Panipat, a major textile recycling hub, demonstrates a dynamic, informal ecosystem fostering circularity despite lacking visibility and investment. Promoting inclusive practices, the H&M Foundation aims to enhance worker livelihoods, tackle environmental issues, and create a fairer, sustainable recycling model.
Annie Lindmark, Programme Director at the H&M Foundation, reflects on GCA's Changemaker Week 2 in Stockholm. It emphasized collaboration, courage, and innovation among changemakers tackling systemic issues. Participants celebrated achievements, gained insights from industry leaders, and built connections, highlighting the power of imagination in driving sustainable solutions.
H&M Foundation and Accenture launched an insights report, "From Signals to Systems Change", urging the fashion industry to rethink its role in transformation. The report maps key signals of change seen in the textile industry and unveils the Reimagined System Map, a pioneering open-source framework that visualises how early-stage innovation could drive a just and net-zero textile future.
The H&M Foundation is committing SEK 53 million (approx. EUR 5 million) towards Future Forward Factories to address fashion’s most polluting stage: tier 2 textile processing. By absorbing risk early on, philanthropy gives brands, suppliers, and investors the confidence to step in at scale. The H&M Foundation is calling on others to join in accelerating this systemic transformation.
Nominations for the Global Change Award 2026 are open until October 6, seeking innovative, early-stage ideas to support the textile industry in halving its greenhouse gas emissions every decade until 2050, in line with the Carbon Law.
The H&M Foundation commits €9 million to phase two of the Oporajita collective impact initiative, enhancing just climate transition in Bangladesh's textile sector. This phase focuses on empowering women workers, decarbonisation and resilience, advocating for social equity within fashion's climate agenda.
A textile recycling project in Bengaluru, India, has expanded from a pilot to 12 cities, addressing textile waste and supporting waste pickers. Promoting inclusive circularity and climate resilience, it reached 55% of its diversion target ahead of schedule. The initiative is part of Saamuhika Shakti and is developed by Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) and implemented by Hasiru Dala.
The H&M Foundation has joined the Schwab Foundation’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, aiming to foster collaboration on sustainable innovations in the textile industry. The initiative supports social equity and resilient models to address the climate crisis through collective action.
The H&M Foundation has announced the ten winners of the Global Change Award 2025 – early-stage innovations with the potential to halve fashion’s emissions every decade. Each winner receives €200K and joins a yearlong programme focused on systems thinking, personal growth and scaling impact for people and planet.
As the textile industry races to decarbonise, digitalise, and redefine itself through circularity, we face a critical question: will this transformation be fair for the people and communities most affected by it? That’s where just transition comes in – a concept that ensures that climate action and social justice go hand-in-hand.
Why this matters – and what we’ll unpack
A just transition is
Annie Lindmark, H&M Foundation, and Claire Bergkamp, Textile Exchange, explore why changemakers – not just ideas – are key to transforming fashion. The Global Change Award backs bold changemakers with early-stage ideas tackling emissions, helping reimagine a system where fashion is decarbonised while promoting the wellbeing of both people and planet.
The H&M Foundation gathers experts to select winners for the Global Change Award 2025, promoting innovative solutions to decarbonise fashion. The top 20 ideas from 476 submissions will be evaluated, with winners announced on May 20, 2025.
