Ten winners of the Global Change Award 2026 have been announced by the H&M Foundation, each developing breakthrough solutions across next-generation materials, bio-based alternatives, textile-to-textile recycling and low-impact production. The winners, drawn from nine countries, target fashion's most emissions-intensive challenges at a point when the industry must accelerate progress towards net zero. Each winner receives a €200,000 grant and joins the year-long GCA Changemaker Programme.
- Winners address material production and wet processing — the dyeing, finishing and treatment of textiles — the two most emissions-intensive stages in the textile value chain, through approaches ranging from bio-based fibres to AI-optimised manufacturing.
- The Changemaker Programme, delivered in collaboration with strategic partners Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, is designed to help winners test, refine and bring early-stage ideas into the real world.
- H&M Foundation takes no equity and no intellectual property from winners, with its focus on enabling solutions that can be adopted across the industry.
- The ten winning solutions come from seven countries across Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, with two winners each from India and the United States.
THE CHALLENGE: The textile industry remains a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and addressing its most intensive impacts requires new technologies and structural change across the value chain, from how materials are produced to how garments are used and reused. The winners of GCA 2026 represent a move towards early-stage innovation and systems change, prioritising ideas that can influence entire value chains over individual technologies alone.
- Each of the ten winners receives a €200,000 grant, bringing the total award to €2 million, and joins the year-long GCA Changemaker Programme delivered in collaboration with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
- The programme is structured to help winners test, refine and bring early-stage ideas into the real world, drawing on the expertise of strategic partners Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
- The foundation's model is designed to enable broad industry adoption, with winners retaining full ownership of their intellectual property and equity.
- The Global Change Award is designed to accelerate innovation supporting the textile industry in halving its greenhouse gas emissions every decade, with a goal of reaching net zero by 2050.
TEN SOLUTIONS: The ten GCA 2026 winners bring fresh perspectives to some of fashion's most pressing material and production challenges, with solutions grounded in the innovators' own experiences and designed to deliver tangible benefits for the communities they serve. The cohort spans bio-based fibres, AI-assisted manufacturing, biodegradable dyes and textile-to-textile recycling, with teams based across India, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Tanzania and Bangladesh.
- Agro-Lyocell by Canvaloop (India) turns agricultural waste into forest-free textile fibres, replacing wood-based inputs with a bio-based alternative.
- ArtSilk (Sweden) creates spider silk-inspired fibres using microorganisms, developing a bio-based alternative to conventionally produced textile fibres.
- Alu (US) uses psychology and AI to make digital product passports — standardised records of a product's materials and lifecycle — drive circular behaviour among consumers and industry stakeholders.
- EntroMetrix (UK) develops its own AI models to optimise energy and material use in manufacturing, reducing resource consumption directly within existing production processes.
- Fiberly (France) turns textile waste into precision-engineered, cotton-like fibres, converting discarded textiles into usable raw material without virgin inputs.
- KelTex (Tanzania) turns seaweed into biodegradable leather alternatives, replacing conventional animal and synthetic leather inputs.
- MicroBlue by Microbeworks (India) develops biodegradable dyes that work in existing dyeing systems, reducing the need for infrastructure change.
- RheaCycle by Rhea's Factory (US) uses AI-designed enzymes to break down polyester waste into new fibre building blocks.
- Tera Mira (UK) turns seaweed into stretch fibres, replacing elastane, a synthetic petroleum-based material used to add stretch to fabric, with a biodegradable, bio-based alternative.
- ThreadBridge (Bangladesh) brings real-time defect detection to factory floors using smart glasses, reducing waste at the production stage.
THE PROGRAMME: A common thread across GCA 2026 solutions is resource efficiency, with winners finding new uses for agricultural waste, textile offcuts, seaweed and discarded polyester. Many of the solutions are grounded in the innovators' own experiences, shaped by real-world challenges and designed to deliver tangible benefits for the communities they serve. Since 2015, H&M Foundation has supported 66 teams from 24 countries with €12 million in grants through the Global Change Award.
- The programme has supported 66 teams from 24 countries with €12 million in grants since 2015, backing early-stage innovators across the textile value chain.
- The Persson family funds H&M Foundation, which directs its philanthropic resources towards high-emission areas of the textile value chain rather than taking equity or commercial returns.
- The award recognises that solutions alone are insufficient, selecting changemakers whose understanding of real-world challenges is as important as the technologies they develop.
- Many solutions are designed to work within existing infrastructure, avoiding the need for new capital investment or process overhaul by industry adopters.
WHAT THEY SAID
What stands out this year is not just the strength of the ideas, but the people behind them. These changemakers combine deep understanding of real-world challenges with the drive to address them. A common thread across many of the solutions is resource efficiency, from reducing waste to making better use of existing materials and resources. Ultimately, transforming the textile industry will depend on both breakthrough technologies and the people determined to bring them to life.
— Beatrice Oldenburg
Project Manager
H&M Foundation
The solutions we need already exist, what's missing is speed and scale. By supporting changemakers at an early stage, we can help unlock the kind of innovations that don't just improve the textile industry, but transform it.
— Karl-Johan Persson
Board Member
H&M Foundation
