In its 14th annual conscious actions sustainability report published recently, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the Swedish fast-fashion giant claimed that 78 per cent of its electricity used came from renewable sources in 2015, up from 27 per cent in 2014. At the same time, its total emissions were reduced by 56 per cent. Last year, H&M collected 12,000 tons of textiles for reuse through its in-store garment-collection program. That’s the equivalent of 65 million T-shirts.

According to Cecilia Bransten, H&M’s sustainability business expert, when it comes to engaging their customers, the garment-collecting initiative is actually the second most well-known sustainability initiative that they do, aside from their conscious collection. H&M reported that sustainably sourced materials made up 20 per cent of the total material it used, up from 14 per cent in 2014. Organic cotton, recycled cotton and Better Cotton (certified by the Better Cotton Initiative) represented 31.4 per cent of H&M’s cotton intake in 2015, versus 21.2 per cent in the previous year. The company’s goal is to only use cotton from sustainable sources by 2020 and set a timeline which will determine when they will reach a stage of using 100 percent recyclable and sustainable sources of materials. Meanwhile, with its reprocessed polyester products, the brand recycled the equivalent of 90 million PET bottles.