H&M qZERO®
Sustainability Score
Sweden Founded in Sweden in 1947, H&M began with a simple idea: make fashion accessible to more people. Over the decades, it has grown into one of the world’s most recognisable high-street brands, known for offering trend-led clothing at affordable prices. Collaborations with designers and a fast-moving supply model have helped shape modern fashion retail.
Today, H&M is also working to rethink how clothes are made and used. The brand invests in new materials, recycling programmes, and ways to extend the life of garments. It shares information about its products and supply chain to help customers make their choices clearer.
At the same time, the scale and speed of production raise important questions about resource use and waste. As expectations grow for clear, honest information, brands like H&M are under increasing pressure to ensure that any environmental claims are backed by real evidence and are easy for consumers to trust.
This balance between accessibility, innovation, and responsibility continues to shape H&M’s journey today.
H&M business sustainability position is in line with average compared to other companies in the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories.
H&M positioning within the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
The fashion industry faces some clear challenges. These include making too many products, creating textile waste, and using large amounts of water and energy. There are also impacts from dyes and materials, as well as microfibre pollution from washing clothes. Socially, fair pay, safe working conditions, and responsible sourcing remain essential. Strong visibility across supply chains and clear, honest reporting help people understand how brands operate.
H&M is active in many of these areas, particularly in scaling the use of recycled and more responsibly sourced materials and offering garment collection schemes. Compared to the wider market, it shows similar progress on materials and resource use. However, its size and fast production model mean that overproduction and waste remain key concerns. There is also more to do to demonstrate consistent progress on worker wellbeing and supply chain transparency. For shoppers, this means looking for clear, evidence-based information when considering the brand’s claims and initiatives.
H&M offers a wide range of clothing, accessories, and home products designed for everyday life. Its collections cover women, men, children, and babies, with styles that follow current trends as well as basic wardrobe essentials. The brand also provides sportswear, occasion wear, and seasonal items, alongside beauty products in selected markets. Both in-store and online, H&M focuses on making fashion easy to access, with regular new arrivals that reflect changing styles and customer needs.
H&M works to keep prices accessible while introducing materials and processes with lower resource impact, such as recycled or more responsibly sourced fibres. Programmes like garment collection and resale aim to extend product life beyond first use. The brand also shares product-level information to help shoppers make more informed choices. However, the fast pace of production means that true impact depends on how products are made, used, and kept in circulation. Clear, evidence-based communication remains essential so customers can understand what these actions mean in practice and make confident decisions.
H&M focuses on making everyday fashion more accessible while introducing ways to use fewer new resources. Many products now include recycled or more responsibly sourced materials, and the brand encourages customers to return unwanted clothing through in-store collection schemes. Repair, reuse, and resale options are also growing, helping extend the life of garments.
The company works with suppliers to improve working conditions and safety and to share more information about where and how products are made. It is also taking steps to reduce energy use in stores and operations, including increasing the share of renewable electricity.
For shoppers, the key is understanding what these actions mean in practice. Clear, evidence-based information helps people choose with confidence and see where real progress is being made, and where further change is still needed.
H&M shows clear effort in how it manages and shares information about its use of materials, energy, and resources. The brand publishes regular updates and has systems in place to track progress, including the use of recycled and more responsibly sourced fibres. Initiatives such as garment collection and product transparency tools help customers see how items are made and how they can be used for longer.
However, for a business of this scale, the biggest challenge remains reducing overall impact across its full value chain. While steps are being taken to improve energy use and transport efficiency, progress in lowering total emissions remains limited. This means that real change depends not only on better materials and processes, but also on how much is produced and how long products stay in use.
For shoppers, this highlights the importance of choosing items designed to last and making full use of care, repair, and return options where available.
H&M shows a clear commitment to people across its business, with programmes focused on inclusion, employee wellbeing, and responsible workplace practices. The brand works with suppliers to improve factory safety and labour conditions, and shares information about its supplier network to increase visibility. These steps suggest structured systems are in place to manage how people are treated across operations.
However, the most important questions remain around real outcomes for workers in global supply chains. Areas such as fair pay, working hours, and worker voice are complex and require clear, measurable progress. While policies and partnerships are in place, customers benefit from seeing simple, evidence-based updates that show how these efforts improve everyday conditions for the people making the clothes.
For shoppers, transparency and ongoing progress are key to building trust in how fashion is made.
H&M shows strong foundations in how it runs its business, with a focus on openness and clear decision-making structures. The brand shares detailed information about its operations, suppliers, and progress, helping customers and stakeholders understand how it works. Policies on ethical conduct and responsible business practices are in place to guide everyday decisions, supported by systems that track performance and risks.
The main challenge lies in ensuring these standards are applied consistently across a large, complex global supply network. While expectations for suppliers are clearly set, real-world delivery can vary. Continued progress depends on strong follow-up, clear checks, and visible proof that standards are met in practice.
For shoppers, this means looking for brands that not only set rules but also show how they are applied day to day.
H&M’s main strength lies in making fashion widely accessible while exploring ways to reduce its resource impact. The brand combines affordable pricing with large-scale innovation, such as using recycled and more responsibly sourced materials, and offering in-store garment collection schemes. Its global reach allows new ideas to be tested and introduced quickly across many markets. For shoppers, this means access to trend-led styles alongside options that aim to use fewer raw materials. At the same time, understanding the real impact of these efforts depends on clear, honest information that helps customers make choices that feel right for them.
H&M sits in the middle of the fashion sustainability landscape. It is a brand that is clearly taking steps to reduce its impact and improve how clothes are made, but it is still evolving. Its size allows it to introduce changes at scale—such as wider use of recycled materials and garment collection schemes—yet this same scale also brings ongoing challenges around overproduction and waste.
In recent years, the brand has faced scrutiny over how some environmental claims are communicated, highlighting the importance of clear, evidence-based information that shoppers can trust. This reflects a wider shift across the industry, where transparency and proof of impact matter more than ever.
Looking ahead, real progress will depend on reducing overall production impact, improving outcomes for workers across supply chains, and continuing to make product information simple and reliable for customers.
With thoughtful choices, H&M can be part of a more considered wardrobe—where style, value, and awareness come together.
H&M uses a range of recognised certifications and standards to support how its products are made and how its business operates. These certifications help verify specific materials, processes, or environmental and social practices against independent criteria. For shoppers, these signals can be useful—especially when clearly explained—about how a product or system has been assessed. Below is a guide to key certifications linked to H&M, each focusing on a different part of the product journey.
GOTS applies to textiles made with organic fibres. It covers both environmental and social criteria across processing and manufacturing, including restrictions on harmful substances and requirements for worker conditions.
OCS verifies the presence and amount of organic material in a product. It tracks certified material through the supply chain, helping confirm that organic fibres are correctly identified.
RCS verifies the percentage of recycled material in a product. It provides transparency on recycled inputs but does not set environmental or social processing requirements.
GRS builds on recycled content verification by including criteria for chemical use, environmental practices, and social responsibility in production processes.
Better Cotton supports improved farming practices, including water use, soil health, and worker conditions. It operates through a mass balance system, meaning cotton is not always physically traceable to the final product.
FSC certification applies to wood-based materials such as viscose packaging or paper. It indicates that forest resources are managed according to defined environmental and social standards.
PEFC is another forest certification system used for wood and paper-based materials, focusing on sustainable forest management and traceability.
Through CanopyStyle, H&M works with suppliers to reduce the risk of sourcing from ancient or endangered forests in viscose and other man-made cellulosic fibres. This is an industry initiative rather than a product label.
OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 tests textiles for harmful substances. It helps confirm that certified items meet limits for chemicals that may affect human health.
ZDHC MRSL is used across supply chains to limit hazardous chemicals in production. It supports safer chemical management in textile manufacturing.
Certifications can change over time as materials, suppliers, and standards evolve. To stay up to date, it is helpful to check H&M’s latest sustainability pages and product descriptions. Looking for clear explanations of what each certification covers—and what it does not—can help you make informed, confident choices when shopping.
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