Ponte, Camilla. “The H&M Greenwashing Scandal: Has Business Learned the Lesson?” Impakter, 27 Feb. 2023, https://impakter.com/hm-greenwashing-scandal-has-business-learned-the-lesson/.
The clothing giant H&M last year was caught “greenwashing,” essentially meaning that they were caught lying about being more eco-friendly than they actually are. A report by Quartz claimed that their Higg Material Sustainability Index cards were posing the company to be more environmentally friendly than reality, and following Quartz’s report, H&M removed these cards from their website. The company who provided these cards, Sustainable Apparel Coalition, temporarily axed all use of these cards, due to a complaint from the Norwegian Consumer Authority that brought to question the methods of Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s testing methods for these cards. After finally escaping a lawsuit that caught them confusing consumers about their environmental impacts, H&M recently declared themselves as going “net-zero” in emissions by 2040 this year.
This article to me is a classic example of cooperation consumer trickery, and I am glad that someone caught note of H&M bragging about these exaggerated eco-friendly moves that the company was claiming to be doing. After this article, I believe we should have more laws in check to make sure that these companies are 100% maintaining their ecological claims, and should be fined heavily if they are not doing so.
This post reminded me of the one about transparency in the fashion industry. H&M lying about their environmental impact and efforts shows you that companies will do what makes them the most profit, and lying is easy. Transparency in the supply chain for fashion products might also be lied about, and this article is a lesson for all of these topics.
Thank you for reading my article and your response. I agree, this article was a great learning opportunity for all the lies that can happen in the fashion industry involving the environment.
It’s strange how they can get away with this, and I love your idea. It should be considered and would change the economy.
Thank you for reading and responding to my article. I also find it strange how a massive company can get away with these anti-eco activities, yet it happens every day.