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Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 CONSCIOUS ACTIONS Sustainability Report 2011

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Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 CONSCIOUS ACTIONS Sustainability Report 2011 CONSCIOUS* ACTIONS S SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2011 * IS THE NAME OF ALL THE WORK WE DO TO Please think OFFER YOU MORE SUSTAINABLE FASHION, before you print COVERABOTH TODAY AND H&M TOMORROW Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 CONSCIOUS ACTIONS sustainaBILitY REPORT 2011 CONTENTS H &M CONSCIOUS A message from our CEO 1 Our strategy 4 Our value chain and its challenges 6 Engaging with our stakeholders 8 Management and Governance 10 How we report 11 Highlights from H&M Conscious in 2011 13 PROVIDE FASHION FOR CONSCIOUS CUSTOMERS 17 CHOOSE AND REWARD RESPONSIBLE PARTNERS 26 BE ETHICAL 48 BE CLIMATE SMART 57 REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE 65 USE NATURAL RESOURCES RESPONSIBLY 70 STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES 79 CONTACT INFORMATION 87 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS A MEssaGE FROM OUR CEO t H&M, our business concept via franchise, Morocco and Jordan. challenges that H&M and the entire is to offer fashion and quality In 2012, we plan to open first stores fashion industry unquestionably at the best price. For us, in Bulgaria, Latvia, Malaysia, face. These include climate change, sustainabilityA is at the core of the Mexico, and, via franchise, working conditions and wages at concept of quality and part of our Thailand. Our goal is to increase supplier factories and the long-term corporate values. our number of stores, in both new availability of natural resources, to and existing markets, by 10–15% mention just a few. Our customers are the heart of our each year. business. They are increasingly showing an interest in sustainability In pursuing this growth, we want “Our vision is and we want them to feel confident to make more sustainable fashion KARL-JOHAN PERSSON that everything they buy from us is accessible and affordable to more clear: All our produced with respect for people people around the world. To operations and the environment. Adding achieve this, we must tackle the sustainability value to our products should be run is therefore an important way of in a way that is strengthening our customer offering. economically, H&M is a design-driven and “Our customers socially and innovative fashion company. We are the heart environmentally currently have five brands and around 2,500 stores in 43 countries of our business.” sustainable.” on four continents. In 2011, we entered exciting new markets in Singapore, Romania, Croatia and, 1 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO I’m very proud of all our I am particularly proud to see that on the environment and improving achievements over the past year, H&M is now using more organic social conditions for farmers, Better “Adding sustainability but a number of things really stand cotton than any other company Cotton will have a key role to play out. One of the highlights of 2011 in the world. This is just the start. in helping us reach our target. value to our products was that we, together with various Our target is to use only sustainable is an important way stakeholders and experts, developed cotton by 2020. A further increase We also continued to introduce a dedicated plan to support social in our use of organic cotton will new innovative materials. Our first to further strengthen development in Bangladesh. be a part of that, but this year also garments made from organic hemp our customer offering.” Bangladesh is one of our most saw the first clothes made from were launched. This fibre has a limited important sourcing markets and Better Cotton hit H&M stores environmental impact and, we we want to ensure that the garment around the world. Reducing stress believe, great potential for the future. To put this vision into practice, industry has a positive impact we have developed H&M Conscious on the country’s development, – our approach to integrating our not just by contributing jobs, sustainable thinking into everything but also skills, education, health, we do. Last year, we set out our seven and improvements in labour and “I’m proud to see that strategic commitments. Working women’s rights. to fulfil these commitments, we are H&M is the world’s continuously creating what we call To build a more sustainable biggest user of ‘Conscious Actions’ throughout our fashion future, our industry needs business. These are activities and to keep finding new ways of organic cotton.” targets designed to move us closer using resources as responsibly and to our vision. In this report, you can efficiently as possible. read about the progress we have made in taking these Conscious Actions. 2 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO Given H&M’s size and increasingly Our scale means that we have the with Greenpeace and teamed- global reach, we have a big impact opportunity to promote change up with a number of fashion and “Our scale means on the world around us. But just as well beyond the borders of our sportswear brands to help lead our big are the opportunities we have own operations – for example, by industry towards zero discharge of that we have the to make a difference through the promoting improvements in the hazardous chemicals in our opportunity to Conscious Actions we take. working conditions of the more value chain. than one million people around the promote change world who work in our suppliers’ We are proud of all the achievements well beyond the factories. But in order to tackle we have made during the year. But borders of our “In order to the complex challenges across our we are also aware of the challenges industry, we need to collaborate ahead. We strive to be as transparent own operations.” fulfil our with others. as possible about the progress we commitments make. This report is an important We play an active role in initiatives part of that. Thank you for taking and tackle like the Sustainable Apparel your time to learn about our the complex Coalition, the UN Global Compact Conscious Actions. and the Better Cotton Initiative, challenges in which are vital to meeting our goals. our industry, In 2011, we joined the Fair Wage we need to Network, an initiative that works to promote fair wages in global KARL-JOHAN PERSSON collaborate supply chains; an ambition that CEO, H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB with others.” we fully support. We also engaged 3 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS OUR STRATEGY &M Conscious is the name for all H&M’s work for a more sustainable Hfashion future. It is an approach to 2 managing our business based on the Provide fashion for Choose and reward vision that all our operations should conscious customers responsible partners be run in a way that is economically, socially and environmentally Be ethical sustainable. This means that the 1 needs of both present and future 3 generations should be respected in everything that we do. Be climate smart People, planet and profit: at H&M, we believe that being fully aware of 4 the interconnected nature of these Reduce, reuse, three elements is the key to the long- recycle term success of our business. 5 In order to help us achieve our vision, we broke it down into seven Use natural resources strategic, long-term commitments. 6 responsibly 7Strengthen communities 4 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS OUR STRATEGY A PRODUct’S LIFE CYCLE These commitments are an integral element &M aims to offer fashion and quality what goods and services we buy, by working of our business strategy and they cover every at the best price. In doing this, we have closely with our business partners, or by stage of our product life cycle, from designing an impact on the world around us. We collaborating with our stakeholders to tackle the our fashion to how our customers care for the Hcreate job opportunities and contribute towards challenges that we share with our industry and garments they buy. economic growth, but we also use natural with the communities in which we operate. resources and cause carbon emissions. As a result, Based on constant dialogue with our external we face a number of sustainability challenges stakeholders and our colleagues across the throughout our value chain. H&M Conscious business, we have built a process to identify and aims to tackle these challenges and, in doing so, prioritise the actions that we need to take over create new opportunities for long term business the short and medium term to help us to meet success. each of these long term commitments. We call all these our Conscious Actions. Throughout To demonstrate what we mean, on the following the year we monitor the progress we make pages we have set out the biggest challenges at towards completing these actions, review and each stage of the life cycle of our products. Below improve our methods and add more actions each stage we have listed in which section of this as our understanding of how to fulfil our report you can find more information about the commitments improves. Conscious Actions through which we work to address these challenges. This report sets out the Conscious Actions we have taken or worked towards during 2011 and For those challenges most closely related to our describes how far we have come in making the core operations, H&M has the ability to directly vision of H&M Conscious a reality. influence the impact we make. For others, our T-SHIRT, ORGANIC COTTON influence is more indirect; for example, we can make a difference through our choices about 5 H&M Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011 Contents H&M CONSCIOUS OUA R V LUE CHAIN AND ITS CHALLENGES R AW MAteRIALS LEVEL OF INFLUENCE: DesIGN direct indirect LEVEL OF INFLUENCE: Producing raw materials like FABRIC direct indirect cotton requires a lot of water and goes with concerns about PRocessING Sustainability starts with the chemical use and working LEVEL OF INFLUENCE: very first design idea.
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