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H&M has made some progress on the sustainability front in recent years, but we’re still hoping the brand will do a 360 on its fast fashion business model. Read on to find out how H&M rates and why it still needs to do better for sustainability.
This article is based on the H&M rating published in January 2025 and may not reflect claims the brand has made since then. Our ratings analysts are constantly rerating the thousands of brands you can check on our directory.
H&M is on the right track, but it still has a way to go
H&M, the Swedish-headquartered shopping centre staple, is one of the world’s largest and most recognisable fast fashion brands, operating 78 markets globally. And it has long been the target of widespread concern about the impact of its fast fashion business model, the workers in its supply chain, and greenwashing practices. But it has been working to clean up its act in the last few years.
So, just how sustainable and ethical is H&M? Based on our latest rating review, H&M gets our middling “It’s a Start” rating.
If you’re a longtime reader, you’ll know that brands’ ratings fluctuate as our analysts regularly review the data that’s publicly available. H&M has shifted between “Not Good Enough” and “It’s a Start” in recent years, demonstrating that the brand is taking some actions and disclosing information about them, but there’s still plenty of work to do and progress to report on.
While H&M still operates a fast fashion business model, it can feel hard to praise it for anything to do with sustainability. Fast fashion is a significant contributor to emissions, promotes waste, drives exploitation, and so much more. But it is important to acknowledge when a brand—even a fast fashion one—takes meaningful action to do better, because examples of such can encourage other brands to do the same. In this case, our analysts’ research shows that H&M is on the right track, but there are still areas where it’s lacking.
In an interview earlier this year, Marcus Hartmann, the brand’s head of public affairs and sustainability for Northern Europe, said the business wants to be more transparent and welcomes outside scrutiny, noting the importance of being held accountable. So with that, let’s look at how H&M performs in sustainability across our three ratings pillars: people, planet, and animals.
Environmental impact
We give H&M a score of “It’s a Start” for the environment.
H&M has taken some steps to reduce its environmental impact and has set some positive targets in its Sustainability Report. It uses renewable energy for part of its supply chain and has a policy to prevent deforestation of ancient and endangered forests. And while it has set a science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated from its own operations and supply chain, there is no evidence it is on track to meet its target.
The brand was among the first to stock a “Conscious” sustainable fashion collection in its stores (which is now defunct), and it offers a recycling program where you can return clothes from any brand in-store, but this is not at all sufficient to offset the unsustainable business model it’s operating.
H&M has set a science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated from its own operations and supply chain by 2030, but there is no evidence it is on track to meet its target. The retailer uses some lower-impact materials, like organic cotton, and it has also published a biodiversity protection policy that applies to some of its supply chain.
While these pledges indicate some promising improvements if they are delivered upon, 2030 is still some time away, so a positive next step for the brand would be to publish details of its progress in reaching these goals. On top of that, the fast fashion business model that H&M operates under is inherently unsustainable, so until that changes, the brand’s impact on the planet will always be questionable.
Labour conditions
Labour conditions are the area that H&M needs to improve in the most. It rates “Not Good Enough” here, and that hasn’t changed in our most recent review.
H&M received a score of 71% in the 2023 Fashion Transparency Index, and it publishes detailed information about its supplier policies, audits, and remediation processes. It also publishes a detailed list of suppliers in the final stage of production, as well as information about forced labour, gender equality, or freedom of association. It has a grievance mechanism for workers in the supply chain to report concerns anonymously, which is a positive step, and it has a framework in place with IndustriALL Global Union, which represents textile workers around the world.
H&M has a project to improve wages, too. It collects regular data on the wages its suppliers pay their workers, and has a good detailed explanation of its approach on a webpage dedicated to wages. But despite this, there is no evidence it ensures payment of a living wage throughout its entire supply chain.
On top of that, H&M has consistently found itself embroiled in labour scandals: In 2018, factories that supply H&M were named in reports by Global Labour Justice detailing abuse of female garment workers, and more recently in 2023, workers’ rights abuses from the brand’s suppliers in Myanmar came to light. H&M’s final stage of production takes place in countries where there’s an extreme risk of labour abuse, so this is a hot topic that the brand must pay more attention to. Almost none of its supply chain is certified by labour standards that ensure worker health and safety, living wages, or other labour rights, and we couldn’t find evidence that it supports diversity and inclusion in its supply chain.
Overall, its workers are not treated ethically enough for it to receive a higher score here.
Animal welfare
H&M receives our middling “It’s a Start” rating for animals. That’s because it has an animal welfare policy aligned with Five Freedoms, and it traces some animal products to the first stage of production. It also uses wool from non-mulesed sheep, down and feathers accredited by the Responsible Down Standard, and it banned the use of fur, angora, and exotic animal skins several years ago. It has also reached its goal of sourcing all animal fibres from certified farms, and opts for recycled fibres “where possible”.
It does, however, use exotic animal hair, mohair, and leather—it says the latter will be sourced from certified farms “by 2030”.
Overall rating: “It’s a Start”
Despite the fact that H&M is setting sustainability targets and has adopted some positive practices and policies across the board, it’s still one of the world’s biggest producers of fashion products designed to be worn just a few times and then discarded.
As we’ve discussed, H&M is at the heart of the unsustainable fast fashion industry. Its promotion of “disposable” fashion and constant rotations of new trends and products has a huge environmental impact. An increasing amount of cheap clothing ends up in landfill after a few wears due to these reasons.
The clothing manufacturing process regularly involves the use of toxic dyes, solvents, and pesticides, is responsible for significant carbon emissions, and uses much of the world’s fresh water and land resources. While this is an industry-wide problem, there are more clothes pumped through the system by the fast fashion brands like H&M.
So, while those cheap price tags may be tempting, they are often a good indicator of the poor quality of the materials. They also highlight that the people making those clothes are working in conditions that, while improving in some cases, are not where they should be.
It is, however, positive to see the brand reaching some of its goals, like certifying its animal-derived fibres, and publishing more information on its practices. H&M is on the right track, and if it wants to, it could set an example of a big brand transforming for the better.
Also note that Good On You ratings consider hundreds of issues and it is not possible to list every relevant issue in a summary of the brand’s performance. For more information see our How We Rate page and our FAQs.
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