H&M - Greening up their Act

Recently I came across an H&M advert in the paper – an eye catching yellow dress for only £14.99...and made from recycled polyester! How very eco-friendly their current sustainable style range is and there is something for both girls and guys! Keeping up with being green, their Spring Conscious Collection will actually be very white in colour.

When we think of eco-friendly materials, I for one automatically think organic cotton. H&M have been using organic cotton for a while and their aim is to increase the amount they use by 50% every year till 2013. They’re even committed to supporting cotton farmers to make the transition of using more environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of producing cotton, rather than to use fertilizers which are harmful to the environment and to health. But it’s great to see that they are using unconventional materials like recycled polyester made from PET bottles. Who would have thought you could get a dress from a plastic bottle!

Looks like H&M have made a u-turn since last year after a string of bad publicity for unethical practises. First of all they were in the news for cutting up unsold merchandise, next they were exposed for organic cotton fraud and, just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, a Bangladeshi factory that was supplying H&M caught fire killing 21 workers due to poor fire safety equipment.

Despite all of this, H&M seem to be making an effort to respect and help protect the environment. Though, I do wonder how they keep the costs of their clothing so affordable...let’s hope they’ve learnt their lesson and that I don’t have to blog about their labour practises in the future.

Image Credit: Tnarik on Flickr at Creative Commons