The most significant report from H&M on their sustainable fashion progress

 

Having started my retail career at H&M, I’ve closely followed this global success story, particularly how H&M balance a successful business with social responsibility – something the Scandinavians do so well. This month, the brand have upped their game on what they call ‘sustainable fashion’ – a neat term that covers both ethics and the environment. The sceptics seem to be impressed and if anyone can crack this elephant in the room, H&M can. If they do, their competition are sure to follow and take ethics and the environment to the heart of their business strategies and express in a way their customers can understand. (Full report download at bottom of page)

> Watch the H&M video on sustainable fashion

> The UK’s Guardian report April 14th 2012

> H&M’s press release on sustainable fashion for 2011 (12/04/2012) This marks 10 years of sustainable fashion reporting for H&M

The headlines are:

• More than 442 000 workers in Bangladesh have been trained on their rights since 2008 by H&M
• H&M is the number one user of organic cotton in the world
• H&M saved 300 million liters of water in denim production compared to 2010
• More than 2,3 million garments were donated to charitable causes by H&M

Download the full report from below:

> Conscious Actions Sustainability Report 2011_en

After a question from a friend about which stores are open in the UK this Easter Sunday, a check of ten leading web-sites suggests a few brands have a way to go to get the basics right:

Argos – No Easter opening information and states stores open Sunday (Which today, most are not)

Currys – No Easter opening information and states stores open Sunday (Which today, most are not)

Debenhams – This week’s opening by store showing closed Sunday.

Gap – No Easter opening information and states stores open Sunday (Which today, most are not)

H&M – Store finder shows Easter Sunday they’ll be closed.

M&S – This week’s opening by store showing closed Sunday.

Next – This week’s opening by store showing closed Sunday.

Sainsburys – This week’s opening by store showing closed Sunday.

Tesco – clear Easter opening times.

Topshop – No Easter opening information and states stores open Sunday (Which today, most are not)

Happy Easter all!

Retailers disappear, re-brand, retreat from certain markets. Change is what we do.

 

There’s no doubt retailers are experiencing the toughest period in living memory: pro-longed economic slow-down, channel shift and a wider choice of products and services competing for every £ of our spend. Overlay the voice that’s been given to customers (us) by social media and the era of the customer has truly arrived, creating new challenges for how customer relationships are built and maintained.

There’s also no doubt, in the UK we’re a retail world leader: we adapt, change, re-new, inspire and re-model our businesses to meet new challenges. Sometimes that change comes too late or is too little. Sometimes a market shrinks and the weakest or least appealing brands disappear, brands that in other times would survive – as one of my old bosses once said ” In a Tornado, even dead ducks fly “. Well, there’s certainly no retail Tornado on the horizon and the dead ducks are falling.

Over the years we’ve seen many brands come and go, change or completely re-postion to ensure they continue to have meaning. Even if the retail market was to shrink by 10% – it would still leave 90% of the sector in tact, something the manufacturing industry of the UK could only have ever dreamed of. That said, there’s a tragic human cost to much of the change currently being experienced and it’s not just those who lose their jobs, it also effects those who wonder if they’ll still have a job, if their business has a future and if so what that future is. It’s now more than ever, retail brands need strong, honest, brave leadership and the UK has an enviable talent pool to draw from. Retail in 2012 will no doubt make the headlines for all the wrong reasons but behind the scenes are many talented and hardworking retailers ensuring their businesses will be the strongest in their sector.

A happy and prosperous new year to you all.

Sean