H&M CEO makes bold statement about company's business practices: 'We need to step up and raise the bar'

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to stay up to date with current fashion trends and the latest styles. However, there is an environmental issue when they rely on the practice of fast fashion.  

What's happening?

For clothing companies such as H&M, fast fashion isn't anything new. The desire to constantly evolve and develop rapidly changing clothing collections has been around since the 1980s. Spanish company Zara was among the original pioneers of the fast-fashion movement, paving the way for many other companies to follow suit. 

As a direct competitor of Zara, H&M has strived for years to become the leader of the fast-fashion industry. In a recent interview with Reuters, H&M CEO Daniel Erver unveiled the company's bold new strategy in order to compete with Zara and its parent company, Inditex. 

"Just competing on lowest price will not cut it for us; we need to step up and raise the bar," Erver said, noting a need to produce higher quality clothes that are trendy more quickly. In recent years, several fast-fashion companies have popped up in order to give H&M and Zara a run for their money. In many cases, these companies are able to sell merchandise at a more drastic discount. 

However, while the company outlined plans to expand and make clothes "more trendy" while speeding up the production process, H&M did not reveal the logistics behind the amount of resources and labor that would be required to make that happen. 

Why is the rise of fast fashion important?

Although fast fashion has been around for decades, we have now begun to see the harmful effects that it has on our planet. The UN Environment Programme estimates that fashion production contributes to up to 8% of all pollution on this planet. 

Additionally, textile waste is another impactful consequence of the fast-fashion movement. With the fast-moving nature of fast fashion, massive quantities of unsold and out-of-date clothing are often found in our landfills. As a core principle of fast fashion, having the ability to discard an article of clothing when a new style or collection comes out contributes to excessive waste. 

As more companies adjust their focus on the fast-fashion industry, the high rate of pollution and textile waste may continue to climb in the next few years. Polluting gases being released from human activity have directly influenced the increasing global temperature.

What's being done about the increasing popularity of fast fashion?

There are plenty of easy-to-do options that you can choose in order to minimize the impact of the fast-fashion industry. Here is a guide to help spot greenwashing and learn of companies that practice ethical business practices. It's also important to support brands and companies that produce eco-friendly products and invest in high-quality clothing over fast fashion, which will ultimately save you money in the long run. 

Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics? Giving me money back 💰 Letting me trade for new stuff 👕 Making it as easy as possible ⚡ Keeping my stuff out of landfills 🗑️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

You can also skip the fast-fashion trend and turn to shopping at thrift shops for your next wardrobe change. Not only can you help cut down on textile waste, but you can save some cash as well.

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