Nature and biodiversity underpin all life, but are declining rapidly worldwide. The textile industry has a large negative impact on nature and therefore has an important role to play in protecting it.
In 2016, the WWF and H&M Group partnership initiated a strategic dialogue on biodiversity, exploring the potential of innovative materials and circularity to reduce environmental impacts associated with raw material sourcing and production.
Shifting Focus to Biodiversity
The partnership was renewed for a further five years in December 2025 focusing on biodiversity, freshwater, and climate & nature policy.
We collaborate on multiple organisational aspects, including strategy development, biodiversity impact projects in key production and conservation landscapes, supply chain engagement considerations and leadership and policy engagement that includes working with coalition partners like BusinessforNature.
In 2026, H&M Group publicly announced its science-based targets for land, validated by the Accountability Accelerator as part of the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) framework.
WWF supported H&M Group in using the WWF Risk Filter Suite to assess its modelled sourcing locations against nature-related impact indicators and in preparing submissions of partnership landscape projects in India and South Africa for assessment against SBTN’s landscape engagement requirements.
Work in the current phase between 2025-2030 involves contributing to H&M Group’s biodiversity strategy and target development, investing in specific biodiversity projects, and leadership and policy engagement. The landscape projects include:
Since the fashion industry impacts biodiversity in every step of the value chain, we need to be part of the solution and change the direction we are going.
Jennie Granström, Biodiversity Lead, H&M Group
Between 2023 and 2025, WWF and H&M Group invested in a forest restoration project across 350 hectares in villages across Kalimantan, Indonesia to contribute to nature restoration, new production areas for rattan and community development.
The Central India Landscape is home to approximately a fifth of the world’s remaining wild tigers. In the heart of this landscape lies the Satpura-Pench wildlife corridor. This mosaic of agricultural land and forest creates a wildlife corridor that allows vulnerable species like tigers, leopards, sloth bears and red-headed vultures to move between protected areas safely. But this landscape is under threat from infrastructure development and pressures to transform to more intensive, industrial farming practices that could destroy the wildlife corridor. In 2021, WWF and H&M Group started a regenerative farming partnership project to support small holder farmers in this region that would benefit people and nature.
In 2016, the WWF H&M partnership started a strategic dialogue to discuss and manage a broader range of H&M Group’s and the textile industry’s sustainability challenges and possibilities. The main work areas were raw materials, innovations and policy and advocacy, which among other things lead to improved material routines for H&M Group and a policy push for stronger energy regulations in the EU.
In 2017, when H&M Group issued its target of becoming climate positive, the partnership started to search for projects that could support a transition to renewable energy and climate resilience. A pilot was initiated in Eastern Plains of Cambodia with the focus to promote sustainable sourcing of energy materials.
In 2023 WWF and H&M Group started a forest restoration and enrichment partnership project with the aim to support the improvement of forest cover quality across 350 hectares of land to increase biodiversity, wildlife habitats, and livelihoods for communities living in and around the forest area.
South Africa’s Drakensberg grasslands are home to more than 2500 species of plants and endangered birds such as the wattled crane. Fresh water from this area provides crucial clean drinking water for millions of people. It’s also an important landscape for sheep farming. But this landscape is under threat. In 2021, WWF and H&M Group started a regenerative wool production partnership project in South Africa’s Drakensberg grasslands.
In September 2020, H&M Group officially launched its ambition for biodiversity, to which WWF experts had been a sounding board. The ambition sparked the beginning of the partnership’s new focus on biodiversity.
Unsustainable and illegal fishing practices, hydropower dam constructions and industrial pollution – these are some of the environmental hazards that threaten the survival of the Irrawaddy dolphin in the Mekong River. WWF in Cambodia works to conserve the Irrawaddy, and in recent years, dolphin numbers are stabilising. In 2019, H&M Group supported the conservation work, mainly by financing river guards.
The industry-led initiative Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) aims to get financial decision making and investments take account of nature. H&M Group was part of an informal working group, contributing to the development of the initiative that was launched on 10 June, 2021.
Biodiversity is strongly affected by the textile industry; processes such as raw material sourcing, garment design, production, transportation and customer use are all related to biodiversity and nature. Cotton is one of the most common textile materials. To grow conventional cotton, pesticides are often used, affecting species such as pollinators negatively. In production processes, such as textile dyeing, the use of chemicals can pollute freshwater resources. Transportation by shipping can bring along invasive species, and customers washing garments contribute to pollution and the spread of microplastics in our waters.
It is important that businesses start taking action to fight biodiversity loss, as they have a powerful role to play in bending the curve and investing in nature. We salute H&M’s holistic approach to manage their impact and dependence on biodiversity and hope that other companies will follow their example
Marcus albers, Head of Corporate Partnerships at WWF Sweden
Senior Manager Corporate Partnerships
