Clothing company H&M starts drive to save water

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, the Swedish multinational retail and clothing company, co-hosted a forum last month with conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature, to explore new ways of saving water across China's textile industry.

Water conversation is a core theme of H&M's corporate social responsibility policy, and the two organization have been working together for two years now on what they call a "a holistic corporate water stewardship strategy", which stretches right across the global textile industry supply chain.

In China, the effort focuses, said Anna Palmqvist, H&M's global sustainability manager, production, on exploring how companies embrace water stewardship and ecosystem protection.

The Yangtze River Basin, home to many textiles organizations, is a target region for their water reduction and improvement efforts - particularly Tai Lake Basin, a large freshwater lake near Shanghai where water quality has been deteriorating since the 1980s.

"Due to climate change and rising water demand, China is expected to experience increased water stress," said Palmqvist.

"Responsible water management will be vital for the future of communities, the environment and a sustainable business."

The H&M water program, she said, goes well beyond the factory gates, and works to tie in the entire textile industry supply chain, from cotton production to product design, fabric processing to transport, and eventually sales.

Ren Wenwei, head of WWF's Shanghai office, said: "Our partnership with H&M is the first of its kind, in that it works to reduce the water footprint and water risk, throughout the entire fashion industry."

The scope of work involved has covered water-awareness campaigns, the measurment of existing water risks, improved water use, and encouraging coordinated industry action, both in China and globally.

To increase consumer awareness, for instance, every H&M garment produced since last year, now features a label highlighting responsible water use.

In China, all H&M staff receive training on water management, and within the company's own 500 factories worldwide, water use is strictly controlled and monitored, said the company.