H&M Group’s ‘Change Makers’: “For real change, the industry must collectively create a new fashion system”

H&M Group aims to use only recycled or sustainable materials by 2030, and to be climate neutral by 2040. But is true sustainability achievable for one of the largest companies in the world’s third most polluting industry? And how do they tackle it?

In early April, the Swedish fashion giant organised the Change Makers Event 2025 in Stockholm to explain its sustainability initiatives, strategy and progress. RetailDetail spoke with several of those Change Makers within the H&M Group. We kick off with Chief Sustainability Officer Leyla Ertur.

L.E.: “We have been working on the sustainability of our business for more than thirty years and sustainability is an integral part of everything we do. Over the past decades, we have made a lot of progress, but there is still much more to do. Across our industry, we need to reduce our impact on the climate, improve our social impact and build a better fashion system. I see a great opportunity to leverage H&M Group’s size and scale and my own capacity to make sure that we are leading this change.