Sustainable fashion does not just mean recycling fabric. It also means virtual wardrobes, improved algorithms and product identification. Vanessa Rothschild, head of sustainability, explains H&M Group‘s approach.
Sustainable responsibility
After the company has flooded the world with cheap fast-fashion, H&M Group considers it their responsibility to make fashion more sustainable. The clothing giant notices a shift in consumer behaviour and wants to respond to this. Even more so, they want to drive the trend, sustainability head Vanessa Rothschild admits in an interview with McKinsey.
Like most large companies, the group set ambitious climate targets. By 2030, the company wants to use only sustainable materials, and by 2040, the entire value chain must be climate-positive. Meaning the clothing manufacturer must reduce carbon emissions by more than what they emit.
Six circular lessons
To achieve this, Rothschild strives for circular fashion. It means raw material and products remain in use for as long as possible before they get recycled or regenerated into new products, over and over again. A circular ecosystem consists of three main components: circular supply chains, circular products and circular customer journeys. It starts from the beginning – only producing what you can sell – but goes right up to new definitions of ownership.
What can we learn from this approach? What can smaller companies take away?
- H&M Group’s sustainability team also develops KPIs and sustainability control mechanisms for the ‘normal’, everyday management of the company – so that they can be integrated into every decision.
- H&M Group also wants to activate consumers, for example, by digitising their wardrobes. By giving each garment a unique product code, customers can scan it and put their clothes in the cloud. The sharing clothing, selling it second hand or repairing it, all those things are more convenient when each item has an identity card.
- If resources are no longer needed for ‘new’ production, endless new growth is possible.
- The winners of the future will not only offer products but also solve problems for customers. They bring solutions and services, building long-term relationships with consumers.
- The fashion industry will become much more co-creative: consumers will collaborate with companies, while also larger multi-brand platforms will collaborate. Partnerships will become even more determining than they are today. “Companies in the industry will have to support each other,” is said at H&M.
- Sharing and reselling will be bigger than retail. Consumers will only own a small percentage of their wardrobe, Vanessa Rothschild believes: we will share most of our clothing. “The next normal thing in the fashion world will be ‘ownershift’ rather than ‘ownership’,” she believes.
