H&M holds Higg in high esteem
Fashion group H&M has reported sales revenues of around €9.7 billion in the first half of its current business year, the period from December 2021 to May 2022. This represents growth of 20% year on year.
Presenting the results, chief executive, Helena Helmersson, said the group was sticking with a commitment to double sales and halve CO2 emissions by 2030.
She said investment in innovative materials would be an important part of that and singled out partnerships with Swedish regenerated textile company Renewcell and with Finnish regenerated fibre developer Infinited Fiber as good examples of what these partnerships can yield. She added that H&M was already using material from both providers.
Ms Helmersson said repeatedly that providing fashion that was affordable and sustainable was H&M’s aim. In the context of the sustainability part of that ambition, sportstextiles asked her what her response was to a request from the Norwegian Consumer Authority on June 14 that H&M reassess its use of the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI) to help it present its products as sustainable.
She said H&M was following discussions between the Norwegian Consumer Authority and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which set up the Higg MSI.
Asked for her reaction to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s decision on June 27 to suspend its use of data from the Higg MSI as a consumer-facing transparency programme, Ms Helmersson said: “We are aware of it and we are following it to see how to proceed. But we have been involved the Higg for more than a decade and it is the biggest collaboration there has ever been in this industry, involving not only brands, but academia and non-government organisations too.”
She emphasised the importance of the Higg MSI as part of H&M’s investment in and hard work towards “leading the industry towards a more circular future”. But she said it was only one of many initiatives the group is involved in to achieve that change.”
