MILAN – Figures released at this week’s Textile Exchange Conference in Italy show H&M is the world’s leading user of sustainable cotton. The new findings also show Nike tops the list of recycled polyester users, C&A is the world’s biggest user of organic cotton and IKEA is the biggest user of recycled cotton. The figures are contained in a series of market reports released at the annual Textile Exchange event where a remarkable 800+ delegates have gathered to discuss issues around sustainable textiles.
H&M group ranks as the world’s biggest user of sustainable cotton and also man-made cellulosic materials (including lyocell, among others). H&M aims to use only use recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030.”p
“With our yearly and steady increased use of recycled or other sustainably sourced materials, we not only push the demand of widely used materials such as organic cotton, but also influence the scalability of new sustainable materials. We hope to inspire other players in the industry towards a sustainable fashion future,” said Cecilia Brännsten, environmental sustainability manager at H&M group.
Other companies on the reports’ ‘leaderboards’ include: Inditex, the company behind Zara (second largest user of Lyocell and fourth largest user of preferred manmade cellulosics); Target (third largest user of recycled polyester and fifth largest user of preferred down); and The North Face (second largest user of preferred down).
“The 2018 benchmark leaders show a deep commitment to scaling their global value chains of preferred fibre and to benchmarking their progress against the industry,” said Liesl Truscott, director of europe and materials strategy for Textile Exchange. “These companies have also made significant investments in developing the supply chain needed to achieve the necessary measures of scale in preferred fibre production. And we are particularly excited about the growth of the 100 per cent club, those who have converted completely from conventional fibre.”