H&M Smashed $1 Million Disguised Promotion To Defend "Fast Fashion Environmental Protection" False Proposition

Swedish apparel retailers H&M In August 25th, it announced the annual bonus of 1 million euros (7 million 355 thousand and 300 yuan) to promote the technology development of clothing recycling and recycling, in response to the outside world's response to "fast". fashion A bad comment on destroying the environment. H&M Environmental Sustainability Product Manager Henrik Lampa said: "in order to be more environmentally friendly than competitors, we are willing to go all out."

Sweden's clothing retailer H&M announced in August 25th that 1 million euros (7 million 355 thousand and 300 yuan) bonus would be awarded annually. clothing The development of recycling technology is used to respond to the outsiders' negative comments on "fast fashion destroying the environment".

H&M is currently the third generation member of the family -- Karl-Johan Persson. As chief executive, he announced the award plan: "no company can continue to operate in the current way. The Grand Prix aims to encourage the development of new technologies to enable the operators to use recycled fabrics of the same quality." The competition will be closed in October 31st of this year, and the results will be announced in February 2016. The prize will be shared by 5 winners.

Ironically, the organizers of the game, fashion companies, have always been a major producer of environmental pollution. The production of 1000 grams of cotton cloth costs more than 20 thousand liters of water, and the cotton cloth can be made into a T-shirt and a piece. Jeans 。 The fast fashion brand based on quantity has become the thorn in the environmental protection field.

Fast fashion, every link can't get rid of the label of environmental pollution.

In order to wash the white image, H&M began to be friendly with the environment in the spring of 2011, promising to reduce the environmental damage caused by the production process, and vowed: by 2020, all resources used by H&M must be sustainable. According to the 2010 sustainability report released by the group, 15 thousand tons of organic cotton were used in the year's production, an increase of 77% over 2009, making it the largest organic cotton producer in the world.

Nevertheless, the use of organic cotton accounts for only 13.7% of the total raw materials. More importantly, the problem is not only in the production stage.

In the eyes of environmentalists, the rise of fast fashion has filled the world with a lot of cheap clothing. Low price but high fashion costumes have been discarded after the season. The United States reported that 10 million 500 thousand tons of clothing in the United States were eventually sent to landfills, even if they were filled with organic cotton.

According to the "2014 sustainability report" released by H&M in April 9th, 600 million clothes with brand names appear on the market every year. The fashion brand from Sweden now has 3639 stores in 59 countries and regions in the world. Zara After its parent company Inditex, the world's second largest clothing manufacturer. And its planned store expansion strategy is 10%-15%.

These figures are clear. As a fast fashion brand, H&M's strategy is still to store up more space in the consumer's wardrobe, even if they don't wear it several times. This is far from the sustainability advocated by H&M.

Save customers while saving money

Sanford Bernstein (Bernstein) analyst Anne-Charlotte Windal bluntly said: "fast fashion mode can only be established when consumers purchase high-frequency products, but the problem is that consumers are gradually aware of the seriousness of environmental problems."

"We are willing to do our best to be more environmentally friendly than our competitors," said Henrik Lampa, product manager of H&M environment sustainability, in an interview with the financial media Quartz. In addition to environmental protection, he also mentioned the actual impact of the social level, which is precisely the driving force for brand sustainability.

In March 31st of this year, H&M signed a cooperation agreement with Gucci's parent company to try to use technology to achieve textile recycling. Kai Yun, President and CEO Franois-Henri Pinault, has made an account: "we use 65 million tons of polyester fiber and cotton fiber products every year, and the consumption in 2020 is expected to reach 90 million tons. If we can apply this technology to the supply chain of Kai Yun, the amount of recycled textiles will be astonishing.

Indeed, in addition to the "environmentally-friendly" trademark, textile recycling technology will save a lot of cost for the group. Fast fashion itself is extremely sensitive to costs. Can it be a magic weapon for consumers to compete with competitors?

Turn waste into treasure, do you pay?

Since 2013, H&M has launched the "old clothes recycling" plan in 49 countries and regions around the world. Customers can get 15% off coupons every time they submit a bag of clothes. According to the plan, the recycled clothing will be processed by H&M partner I:Collect company to meet the new purpose.

Fast fashion retailer's argument is: forming a closed loop, turning waste into treasure. However, in the eyes of more consumers, this is more like a disguised promotion.

In February of this year, H&M launched the cowboy series "Close the Loop", of which cloth comes from second-hand clothing. In the following September, the 2 edition of the series will be on sale, including 16 designs, including men's wear, women's wear and children's wear.