WWF and H&M Group

 WWF and H&M Group work together on selected environmental challenges related to H&M Group’s value chain, with a focus on biodiversity and freshwater, while supporting efforts on the climate transition and improved livelihoods. Our work also aims to encourage and support other companies within the fashion industry and beyond to develop and implement solutions that reduce their environmental impacts, with the long-term ambition of contributing to a future where resource use remains within planetary boundaries.

About the partnership

H&M Group and WWF entered a partnership in 2011, focusing on Water Stewardship. The aim was to raise awareness, to improve water use throughout H&M Group’s supply chain and to inspire other companies to take action toward more improved water management.

In 2016, the partnership expanded to also include climate action and to have a strategic dialogue on topics such as biodiversity, innovative materials and circularity. In 2021 biodiversity was formally added as a stream. The main initiatives between 2025 and 2023 are around biodiversity, water, and climate & nature policy.

Why we have partnered

The textile industry is an important focus area for WWF as raw materials and processing locations are often based in some of the world’s most water-stressed and polluted river basins. The textile supply chains are also often based in countries where a high share of fossil energy is used.

By working together, combining expertise and leadership and taking a holistic approach on water, climate and strategic decisions, H&M Group and WWF have the potential to contribute to positive change – within H&M Group’s organization and beyond. As H&M Group is a major player in the fashion industry, they have the opportunity to influence suppliers, customers and other brands in their industry to reduce identified environmental impacts.

Read more in our Partnership Results Report 2021-2025 here. 

How we work together

Water

Due to the textile industry’s freshwater challenges WWF and H&M Group has since the start of the partnership in 2011 been working together to improve water management in some of the worlds most stressed river basins. We have done this by working with Water Stewardship.

Water Stewardship is a five-step model creating incentives to act on water use through engagement, better management and governance to support protection efforts of resources, species and nature. The Water Stewardship journey involves learning, acting, doing and improving.

Since 2011, WWF and H&M Group have been working according to WWF’s model for Water Stewardship using the five-step approach, targeting suppliers, staff, consumers, governments and other stakeholders. The work has involved developing H&M Group’s and their value chain’s water management as well as focusing on collective action and influence governance on the ground in countries such as China, Bangladesh and Turkey. The partnership has also included support for WWF’s water conservation projects in the Yangtze River basin. As H&M Group continues to develop the organization’s water practices, the main focus of the partnership is now on expanding the collective action and influence governance on improved environmental practices across the textile sector together with other companies, policymakers and civil society.

H&M Group both uses and contributes in the development of the WWF Water Risk Filter, an online tool that enable users to explore, assess, and respond to water risks. H&M Group regularly assess the water related aspects of their value chain of apparel & textile production including dyeing and washing processes through the Water Risk Filter. The overall water risk indicated by basin and company, for each of the business partners facilities of H&M Group, steer and guide to specific actions according to H&M Group’s Holistic Water Strategy to address the challenges. Read more about H&M Group’s journey within water stewardship and supplier engagement via The Fashion Pact’s Case study here.

Milestones and Results

• • Collective action plans for water risk mitigation are being set for all H&M Group production offices in water risk areas.
  • Advocacy & communication for SDG 6; the partnership calls global fashion brands to join a movement for defining textile industry shared approaches to water stewardship, globally.
  • Supported development of new function within the WWF Water Risk Filter that enables companies to quickly develop contextual water stewardship responses to their water related risks any basin.
  • Water awareness training for 75000 staff (from production office employees as well as sales and design functions).
  • Cleaner production program trained 2,636 workers in 270 production units across Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India and Türkiye.
  •  Developed Cleaner Production Guidelines for the textile industry in Turkey.
  •  More than 500 suppliers in H&M Group’s value chain participated in initiatives aimed at improving water and chemical management practices 2016-2018.
  • Established an industrial park project in China to explore approaches to improving environmental management among participating suppliers and addressing environmental challenges in the surrounding area. The project is intended to generate knowledge and practical experience that could inform similar initiatives in other industrial parks.
  • Indicators for basin health monitoring was developed for Taihu basin in the Yangtze river, supporting wider conservation efforts of protecting endangered river porpoise and improved practices used by farmers in the river basin.
  • Engaged policy makers for more practices intended to reduce environmental pressures on water management in Bangladesh, with particular focus on creating and supporting a water governance work stream within the platform of 2030 Water Research Group.
  • Read our three-part series on water and textiles. Part I explores the touchpoints of water along the industry’s value chain, while Part II unpacks water risk and opportunity for key apparel clusters. In Part III, we outline WWF’s vision for the textile sector, how we are working to mobilize others to scale solutions.

BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity underpins all life but is declining worldwide. There is a growing need to protect it, and the textile industry, with its impact on nature, has an important role to play. In 2016, the partnership started a strategic dialogue, where biodiversity came into focus through investigating critical topics related to materials and circularity. In 2020, the strategic dialogue evolved into a biodiversity stream with the ambition to input to H&M Group’s efforts to reduce pressures on biodiversity.

Shifting Focus to Biodiversity

During 2020, the partnership evolved to replace the strategic dialogue with a specific stream focusing on biodiversity. This was a natural step as biodiversity, besides being at the core of WWF’s mission, is strongly affected by the textile industry. In general impacts from the textile sector stretch from raw material production and sourcing, through garment design, transportation and up to customer use and disposal. Within our partnership we have thus far collaborated on better understanding impacts and risks specifically related to raw material sourcing and fabric production since these are the stages of the value chain where current data indicates the largest impacts on land and water use.

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:

• India: a critical wildlife corridor in Central India where the partnership is supporting 6,000 small-holder cotton farmers to adopt improved agriculture practices that enhance on-farm biodiversity as measured in soil health indicators and insect surveys.
• South Africa: The partnership works with commercial and communal sheep farmers in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg grasslands to support grazing practices aimed at improving grassland biodiversity, climate resilience planning and habitat conservation. The project covers an area of over 12,000 hectares.
• Indonesia: A project in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia where the partnership worked with local communities to restore degraded parts of the forest across 350 hectares to connect patches of forest that serve as a habitat for orangutans and other wildlife.

In 2026, H&M Group became the first in its sector, and only the third company globally, to adopt independently validated science-based targets for land through SBTN. WWF supported this journey by assessing supply chain risks using the WWF Risk Filter Suite and inputting technical insight to the targets that were submitted for validation. Our partnership work also included submissions from landscape programmes in India and South Africa, demonstrating how science-based approaches can connect back to landscape projects.

Milestones & Results

• Supporting a pilot project for rattan production in Indonesia, keeping forests standing while supporting biodiversity and providing business opportunities to the local community.
• During 2017 and 2018, WWF and H&M Group advocated together with other companies, for stronger regulations on energy efficiency and renewable energy in the EU.
• Supporting the development of H&M Group’s biodiversity ambition that takes a holistic approach to manage the Group’s impact and dependency on biodiversity. Released in September 2020.
• During 2017 and 2018, WWF and H&M Group advocated together with other companies, for stronger regulations on energy efficiency and renewable energy in the EU.
• Supporting the development of H&M Group’s biodiversity ambition that takes a holistic approach to manage the Group’s impact and dependency on biodiversity. Released in September 2020.

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