Hennes & Mauritz
Company Score
-0.17Hennes & Mauritz AB engages in the sale of clothing, accessories, footwear, cosmetics, and home textiles. The company products include accessories, underwear, cosmetics, sportswear, and other apparel for men, women, and kids. Well known brands include H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, and & Other Stories. The company was founded by Erling Persson in 1947 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
Read about H&M and its impact below.
Impact notes
23% of H&M's garments are made of polyesters, adding tons of microplastic in the ocean
Kriti Garg
Fri Sep 18th, 2020 at 3:00pm
Around 35% of the microplastics present in the oceans is due to synthetic textile consumption1. About 190,000 tons of microfibers are released into the oceans when our synthetic garments are washed2. 85% of the pollution on the shorelines of the oceans around the world is due to microplastics2.
85% of H&M’s supplier production volume implement democratically-elected worker representation
JNH
Mon Sep 14th, 2020 at 3:36pm
The ILO estimates over 152 million children in child labour1 and 470 million people affected by insufficiently paid work2. The garment industry widely contributes to these numbers3,4,5,9 and is very often in the spotlight for violating rights, such as employee union representation. In this regard, the ILO’s tripartite system regroups workers’ unions, employers, and states6, with the aim of guaranteeing “decent working conditions”7 is seen as an impactful one, capable of influencing private companies.
H&M successfully eliminated PFC, a hazardous chemical, from all of its product
Kankana Das
Mon Sep 14th, 2020 at 10:42am
Textile sector is a major user of hazardous chemicals and polluter of freshwater worldwide. Many such chemicals are proven to cause cancer or disrupt hormonal systems in humans and animals. These effluents build-up hazardous chemicals in food chain1:p7. Chemicals are used to decide the colour, shine, water resistance, durability or some other unique character of a fabric2:p12.
H&M’s bid to curb water pollution due to textile wastewater discharged from its supplier factories
Mansi Amruth
Thu Sep 10th, 2020 at 4:57pm
H&M, a global fashion giant, has suppliers performing various textile production processes in many industrialized river-basins which are facing challenges of water pollution6;p45. These processes ranging from dyeing, printing, washing etc, generate huge amounts of wastewater that continue to pollute water bodies7. As of 2016, it was found that H&M’s production activities were leading to a textile wastewater discharge of 93.3 million m3 globally2;p49. In a world where 1.5 million people die annually due to diseases related to drinking pathogen-polluted water and one in three people globally do not have access to safe drinking water1, H&M realised the need to tackle the water pollution problems and developed a water sustainability road-map in partnership with WWF, in 20186;p44.
The environmental truth behind H&M's recycling programme
Irena Wieczorek
Wed Sep 2nd, 2020 at 1:20pm
The fashion industry generates 10% of global CO2 emissions and produces 4% of waste.1 While the largest environmental impacts occur in textile and garment manufacturing countries, fashion waste is a global problem.2
