Sweden based retail giant, H&M has announced it has started to gradually phase out the use of conventional cashmere. The brand shared that it will stop placing orders on the material by the end of 2020 due to the environmental and animal welfare challenges of sourcing cashmere.
The fast fashion group has eight global brands and by 2030 aims to use only sustainably sourced materials across the its production. Also, presently 57 per cent of the materials used by H&M Group are either recycled or sourced sustainably thus, representing a 35 per cent growth since last year.
In addition to this, the group has made several changes in its cotton sourcing as well as 95 per cent of cotton throughout the group portfolio is sustainably procured or recycled due to their association with the Better Cotton Initiative. Cashmere being the next target of H&M’s environmental improvement, it is engaged in making the supply chain more transparent in terms of where it sources the material from.
In a statement shared on their website the brand stated that, “If the cashmere industry in the future would meet our sustainability criteria, we could consider turning to virgin cashmere again.Besides our work to improve the industry, we will also continue to look at alternatives with an equally great feel and value to customers as cashmere, but with less environmental impacts.”
