H&M commits to sustainable cotton

UK managing director Magnus Olsson said the pledge comes as customers are becoming increasingly interested in ethical sourcing. He said sustainable sourcing will “add value” for shoppers.

The ‘Conscious’ collection, which features 96 items across womenswear, menswear and kidswear, uses sustainable materials including organic cotton and recycled polyester and is the same price as H&M’s standard ranges. Olsson said it had kept costs low by pre-booking large quantities of organic cotton.

He said: “It adds value, as customers expect organic cotton to be more expensive and appreciate that it doesn’t.”

H&M is one of the major retailers backing the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which is developing a universal index to measure the environmental impact of a garment’s creation. The scheme will be trialled this year.

Olsson said the retailer will expand in the UK this year, and its homeware range will be rolled out to more stores.

He would not confirm how many stores H&M would open over the year but said it is opening 10 in spring and it sees the UK as one of its prime expansion areas. The retailer opened 24 UK stores last year.

Olsson said one of the new stores would be the second H&M in the UK to stock homeware after its east end of Oxford Street store, which launched the category last autumn.

He said: “[Homeware] is in-line with our expectations. We haven’t rolled it out as we are restricted by space in our current stores.”

Olsson said there was further scope to roll out homeware in its new stores if they had enough space.