H&M

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Background

The Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz was established in Västerås 1947 by Erling Persson. The company sells fashion for women, men, youth and children and the business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price. The chain is established worldwide and currently has about 2,000 stores. H & M's product concepts also included cosmetics, accessories, shoes and home furnishings, which are produced under its own brand. The company also offers catalog sales in the Nordic countries and The Netherlands, Germany and Austria. H & M do not own any factories, but buys goods from independent suppliers. These are mainly located in Asia and Europe and there are about 700 of them. To get closer to their suppliers, the chain has built up by twenty production offices in the different continents. Overall, the company has about 76 000 employees worldwide and its circulation in 2009 was 118697 MSEK (Million Swedish kronor). (Hm.com)

H & M's work in ethics and environmental issues

H & M says it has a vision that its entire operation shall be operated in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way and that work shall proceed over their own business boundaries. H & M says that they strive for that their entire production chain must work to reduce environmental impact, all the way from start to finish. Work with their code of conduct began in 1997.

Hulya Sevindik, head of H & M's commitment to organic cotton in Turkey, says that the signals from H & M's customers are clear and that they say that there is a huge demand for more environmentally friendly products. H & M has collections with organic cotton and have for many years mixed organic cotton into some children's and baby clothes. In recent years, H & M has also redoubled its production of organic cotton. H & M hopes that through their organic garments that they can help increase the demand of organic cotton. Also they want to encourage more growers and farmers to make the change to organic farming. H & M was one of the initiators, which together with WWF founded BCI, Better Cotton Initiative, which in textile companies, organizations and agencies are working together to find and distribute information about greener, more sustainable methods of the cultivation of cotton. H & M is also a member of Organic Exchange, which works for that more cotton should to be grown organically.

To avoid the risk that organic cotton is mixed with ordinary cotton to management of H & M’s organic cotton is separated from regular cotton, all the way from the cotton fields to completed garment. In all of H & M’s deliveries there should be a document including that establishes the cotton’s origin. Moreover the inspection organ Control Union declares and reinsure that the cotton is grown according to organic standards.

Fabric production

When dying HM is working all the way at the back of the chain to try to encourage the dye-makers that provides H & M's suppliers of fabrics to make their operations more “green”. Since H & M do not have a relationship with these factories, it means they are unable to make the same demands stated by the code of conduct as to the suppliers and must therefore proceed in a different way. They simply offer themselves to visit the factory to identify its potential and then provide various suggestions for improvements. Nonetheless the factory is free to ultimately implement the changes H & M point out. The factory must think twice since H & M points out to them that there are larger profits for both the company and the world to be made when taking the environment into concideration. Harsha Vardhan, director of Action for dye in Asia, believes that if the results are easily measurable, visible effects of environmental work will be seen faster, leading to increased motivation for factories. Vardhan says that with his experience he thinks companies like H & M are influencing the development in the right direction.

Chemicals

Clothing industry is currently impossible to get completely chemical-free but H & M works to use as few harmful chemicals as possible. This is for not only for the environment but also for the textile workers and the final customers' sake. H & M has chemical restrictions that their suppliers must commit to follow. These restrictions mean that some dangerous chemicals are totally excluded from production and some have been allowed in limited use. Restricted substances listed in the restrictions are for example: formaldehyde, phenol, lead, mercury and certain dyes. The levels of the various prohibitions and restrictions are controlled by the country with the toughest laws on the various substances. Japan, for example, has the highest limitation for formaldehyde, and so the same restrictions are set in all H & M's production factories, whatever country the garment will be sold in. Sometimes H & M even go further with their restrictions and set tighter limits than any country's law requires. Along with various environmental organizations, government agencies and consumer groups, new restrictions and prohibitions are currently being worked out and updated. Since 1995, when the restrictions were written for the first time, H & M has renewed it eight times. Last update was in 2007 and now the list includes about 250 different contaminants. To ensure that the restrictions are followed in detail H & M annually conduct more than 40 000 tests on their garments. These tests are performed mostly in external laboratories.

H & M is also part of AFIRM, Apparel and Footwear Restricted Substances List Management Group. AFIRM is an association among the leading companies in the textile and shoe industry. They work towards the same goal: less use of chemicals in the production but also for finding chemicals that are better for the environment and in accordance with health terms for humans. H & M's garments for baby clothes bear the EU eco-label. The label means reduced water pollution throughout the production chain and reduced consumption of harmful substances. The criteria also include the sustainability of the fit and color fastness. Although the garments are labeled with the EU Flower, H & M still follow the their own restrictions on hazardous substances.

PVC, polyvinyl chloride, is one of the materials that H & M has completely stopped the use of in their products. The material is one of the most common plastic materials and previously used in H & M's textiles and product of imitation leather. The material contains phthalates that are harmful to both humans and the environment but such imitations were difficult to produce without PVC. H & M's efforts to remove the PVC went on for years, and the suppliers claimed that many products were not possible to produce without the hazardous material. When H & M decided to completely stop buying these products the suppliers had to develop new alternatives to leather imitations. Since 2002, the PVC is entirely excluded from any H & M's products.

Transport

In order to provide customers with clothing their stores need to be supplied with the right quantity, in the right time and in the right place. This means transports go every day from H & M’s central warehouse to various stores all around the world. The transports also affects the environment every day through its carbon emissions. H & M's logistics in Sweden are carried out in conjunction with the company Green Cargo. H & M considers it important to have an environmental cooperation and to jointly strive for greener transportations. Cleaner transport is indeed one of H & M's long-term environmental goals and the company requires reduction of and cleaner exhaust emissions. H & M desires that transporters collaborates with them to provide their drivers training in fuel-efficient driving style and that they are investing in more modern trucks with more fuel-efficient engines and cleaner emissions. Each year they also carry out a survey to assess environmental issues and it addresses, among others, the automotive and fuel, eco-driving, environmental management and idling. Marten Koshko is head of the clothing logistics at Green Cargo and says that H & M's environmental standards has contributed to that the majority of their trucks now maintain a high environmental class. Koshko appreciate H & M's environmental assessment and has passed on their environmental way of thinking to their subcontractors. Since 2003, Green Cargo is certified with ISO 14001 and it proves their own will to work for a better environment, not only because of H & M's requirements. H & M's own targets for carbon emissions are in proportion to their size and they want to reduce emissions by ten percent from 2005 to 2009.

Energy consumption

Energy used in stores and goods transport accounts for the largest share of H & M's environmental emissions. The company is therefore working to find climatically better transports and more efficient energy consumption. In Germany for example, which is their largest sales market, H & M only uses green electricity that is produced in an environmentally friendly way. In all H & M's new stores they will install HID bulbs, High Intensity Discharge, which is a type of compact fluorescent lamps that can reduce energy consumption by up to eighty percent. In the older stores, they also work gradually to replace halogen lamps with HID lamps. H & M has also installed special reflective shades that reflect light in a more efficient manner so that the bulbs do not need not be as strong, and thus reduce energy consumption.

The rest of H & M's environmental work by consist of reusing hangers, limit the use of harmful substances in the manufacture of shop interiors and helping suppliers to find better alternatives. Everything from plastics, metals, paints and adhesives used in shop interiors shall not contain substances that may be harmful to staff, customers and/or the environment.

Social responsibility

H & M feel they have a responsibility to contribute to local development and progress in the countries the company has manufacturing or sales in. They work actively with various projects and believe that it is equally important to ensure that projects are conducted in a positive direction and that long term sustainability is established. The code of conduct is a way that H & M is working through to create better conditions not only for the environment but it also works for the hundreds of thousands of people working in the factories to produce their goods. The work itself is based on H & M's code of conduct that was written in 1997 and is based primarily on the law prevailing in the countries of production. The code is also based on ILO Conventions, the International Labor Organization and the UN Children's Convention. The Code includes sections on legal requirements, prohibition of child labor, instructions on equipment in factories, fire safety, environmental and chemical restrictions, workers' rights, such as reasonable working hours and wages, trade union rights and discrimination, housing, inspections and the implementation of those. The Code applies to all production for H & M, that is, both for H & M's suppliers and also for their potential subcontractors. Compliance is checked by auditors viewing conditions in the factories, all from time sheets, payroll and other documentation. Audit verifier also makes a visual inspection of the factory and talk to the employees in the factory and management. The idea is that H & M should get a clear picture as possible of the conditions in the factories and that any deficiencies must be corrected. The supplier sets up a plan for the deficiencies that must be corrected on his own, but lawyers also help with the improvement of work and then do follow-ups. Since 2006, H & M participate in the FLA, Fair Labor Association, which conducts independent audits at suppliers' factories in China and reviews the implementation of the Code. H & M collaboration with FLA is a quality assurance but also as a way to show off how their own follow up work. The results of the audits are namely published at the FLA's website.

Child labor

Under the code of conduct, all H & M's suppliers have signed agreements on the prohibition of child labor. This means that no one under 15 may work in any form on any of the factories that make clothes for them. H & M takes this matter very and repeated discoveries of child labor may lead to complete termination of cooperation with the factory. Discoveries of child labor is usually performed by the auditors at the factories and an discovery will always lead to that H & M, together with both the supplier and the child's family tries to come up with the best possible solution. Consideration is given to the child's age, level of education and the environment at home. Often the resulting solution in some form of training and H & M considers it very important that all changes are directed towards the improvement of the individual child's situation. Without follow-up from H & M's side there is the risk that the child ends up in another factory with even heavier work.

H & M in Bangladesh

H & M has bought clothes from suppliers in Bangladesh for over 20 years and is now the largest purchaser of clothes to Europe. Many of the locals want to work in garment factories but lack the necessary training and can therefore only perform very simple and repetitive tasks.1999 H & M started a sewing training program that is available to those who have completed their primary education. These so-called training centers are located in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka and train approximately 100 young persons each year. During training, the students learn to understand the entire manufacturing process and they also receives training in health and safety in a factory. While studying they all receive payment and then guaranteed a job as a seamstress in one of the factories that manufacture clothes for H & M.

In August 2004, H & M started a collaboration with the Bangladeshi women's rights organization CN, Karmojibi Nari, which means "working woman". The reason was the women's situation in Bangladesh and CN's leader, Shirin Stern, describes it as a society where women have little knowledge of employment laws and always thought that only men can make their voices heard. She believes that society is patriarchal and unions are totally dominated by men. Together H & M and NC started a project which aimed to inform textile workers of their rights and make them more aware. A training program was initiated, particularly for women, focusing on gender equality and workers' relationship with management at the factories that supply H & M. Shirin Stern says that conditions are improving and that the development of textile industry has led to a kind of silent revolution for women in Bangladesh. Educational groups consists of workers randomly selected from a variety of factories in Bangladesh. Within the country's clothing industry there are about twenty percent who are men and eighty percent who are women. According to this they have chosen to use the same percentage breakdown of men and women in the education group. The leader of the group, Rokeya Rafique, said the meetings will generate new ways for participants to get perspective and that the most important thing is to change attitudes. She states that women who participate in the group learned that there are laws on maternity leave, overtime and that it should be equal pay for equal work. Rokeya Rafique says that the meetings help women become more courageous, feel equal and more comfortable in talking about issues with their colleagues or management. All participants of the training team are obliged to, after the meetings, to share their new knowledge to at least five of his/her colleagues.

Sources

Vårt ansvar: om H&M och miljön [Elektronisk källa] Tillgänglig 2010-05-27: http://www.hm.com/filearea/corporate/fileobjects/pdf/en/COMMON_RESPONSIBILITY_BROCHURE_ENVIRONMENT_SWEDISH_PDF_1204035971230.pdf

Vårt ansvar: om H&M och socialt ansvar [Elektronisk källa] Tillgänglig 2010-05-27: http://www.hm.com/filearea/corporate/fileobjects/pdf/en/COMMON_RESPONSIBILITY_BROCHURE_CSR_SWEDISH_PDF_1150721732801.pdf