With banana leaf lamps, H&M backs firms promising social change

Published Aug 13, 2019

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World - With

lampshades made by Indian women and trays from East Africa, H&M

said on Tuesday that it had become the latest retail giant to

back businesses with a mission to do good, as pressure mounts to

end throwaway consumerism.

The world's second-biggest fashion retailer said it will

sell homewares made by two social enterprises - businesses that

aim to do good as well as make a profit - in H&M Home and Arket

stores in five European countries from late August.

"By offering products made by social entrepreneurs, we want

to make it possible for our customers to be change makers," said

Cecilia Tiblad Berntsson, social sustainability manager for H&M

Group.

H&M hopes the project will lead to "job creation and

positive change for people where it is much needed," she told

the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.

Retailers are under growing pressure to prove positive

social and environmental impact amid worries about labour

exploitation, waste and pollution, with some calling for tax

reforms to end a throwaway lifestyle that is ruining the planet.

H&M's move echoes that of another Swedish retail giant,

Ikea, which has been selling products made by social enterprises

since 2012, such as Ugandan coffee and Thai textiles.

Luxury outdoor brand Canada Goose launched a social

enterprise earlier this year, Project Atigi, hiring Inuit

seamstresses to design parka coats, while the United Nations is

promoting its Made51 brand of crafts by refugee artisans.

Critics have said that environmental campaigns by

fast-fashion businesses like H&M, whose growth depends on

selling more products, amount to little more than

"greenwashing".

Its first foray into social entrepreneurship, H&M has

selected businesses that create jobs for marginalised people who

would otherwise struggle into employment.

Employee-owned Bangalore Greenkraft in India makes

lampshades from banana leaves and All Across Africa hires

artisans in Rwanda and Uganda to make baskets and trays, which

will be sold in Sweden, Norway, Britain, Denmark and Germany.

H&M would not disclose details of how many products it plans

to stock, but a spokeswoman confirmed it is "a small scale"

pilot scheme.

The retailer said it does not plan to profit from the scheme

either, with profits going to the social enterprises which will

use them to advance their social missions.

H&M has tried to improve its environmental credentials in

recent years, using more organic cotton, encouraging customers

to recycle their clothing and trialing sales of second-hand

clothes in its stores. 

IOL 

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