texfash: You had remarked that renewable electricity is the “easiest and cheapest” intervention available to brands, yet we see varying levels of uptake across supplier geographies. From your perspective at H&M, what are the structural or strategic reasons that brands are still hesitant to commit to 100% RE procurement across their supply chains — and how is H&M trying to shift that inertia?
Kim Hellström: It’s hard to speak for other brands, but one barrier may be the perceived imperfections of current renewable electricity markets, which are sometimes used as a reason to delay action. The challenge of implementing renewable electricity in a brand's product cost is more of a business challenge than it is a sustainability challenge. While additionality is important and something we are actively pursuing through PPAs (power purchase agreements), we don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
If a brand waits for ideal conditions before acting, it risks missing one of the most accessible levers for reducing emissions now. The value for a company, both from an attitude approach and from a behaviour approach to integrate the cost of RE (or, renewable electricity) into their product cost cannot be overestimated. By setting renewable electricity as a hygiene factor for suppliers, we can normalise it across our operations. Once RE is in place, it’s much easier to shift focus toward higher quality and additionality. But the first step is widespread uptake of renewable electricity.
You had called for a move away from endless innovation talk toward implementation of known solutions like heat pumps and electric boilers. In practical terms, what does “implementation at scale” look like for a brand like H&M — especially in countries where RE procurement is still a policy grey area?
Kim Hellström: Many suppliers are using technologies that are more than 15 years old. Increased knowledge about technical developments helps to identify where energy might currently be wasted.
Suppliers are using different technologies in the wet processing areas. This requires them to have different knowledge, training and awareness building. Different machines require different handling, different skills and most importantly different chemical mixtures. The lack of standardisation is well-known but the full impact of it is not yet calculated. While renewable electricity access can vary by geography, we don’t view this as a blocker. For us, renewable energy sourcing is part of cost integration, not a reason to delay electrification. We follow RE100-aligned guidance on certificate quality, sourcing from the same market and time period, and prioritise PPAs wherever feasible.
One of the things you had highlighted was India as a country that stands out positively in your internal roadmaps. Could you elaborate on what India is doing right — whether in terms of supplier preparedness, energy regulation, or brand engagement — and how those learnings might inform H&M’s strategy in more challenging markets like Bangladesh or Indonesia?
Kim Hellström: Renewable electricity is easy to access and there are some regions where RE actually is cheaper than brown electricity. It is easy to invest in renewable electricity and easy to source for most. Our carbon intensity roadmaps are superior in India, compared to all other markets. We’re looking at how these enabling factors could be adapted in other markets. Our carbon intensity roadmap in India shows the strongest performance across our sourcing markets and we see this as a result of strong infrastructure, regulatory support, and supplier engagement.
[Brown energy or brown electricity are terms that have been coined to describe energy produced from polluting sources as a contrast to green energy from renewable, non-polluting sources. The term "grey energy" has been used instead, including by the United Nations.]
