Can fast fashion ever be truly sustainable?
- Nicole Stewart
- Dec 13, 2022
- 5 min read
H&M is the leading brand in fast fashion, founded in 1947, the Swedish brand now has more than 5,000 stores worldwide (Tun, 2021). The H&M Group is a ‘family’ of businesses that include brands such as Monki, & Other Stories and Cos (H&M, 2021). Produced from H&M is manufactured in over 40 different countries, where in one country alone they have 275 factories (Paton and Maheshwari, 2019). This is just one of the reasons the brand has recently come under fire.
Currently being faced with a lawsuit, H&M have received a number of complaints over their greenwashing marketing campaign. Greenwashing is when a company claims to be environmentally aware for their marketing campaign but isn’t actually making any efforts to be sustainable (Edwards, 2022). H&M have a line of clothing named ‘Conscious’ that claims to be sustainable and advertises as such. The marketing campaign for this line has included phrases such as ‘Eco Warrior’ and ‘Climate Crusader’ (Pearcy, 2021), these claims have since been found to be untrue.
One consumer bought a garment from the Conscious line at H&M because they claimed to use less water to manufacture, later investigated to find out that they actually use more water (Wicker, 2022). This was investigated through their Higg Sustainability Profiles scores. The profiles were created by Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) to allow consumers to compare the environmental impact of their purchases. It was found that where H&M scored -20% on their water-use score, meaning they use 20% more water than other consumers, they advertised that they were using 20% less water (Shendruk, 2022). Since Quartz have shed light on this H&M have removed their Higg Sustainability Profile.
According to the ASA due to greenwashing they did not meet standards for ethical marketing. The ASA is the UK’s independent advertising regulator who makes sure that the UK media sticks to advertising rules. The ASA monitor ads themselves and respond to complaints from the general public, to make sure they are advertising ethically (Advertising Standards Authority | Committee of Advertising Practice, 2011). All the codes can be found on their website and are accessible to everyone. Part of these rules are to ensure that brands are telling the truth through their ads, which H&M did not do during this marketing campaign.
One thing that H&M have been praised for in this campaign is their diversity and inclusivity. They have a wide range of models of difference sizes, races, and religions. It was even mentioned in the MIC’s ‘12 of the most iconic and inclusive fashion campaigns of all time’ article. They praised the fashion giant’s representation of an amputee woman, Sikh men and women wearing hijabs, which is not often seen in mainstream media (Lubitz, 2017). ELLE magazine also wrote in 2021 that it was potentially the most diverse ad campaign yet. They went on to praise H&M for turning ‘every fashion convention on its head’ (Team ELLE, 2021). Therefore, although their main aim for this campaign was their sustainability efforts, their use of diverse models did attract positive attention from some viewers.
The main weakness of this campaign is that it did not reach its objectives in being ethnical through its claims of sustainability. Not only did this campaign receive a lot of backlash on these claims, but it is also now facing a lawsuit for greenwashing. Their use of diversity and inclusion has been lost within their false claims. Many picking up on the materials used to make the garments, the amount of clothes in the line being released each year, and labour conditions of the workers making these garments (Rachel, 2021).
If H&M makes some changes to their campaign and their company, they could flip the narrative that they are currently facing. They have the opportunity to be transparent with their sustainability efforts and put plans in place to improve. Consumers are becoming a lot more brand aware, and their purchasing power is increasing (DARBINYAN, 2020). H&M can use this to their advantage, relaunch their Conscious campaign after making improvements to become more sustainable and be truthful in their facts.
The biggest threat H&M face is to lose consumers to their more sustainable competitors. If they continue to lie about their environmental efforts people simply won’t want to shop with them. They need to show willingness to improve, making a strategy on how they will become more sustainable could win back the trust of consumers.
In terms of its ethical objectives, it is fair to say that H&M was not successful in their campaign. Currently being face with a lawsuit and huge backlash from consumers because of greenwashing cannot be classed as a success. Many consumers researched themselves to find that H&M and been lying about how sustainable their conscious clothing line is, and that the clothes were not much different to those in their rest of their store. There are so many more factors that go into being fully sustainable that H&M did not consider or acknowledge, which led to the failing of their campaign. Hopefully H&M learns from this and not only stops their false advertising but also works on becoming a sustainable fashion brand. Simply put, lying to consumers is completely unethical.
The question that has to be asked is whether marketing and digital communications can ever be ethical from the leading fast-fashion retailer. One of the goals of this marketing campaign was to encourage people to buy their garments, however this then feeds into fast-fashion and encourages it to grow. The fast-fashion industry is currently responsible for 5% of global greenhouse gases, directly contributing to climate change (Whiting, 2019). Therefore, unless these brands completely change the essence of what they are (fast-fashion) can their marketing ever truly be ethical? You can see that H&M has tried to become more sustainable, but they have also misled their consumers on how sustainable they actually are. They have a lot more work to do before they can consider themselves a sustainable clothing brand, and thus potentially a lot more work to do before they can say their marketing and digital communications are ethical too.
References
Advertising Standards Authority | Committee of Advertising Practice (2011). About the ASA and CAP. [online] Asa.org.uk. Available at: https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/about-regulation/about-the-asa-and-cap.html.
Britannica (2019). Nike, Inc. | History & Facts. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nike-Inc.
DARBINYAN, M. (2020). Marketing Strategy and SWOT of H&M | The Social Grabber. [online] The Social Grabber. Available at: https://thesocialgrabber.com/marketing-strategy-and-swot-analysis-of-hm/.
Edwards, C. (2022). What Is Greenwashing? [online] Business News Daily. Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10946-greenwashing.html.
H&M (2021). About Us. [online] H&M Group. Available at: https://hmgroup.com/about-us/.
Lubitz, R. (2017). 12 of the Most Iconic and Inclusive Fashion Campaigns of All Time. [online] Mic. Available at: https://www.mic.com/articles/172106/12-of-the-most-most-iconic-and-inclusive-fashion-campaigns-of-all-time.
My Green Closet (2022). Which Brands are Fast Fashion? – My Green Closet. [online] mygreencloset.com. Available at: https://mygreencloset.com/what-brands-are-fast-fashion/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2022].
Paton, E. and Maheshwari, S. (2019). H&M’s Different Kind of Clickbait. New York Times. [online] 19 Dec. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/fashion/hms-supply-chain-transparency.html.
PEARCY, A. (2021). H&M greenwashing is ‘disguising the reality’ of fast fashion. [online] The Big Issue. Available at: https://www.bigissue.com/news/environment/hm-greenwashing-is-disguising-the-reality-of-fast-fashion/.
Rachel (2021). ‘Sustainable style’: how conscious is H&M conscious? [online] WhatWonderWomenWear. Available at: https://www.whatwonderwomenwear.com/how-conscious-is-it-to-buy-hm-conscious/.
Shendruk, A. (2022). Quartz investigation: H&M showed bogus environmental scores for its clothing. [online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/2180075/hm-showed-bogus-environmental-higg-index-scores-for-its-clothing.
Team ELLE (2021). H&M’s ‘Close the Loop’ Is Possibly Its Most Diverse Campaign. [online] Elle India. Available at: https://elle.in/elle-old-site/article/h-and-ms-close-the-loop-is-possibly-its-most-diverse-campaign/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2022].
Tun, Z.T. (2021). H&M: The Secret to its Success. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041216/hm-secret-its-success.asp.
Whiting, T. (2019). ‘Sustainable Style’: The Truth Behind The Marketing of H&M’s Conscious Collection. [online] Medium. Available at: https://tabitha-whiting.medium.com/sustainable-style-the-truth-behind-the-marketing-of-h-ms-conscious-collection-805eb7432002.
Wicker, A. (2022). H&M Is Being Sued for Greenwashing. Why? [online] The Cut. Available at: https://www.thecut.com/2022/08/h-and-m-greenwashing-fashion.html.
Comments