H&M’s New Spring Color: Green - Gracey Owen

As being environmentally conscious becomes trendy, over-generalized terms like “sustainable” and “ecofriendly” greenwash the marketplace. Greenwashing is the marketing tactic that paints a company and its practices in a sustainable way through misleading information so while some companies rightfully earn their environmentally conscious reputations, others greenwash themselves to appeal to consumers.  Companies title themselves as beneficiaries to the planet using these broad terms without listing their tangible efforts. The fashion industry is often credited as one of the most polluting, a title that many brands try to escape. H&M, a Swedish clothing brand giant, is a key leader in the industry exemplifies greenwashing in the basic premise of its mass production business coupled with its empty claims of sustainability. Progressive cultures are educating themselves on humans’ environmental impact on the planet and exposing the private sector; as a result, companies like H&M are using the media to greenwash themselves in an effort to divert blame and satisfy their customer base. 

H&M represents 578 storefronts but not one of them is truly sustainable. In the purest understanding of quick fashion, the brand survives on constant clothing rollouts; therefore, collections are short-lived on the sales floor before they are forgotten and replaced by additional wasteful products. The resulting unsold inventory ends up in a landfill, or worse. In fact, H&M is credited with burning 4.3 billion dollars’ worth of never-before worn clothing when it reached the end of its fashion cycle in 2018 (WellMadeClothes).The encouragement of fashion turnover makes its consumers buy quantity over quality at the environment’s expense yet claims sustainability. No company with these means of operation can be sustainable when it fuels a rampant, over-production machine. 

The newest sustainable collection by H&M, labeled the “Conscious Collection,” boasts about its new sustainable products. The new collection features piñatex, bloom foam, econyl and recycled silver, all of which are great strides in the right direction for manufacturing (Observer). However, the Norwegian Consumer Authority (CA) exposes their vague language such as “recycled material” used in manufacturing these products as H&M does not quantify their claims (Dezeen). H&M also applauds itself as the largest organic cotton users worldwide, a positive marketing ploy that when contextualized is less impressive considering it produces the second-most clothing in the world (Observer). While these product lines are a good start, they are priced astronomically compared to their other goods and are produced in minuscule quantities. H&M’s Conscious Collections are proof of greenwashing by misleading customers that these lines are accessible and represent the brand, of which they make a diminutive part. 

Another effort took place in 2016 as H&M began a new initiative called Week of Recycling when storefronts accepted clothing donations to be repurposed. Unfortunately, this effort was largely to counteract negative press while the company was under fire for putting a black child in an advertisement wearing a sweatshirt inscribed with “coolest monkey in the jungle” (Observer). Furthermore, the Week of Recycling was only offered at select storefronts and ended up using about half of the donations, which they capped at 1,000 tons. H&M produces that much every two days, so their contribution pales in comparison to their production scale. Clearly, the program fell short and contributed more to their bottom line than the planet.

My suggested solution is to hold H&M accountable and boycott unless they come forth with data on their environmental efforts. This means honestly stating what percentage of clothing is from recycled materials, and what becomes of the leftover inventory. If H&M does not progress with this transparency, consumers should look toward different circular economic solutions, mainly by shopping second hand through thrift stores, consignment stores, clothing exchanges, and clothes selling apps like Poshmark, Letgo, and Mercari. 

Above all, it is essential to encourage the efforts that H&M has already made, as failing to do so will only turn the company away from continuing its efforts. H&M no longer does Week of Recycling due to the backlash it received. Thus, environmentalists' protests resulted in decreased sustainability efforts on the part of H&M. We need to support their initial efforts, and then push them to be better over time. Shellenberger puts it best when explaining that a gloomy and hopeless forecast of the earth’s impending future leaves populations disheartened rather than motivated to fight for change (Schlottman). Rather than being discouraging about environmental degradation, we need to insight inspiration to foster a driven community ready to make a positive change. Otherwise, defeated companies may never try again. 

 In the New York Times article “Our Crimes Against the Planet, and Ourselves”, Leonard and Parr dive into how a capitalist economy is seemingly incompatible with a sustainable one. They explain that a capitalist economy expects high profits, competition, and endless growth, resulting in companies depleting resources at their disposal as their means to excel (New York Times). I disagree with this sentiment as I believe we can change consumerism to foster a circular economy and corporations will be forced to adapt. Niesenbaum, in his book Sustainable Solutions: Problem Solving for Current and Future Generations,  touches on adaption, and I consider it to be the key to our future economic goods and services, which will force H&M to alter itself toward renewable energy sources and recycled textiles as resources are depleted and the earth continues to warm (Niesenbaum).

Niesenbaum’s toolkit also proposes live cycle analyses. If H&M assessed itself and its material inputs, it would realize it inputs massive resources into a cradle-to-grave system. Instead, these discarded goods should serve as inputs again. H&M should additionally prioritize its recycling efforts and create goals and objectives to reconfigure their manufacturing processes hitting a predetermined recycled percentage. Since reusing textiles reduces costs, placing recycling at the forefront of these goals is incentivized. Finally, development is a key component to a top-grossing company. In this case, though, development will be referring to the transformative power of science through H&M’s textiles (Niesenbaum). The Conscious Collections utilize trail-blazing textiles, such as piñatex that utilizes pineapple waste to make synthetic leather. If H&M were to invest into R&D for innovative textiles and replacing them with their current ones while making the line affordable and accessible, the company could one day deserve the title of “sustainable.”