H&M Foundation

Ten early-stage innovators have been named winners of the Global Change Award 2026, recognised for developing solutions across bio-based materials, textile recycling and low-impact production. Each recipient receives a €200,000 grant and joins a year-long accelerator programme. The award supports the foundation's mission to help the textile industry halve its greenhouse gas emissions every decade.

H&M Foundation has launched an open-access workshop toolkit enabling brands, suppliers, policymakers and investors to apply its System Map across the textiles industry. Developed with Accenture, the toolkit identifies leverage points to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade until 2050, while supporting a just transition that avoids shifting costs onto the most vulnerable.

CircularFabrics is tackling one of synthetic fashion’s toughest challenges—recycling nylon from blended waste—through its pioneering Nyloop technology. Unlike conventional methods, Nyloop preserves polymer integrity without high energy input, offering a sustainable and cost-effective alternative. CEO and Co-Founder Josephine Mayer explains how this process could help brands meet EU circularity goals while building scalable, decentralised recycling systems.

A bunch of 10 innovators, with the shared mission of decarbonising the textile and fashion industry, has won the Global Change Award for 2025 for their bold and pioneering ideas, who, as changemakers, are tackling some of fashion’s most urgent challenges: from reducing emissions and energy use, to enabling circularity and cleaner materials.

A new report identifies likely scenarios for Bangladesh’s industrial sectors, and opportunities to accelerate just industry transitions both through direct grant-making and multistakeholder collaboration.

In a major update, the Global Change Award and its Changemaker Programme will now back a wider range of changemakers with early-stage innovations and, in a departure from an open application system, it will operate a nomination-based process. A total of 10 winners stand to receive €200,000 each.

The Global fashion Agenda (GFA) has launched ‘The Circular Fashion Partnership: Indonesia’ as a cross-sectoral initiative aimed at developing effective circular fashion systems by capturing and recycling post-industrial textile waste.

H&M’s multipartner initiative Saamuhika Shakti has selected nine startups for its ‘Techtonic – Innovations for Circular Economy’ award which supports innovations that accelerate waste management in India, while increasing and improving the stability of waste picker incomes.