issues despite code of conduct
contracts. Retailers rarely own their own factories and contract their work out to manufacturing companies
that are often in other countries. Some apparel brands perform audits of the factories where they contract their
manufacturing, in which case these first tier factories usually meet the wage and working condition standards
established by the code of conduct.34 However, these first tier factories often overbook their operations and
subcontract orders to non-compliant factories. Habib Hirji, managing director of the Bangladesh office of
Synergies Worldwide, a buying house, explains “the biggest factories take orders based on subcontracting
capacity. They may have a two million capacity and they’ll take orders for four million.”35 Retailers typically
have strict rules about subcontracting in their code of conduct, yet manufacturers often brush over these
4
details because they do not have the time or incentive to disclose this information.36 As a result, retailers may
not know where their clothes are made or the subcontractor’s working conditions.
Figure 3
Price Development for Crude Oil, Cotton, Fine Wool and Food & Beverage
Source: Christiansen, A., K. Hvidsteen, and B. Haghshenas. “Fashioning Sustainability 2013.” Deloitte.
Saifur Rahman was a Bangladeshi factory owner who received subcontracted work from bigger factories
that had been “vetted for safety.”37 Rahman admitted his factory did not meet all safety standards. For
example, “his cutting room has only one emergency exit where it should, by law, have two. His workers are also
sitting too close together, according to Bangladeshi law, and an exterior escape staircase is several inches too
narrow. During one recent visit, these steps were slippery with food scraps.”38 Until recently, Rahman was not
paying his employees minimum wage—especially for overtime work—nor was he giving employees sick days.39
He explained that he had been spending the majority of his time trying to keep his business afloat. Later,
after his factory was performing well, he improved worker conditions. Rahman typically received business from
bigger factories that had overbooked or were in danger of missing a shipping deadline. Factories had to rush a
late delivery by airfreight at their own expense, or be charged a 5% penalty, which might displace their entire
profit margin.40 As a result, apparel manufacturers often did whatever it took to deliver a shipment on time.41
Hennes & Mauritz: Fashion and Quality at the Best Price
In 1947, Erling Persson visited the United States, where he was enthralled by the cheap post-war fashions.
Upon returning to Sweden in 1952, he opened a shop called Hennes in a suburb of Stockholm, selling affordable
clothing with the slogan “fashion and quality at the best price.”42 Nearly 15 years later, Persson bought a
hunting and fishing store, after which his stores began selling men’s and children’s clothing as well.
Figure 4
Monthly Minimum Wages in the Garment Industry in
Top Apparel-Exporting Countries, as of August 2013, US$
(lowest applicable rate only)
Note: All rates are given as valid on 1 August, 2013. The graph shows only the lowest applicable rates for the garment or textile sector; daily and hourly minimum wage rates have
been converted into their monthly equivalent. * Indicates countries with more than one applicable minimum wage (e.g. with different rates byregion, enterprise size or grade).
Source: International Labor Organization. “Bangladesh: Seeking better employment conditions for better socioeconomic outcomes” 18 November 2013.
H&M grew steadily and expanded across Europe throughout the 1990s. In 2000, H&M opened its first
store in the US, on Fifth Avenue in New York City. However, H&M was truly propelled to the top levels of the
fashion industry when it convinced Karl Lagerfeld, a designer for Chanel and artistic director for Fendi, to
design a limited edition collection for H&M.43 The collection sold out within days—in Paris within minutes.44
H&M’s sales shot up by 24% that month.45 H&M continued to partner with high fashion designers to create
fashionable limited edition clothing to draw flocks of shoppers into its stores each day.
Richard Perks, the director of retail research at Mintel, attributed H&M’s success to its ability to be:
absolutely in tune with the needs of its target customer market, which is teenagers and
young women. . . it gives people the latest trends that are of acceptable quality for the
length of time that they expect to wear them for. They are not top-quality but they get the
designs from the catwalk to the store very quickly and that is what young customers want.46
Sustainability at H&M
H&M had been working to improve the social and environmental sustainability of its supply chain
since the 1990s. In 2013, the H&M sustainability team had 20 employees working on everything from labor
standards to energy efficiency in its partner factories. H&M viewed itself as a leader in sustainability. In the
words of the CEO, Karl-Johan Persson, “There are few other firms who think and invest in sustainability in
the long term the way we do.”47
Figure 5
Tailor Shops to the World
Notes: Inconsistent data available prior to 1980. Figures for the United Kingdom refer to textiles and clothing as a share of all exports (rather than manufacturing exports).
Sources: For years 1980-2012: World Trade Organization. For prior years: Young-Il Park and Kym Anderson, “The Experience of Japan,” in Kym Anderson, Ed., New Silk Roads: East
Asia and World Textile Markets, Cambridge University Press, 1992. Kym Anderson and Young-Il Park, “Effects of China’s Dramatic Reforms on Its Neighbors and on World Markets,”
in Kym Anderson, New Silk Roads: East Asia and World Textile Markets, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
That said, H&M endured criticism from consumers and activists. For example, a spokesman for No Sweat,
a labor rights lobbying group, argued:
The company wants low-priced clothes with a quick turnaround, and, unfortunately, that
means you end up with low-paid workers, often having to do forced overtime in poor
conditions. Customers should realize that these cheap fashions may not cost them much
but people on the other side of the world do suffer as a result.48
When asked why H&M did not demand that its suppliers pay higher wages, CEO Persson explained:
I would pay an H&M premium immediately. If a sustainable wage system were made and
applied in the Bangladeshi textile industry, I would do it. But in practice, the situation is
as follows: In any given factory, the people do perhaps 10% of their work for us and the
remaining 90% for other companies. It would create problems if only we pay more for our
part of the goods in order to facilitate higher wages.49
On the environmental sustainability side, H&M was criticized as overexploiting resources and raw
materials by promoting overconsumption in its fast fashion business model.50 In its 2012 annual sustainability
report, H&M boasted that it was the largest buyer of organic cotton.51 The company also launched a clothing
collection initiative, where it allowed customers to drop off clothing from any brand, which H&M would
then reuse or recycle, in an effort to create a closed loop for textiles.52 H&M also focused on the use phase
7
of its clothing in its sustainability initiatives, providing consumers with instructions on how to reduce the
environmental impact while caring for their clothes.53
When asked whether overconsumption was a concern for the environment, Persson explained:
That is a philosophical question. Ninety-nine percent of everyday things are things we
don’t need—that goes for regular visits to the hairdresser just as it does for clothing. What
would it mean if we all consumed 20% less? I believe it would be catastrophic. It would
mean 20% less jobs, 20% less taxes, 20% less money for schools, doctors, roads. The global
economy would collapse. I’m firmly convinced that growth has made the world a better
place today than it was 20 years ago. And it will be better in 20 years than it is today.”54
In a separate interview, Helmersson, the company’s sustainability head, said: “We believe that improving
conditions and creating a leaner supply chain that is more efficient, stable, and sustainable will give us
competitive advantages in the long run, so this work is not incompatible with offering our customers the
best price.”55
Garment Industry in Bangladesh
The garment industry was introduced to Bangladesh in the 1970s. Abdul Majid Chowdhury and Noorul
Quader were Bangladeshi businessmen who wanted to help their country recover from war and famine.56 They had
witnessed the surge of the South Korean economy as a result of its garment industry. As a result, they traveled
to South Korea and persuaded Daewoo, a South Korean manufacturer, to establish a factory in Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi garment industry did not take off until 2005, when the Multi-Fiber Arrangement
expired, lifting the textile and garment quotas so that developing countries could export to developed
countries.57 Katie Quan, associate chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research
and Education, explained how “manufacturers saw that it was cheaper to manufacture in Bangladesh and
places like Cambodia than China, especially to those manufacturers in Europe where transportation was
cheaper than from China.”58
In 2013, the Bangladesh garment industry was worth $20 billion, comprising 80% of its GDP.59 The
industry consisted of more than 5,000 garment factories and more than 3.2 million workers, most of whom
were women.60
Bangladeshi factories were often overbooked, thereby increasing subcontracting and middlemen,
resulting in poor working conditions.61 For example, Mahinur Akter was a 16-year-old factory worker whose
right foot was sheared off by a machine during the Rana Plaza factory collapse.62 Like many other Bangladeshi
women, Akter moved to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, from her rural hometown to help her family survive
financially.63 Akter would arrive at the factory at 8 a.m. and typically work until 9 or 10 p.m. Four to five
times a month, to meet deadlines, she would work until 3 to 6 a.m.64 She explained, “People my age should
be in school, not at work. But because my family is poor, I need to have a job.”65
Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in Bangladesh

Rana Plaza, a building housing five garment factories, collapsed at 9 a.m. on April 24, 2013, claiming
1,127 lives and injuring another 2,000 people.66 Clothing from major Western brands like Walmart, The
Children’s Place, and Mango were found at the facilities.67 Investigators of the collapse discovered that the
building had been authorized for six stories, yet building owner Sohel Rana built another four stories on top
with subpar materials.68
The Rana Plaza collapse did not come without warning. Workers had noticed cracks in the walls the day
before.69 Yet the next morning, workers were pushed to return to work.70 An employee of Phantom Apparels,
one of the factories housed in the building, explained that the factory managers had told them, “We needed
to send a shipment. Anyone who didn’t work would lose a month’s salary.”71
Five months earlier, there had been a factory fire at another Bangladeshi garment factory, Tazreen
Fashions, resulting in 111 victims and triggering protests from thousands of workers calling for justice.72
Consumers and activists had already demanded higher safety standards, which government officials and many
global companies had pledged to address.73
Conclusion
In response to the succession of casualties in Bangladesh, media outlets around the globe reported on
the unacceptable conditions, unfair wages, and exploitation of garment workers. Governments were under
pressure to respond. Activists for worker rights like Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center
for Worker Solidarity, had already started to blame international fashion companies. “These international,
Western brands have a lot of responsibility for these fire issues,” said Akter. She said piles of fabric and yarn
unwisely stored on the ground floor had ignited in the factory fire. “Workers couldn’t evacuate through the
stairs. What does this say about compliance?”74
H&M faced a difficult challenge to create a strategy to effectively address worker rights and safety,
and then communicate and deploy that strategy through the supply chain to the garment manufacturers
overseas. As a further complication, H&M was merely one of several clients to the manufacturers, so H&M’s
plan might not align with the goals and orders from the suppliers’ other purchasers. While this was an
industry-wide problem, H&M had to develop its own approach with no time to wait for other players. It was
also possible for the firm to gain good publicity over some of its competitors if H&M unveiled a compelling
strategy first.
Helmersson recognized the significance of the challenge facing the company, and also realized her
career could be on the line. As she prepared for her meeting with CEO Persson, she recalled the horrific
events of the past year—the factory fires, the building collapse, the worker protests, and the media frenzy.
She knew this was a serious, daunting issue, but was it too much for H&M to handle alone? The issue of
workers’ rights had plagued the entire garment industry for decades, and maybe a stronger coalition would
be necessary to make any progress. Perhaps local governments, along with international watchdogs like the
United Nations, should be stepping up to do more for improving third-world conditions across all industries.
How should H&M proceed? Should H&M step back and allow other companies—particularly the culpable
ones—to respond to the media frenzy? Or should H&M take an active stand to make a difference in the
industry? Should H&M exit Bangladesh altogether to avoid the recurring controversies in the country? Or
should it engage further with government officials and other stakeholders?
Beyond the factory collapse, was the fast fashion industry culpable for the low wages and poor labor
conditions around the world? What responsibility did consumers have in this situation? Were fashion and
sustainability mutually exclusive? If not, how might they be integrated? How would consumers know?
Exhibits
Exhibit 1
Challenges in the Life of a T-shirt
Source: H&M. “2012 H&M Sustainability Report.” 13 Mar. 2013. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. about.hm.com/content/dam/hm/about/documents/masterlanguage/CSR/reports/
Conscious%20Actions%20Sustainability%20Report%202012.pdf
10
Endnotes
1
Mustafa, S., and S. Islam. “Profile: Rana Plaza owner Mohammad Sohel Rana.” BBC News Asia. 3 May 2013. Accessed 20 Jan.
2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22366454.
2
Greenhouse, S. “Major Retailers Join Bangladesh Safety Plan.” The New York Times. 14 May 2013. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. http://
www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/business/global/hm-agrees-to-bangladesh-safety-plan.html?_r=0.
3
H&M. “2012 H&M Sustainability Report.” 13 Mar. 2013. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://about.hm.com/content/dam/hm/about/
documents/masterlanguage/CSR/reports/Conscious%20Actions%20Sustainability%20Report%202012.pdf.
4
H&M. “2012 H&M Sustainability Report.” 13 Mar. 2013.
5
Cline, E. Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. New York: Penguin Group. 2012. p. 119.
6
Cline.
7
Sull, D., and S. Turconi. “Fast Fashion Lessons.” Business Strategy Review. 2008. 19(2): pp. 6-11.
8
Sull and Turconi.
9
Yaeger, L. “Do I Get a Coffee? A Snack? Or Something to Wear? The H&M $4.95 Dress.” Vogue Daily. 19 Aug. 2010. Accessed 7 Dec.
2013. http://www.vogue.com/vogue-daily/article/vd-do-i-get-a-coffee-a-snack-or-something-to-wear-the-h038m-495-dress/#1.
10
Yaeger.
11
Forhoohar, R. “A New Fashion Frontier: The arrival of fast fashion European giants is starting to shake up the American retail
scene.” Newsweek. 20 Mar. 2006.
12
Forhoohar.
13
Yaeger.
14
Yaeger.
15
Fashionbi. “2012 Fast Fashion Market Research Report.” 2013. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://fashionbi.com/market/fast-fashion/
all.
16
Fashionbi.
17
NRDC. “Green Fashion: Beautiful on the Inside.” Smarter Living. 2011. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.nrdc.org/living/stuff/
green-fashion.asp.
18
Laursen, S. E., et al. “EDIPTEX: Environmental assessment of textiles.” Danish Environmental Protection Agency. Working report
24. 2007.
19
Rupp, J. “Ecology and economy in textile finishing.” Textile World. 2008. http://www.textileworld.com/Articles/2008/
December_2008/Features/Ecology_And_Economy_In_Textile_Finishing.html.
20
Kirchain, R., et al. “Material patterns: Considering the economic, environmental, and social impacts of the global textiles
industry.” Launch.org. 2013. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.launch.org/sites/default/files/Material%20Patterns_042013.pdf.
21
Cline.
22
EPA. “Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts and Figures.” 2012. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.epa.gov/
epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/MSWcharacterization_fnl_060713_2_rpt.pdf.
23
EPA.
24
Christiansen, A., K. Hvidsteen, and B. Haghshenas. “Fashioning Sustainability 2013.” Deloitte.
25
D’Innocenzio, A. “Do the Math: Prices on Fall Clothes Up, Despite Gimmicks.” The Washington Post. 20 Aug. 2011.
26
Passariello, C., T. Lahiri, and S. McLain. “Bangladesh: From Armani to Zara.” The Wall Street Journal. 1 June 2013.
27
Chu, K. “Tough Options for Apparel Retailers—Factory Tragedies Tar Bangladesh, but Similar Conditions Aren’t Unusual in Other
Low-Cost Countries.” The Wall Street Journal. 8 May 2013.
28
McCune, M. “‘Our Industry Follows Poverty’: Success Threatens a T-Shirt Business.” NPR: All Things Considered, 4 Dec. 2013.
Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/04/247360787/our-industry-follows-poverty-success-
threatens-a-t-shirt-business.
29
Worker Rights Consortium. “Global Wage Trends for Apparel Workers, 2001–2011.” Center for American Progress. 11 July 2013.
Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2013/07/11/69255/global-wage-trends-for-
apparel-workers-2001-2011/.
30
Worker Rights Consortium.
31
32
11
33
Blumberg, A., et al. (2013). “Planet Money Makes a T-shirt: The world behind a simple T-shirt, in five chapters.” NPR Planet
Money, 2 Dec. 2013. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/title.
34
Lahiri, T., and C. Passariello, C. “Why Retailers Don’t Know Who Sews Their Clothing.” The Wall Street Journal, 24 July 2013. p. A1.
35
Lahiri and Passariello.
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Firth, M. “M&S used to be the biggest initials on the high street. Then came FCUK. And the new No 1? Make way for H&M.” The
Independent. 18 Nov. 2004. Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/mamps-used-to-be-the-
biggest-initials-on-the-high-street-then-came-fcuk-and-the-new-no-1-make-way-for-hampm-6157800.html.
43
Todd, S. “Le Cheap, C’est Chic: Why would the designer for Chanel and Fendi agree to work for H&M?” The Independent. 14 Oct. 2004.
44
Todd.
45
Todd.
46
Firth.
47
Tietz, J., and S. Amann. “H&M Boss: We are helping people live a better life.” Spiegel Online International, 10 July 2013.
Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-h-m-boss-on-bangladesh-working-
conditions-a-910054.html.
48
Firth.
49
Tietz and Amann.
50
51
52
53
54
Tietz and Amann.
55
Interview with Helena Helmersson. “H&M Sustainability.” Accessed 7 Dec. 2013. http://about.hm.com/en/About/Sustainability/
HMConscious/Interviewheadofsustainability.html.
56
Chace, Z. “Nixon And Kimchi: How the Garment Industry Came to Bangladesh.” NPR Morning Edition. 2 Dec 2013. Accessed 7
Dec. 2013. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/05/247360903/nixon-and-kimchee-how-the-garment-industry-came-to-
bangladesh.
57
Zimmerman, A. “American Tastes Fuel Boom in Bangladesh—A Love of ‘Fast Fashion’ Spurred Hasty Expansion of Capacity,
Preceding Factory Accidents.” The Wall Street Journal. 13 May 2013. p. B1.
58
Zimmerman.
59
Al Mahmood, S. “Safety Groups Agree on Standards for Bangladesh Garment Factories.” The Wall Street Journal, 20 Nov. 2013.
Accessed 8 Dec. 2018. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304337404579209954273740442.
60
Ali Manik, J., and J. Yardley, J. “Building Collapse in Bangladesh Leaves Scores Dead.” The New York Times. 25 Apr. 2013.
Accessed 8 Dec. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse.html?pagewanted=all&_
r=0.
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Zimmerman.
62
Fairclough, G. “Factory Paychecks Trump Danger, Long Days for Bangladesh Women.” The Wall Street Journal. 22 June 2013. p. A1.
63
Fairclough.
64
Fairclough.
65
Fairclough.
66
BBC. “Probe body says violation of construction rules led Bangladesh building collapse.” 23 May 2013. BBC Monitoring South Asia.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/1354004009?accountid=14667.
67
BBC.
68
BBC.
12
69
“Update: Brands’ responses to Tazreen and Rana Plaza compensation demands.” Clean Clothes Campaign. 24 May 2013. http://
www.cleanclothes.org/news/2013/05/24/background-rana-plaza-tazreen.
70
Fairclough.
71
Fairclough.
72
Power, C., and A. Devnath. “Bangladesh’s Tazreen fire is followed by further garment factory blazes.” Business Week. 31 Dec. 2012.
Accessed 8 Dec. 2013. http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/1270640227?accountid=14667.
73
Ali Manik and Yardley.
74
Manik, Julfikar, and Jim Yardley. “Garment workers stage angry protest after Bangladesh fire.” The New York Times. 27 Nov. 2012.
Accessed 5 Dec. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/world/asia/garment-workers-stage-protest-in-bangladesh-after-
deadly-fire.html?_r=1&.
13
Notes
14
Notes
15
The Erb Institute is committed to creating a socially and environmentally
sustainable society through the power of business. Building on nearly two
decades of research, teaching, and direct engagement, the Institute has become
one of the world’s leading sources of innovative knowledge on the culture,
technologies, operations and governance of business in a changing world.
http://erb.umich.edu
Established at the University of Michigan in 1992, the William Davidson Institute

(WDI) is an independent, non-profit research and educational organization focused on
providing private-sector solutions in emerging markets. Through a unique structure
that integrates research, field-based collaborations, education/training, publishing,
and University of Michigan student opportunities, WDI creates long-term value for
academic institutions, partner organizations, and donor agencies active in emerging
markets. WDI also provides a forum for academics, policy makers, business leaders, and
development experts to enhance their understanding of these economies. WDI is one
of the few institutions of higher learning in the United States that is fully dedicated to
understanding, testing, and implementing actionable, private-sector business models
addressing the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets.

H&M Case (4645)

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H&M Case (4645)

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case W93C73

H&M’s Global Supply Chain Management Sustainability:

The Rise of Fast Fashion

Environmental Concerns of Fast Fashion

*Generation before materials recovery or combustion.

Fast Fashion Labor Conditions

Hennes & Mauritz: Fashion and Quality at the Best Price

Garment Industry in Bangladesh

Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in Bangladesh

Established at the University of Michigan in 1992, the William Davidson Institute

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