Timeline – H&M Foundation

2020

December 8, 2020 Read in 3 mins

Picture illustrating our Planet First program

USD 100 million invested in partnership to reach a planet positive fashion industry

Cotton is certified, recycling is on the rise, value chain processes are improved – but it’s not enough. We need to look at the whole system and see how it can be changed from the ground up. With an ambition to find a truly sustainable solution for the fashion industry, non-profit H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) extend their collaboration for five more years in a new initiative called the Planet First program. Ground-breaking technologies are already being tested.

“Nobody takes innovation seriously until you scale.”

— Edwin Keh, CEO of HKRITA

Dropping blend textiles in the Green Machine

23 Nov 2020 Read in 6 mins

+91%

Women's daily enterprise earnings increased by 91% and 33% more women took up leadership positions, thanks to our Global Program with CARE. Almost 270,000 women have been supported since 2014.

Global Change Award winners 2020 - group shot

10 Apr 2020 Read in 2 mins

Five disruptive innovations awarded

In April 2020, we proudly announced our new winners of the Global Change Award. Due to the global pandemic, we too had to make adjustments to make sure we support our winners in the best way possible.

1 Apr 2020 Read in 2 mins

600,000 people reached through programs for Education, Water and Equality

For the past three years, H&M Foundation and our partners UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE have reached and exceeded our goals within our global programs. Thousands of women have received support in order to start their own enterprises and have been able to lift their families out of poverty, vulnerable children have gained access to the care and stimulation they need to grow and develop, and communities, schools and health centers now have clean water and functioning toilets.

Unfounded Ltd a startup to close the financial gap

23 Jan 2020 Read in 2 mins

Unfounded ltd – a startup to help close the financial gender gap

The world’s top 100 investors received an investment opportunity from Unfounded Ltd with the potential to unlock USD 330 billion in annual global revenue. The twist? The company might not be real, but the all the data and figures are – and so is the potential of women in business. Women make up half the world’s population, yet female-founded start-ups only get about 3% of global venture dollar volume. By not giving women entrepreneurs equal access to finance, investors keep missing out on what could become the new Apple Inc. or Amazon.com – every year.

1500000000 SEK

Since 2013, the Persson family has donated 1.5 billion Swedish krona ($200 million/€163 million) to the H&M Foundation.

2019

1.7 million

During 2019, 1.7 million people were directly reached by our initiatives within our focus areas Education, Water and Equality.

25 Nov 2019 Read in 2 mins

Health and dignity to millions of people

Public sanitation is a highly undermined priority in urban life across Bangladesh. Our project with WaterAid has improved the health, safety and dignity of millions of people in Dhaka, by renovating or building toilets.

The team of Green Nettle Textiles looking at their laptop

20 Jun 2019 Read in 2 mins

Global Change Award winners 2019 receive extra support through crowdfunding

We invited anyone, anywhere to take active part as a supporter, backer and tester of our winners through crowdfunding campaigns at Indiegogo. As a result, this year’s winners collected an additional 46,000 euro, alongside the 1 million euro grant from H&M Foundation.

“Our partnership has radically increased the possibilities of thousands of Cambodian girls to stay in school and create a strong foundation for themselves as well as for future generations."

— Mariann Eriksson, PLAN International

April 16, 2019 Read in 2 mins

Woman in Ethiopia who was part of our program with CARE.

Women’s income increased by 500%

Women’s income increased by 500% thanks to our program with CARE in Ethiopia. Furthermore, at the end of our program only 3.6% of the target group didn’t have any savings – compared to 70% in the beginning of the project. The program focused women living in the slums of Addis Ababa, and the results after three years show that with the right support, women can significantly improve their lives by becoming entrepreneurs.

2018

June 8, 2018 Read in 2 mins

Speaker at the TedX event in the Kakuma Camp, Kenya

First ever TEDx event in a refugee camp

The world’s first TEDx event in a refugee camp will take place at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in the Kenyan northern county of Turkana on June 9, 2018. The TEDx event is part of an ongoing 30 million SEK collaboration between UNHCR and H&M Foundation, supporting half a million refugee children with the school supplies they need to attend school in Chad, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan, South-Sudan, Syria, Uganda and Yemen.

"We hope this event will strengthen our belief that empowered refugees can thrive, not just survive."

— Melissa Fleming, UNHCR about Tedx KakumaCamp

13 Nov 2018 Read in 2 mins

Investment needed to support refugee children

Four million refugee children do not attend school, a new H&M Foundation funded report from UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has found. This is an increase of half a million of out-of-school refugee children in just one year.

11 Oct 2018 Read in 2 mins

Brain boosting baby talk for dads

During the first years of a baby’s life, their brain forms new connections at the amazing rate of 1,000 per second. Research shows that when we speak slower, more melodically and make exaggerated sounds it makes it easier for babies to learn new words and develop cognitive abilities. However, research has also shown that many fathers don’t interact with their babies in the same way as mothers do. In a global campaign with UNICEF, we urged fathers to speak baby talk to boost their babies brains. The initiative encouraged dads to interact more with their babies at an early age.

+ 150000 people

"The Global Program for Water will in itself reach over 150,000 people directly, but even more important is its impact. It contributes to sustainable services and systems that will be able to reach millions more people over time," Cecilia Martinsen-Chatterjee, Chief Executive of WaterAid Sweden.

16 Apr 2018 Read in 3 mins

Mobile phone app provides safety to migrant children

In 2015 alone, more than 10,000 unaccompanied children went missing on the move through Europe and thousands more have continued to go missing since. Records shows that up to 50% of unaccompanied children go missing within the first 48 hours of being placed in European centres. With financial support from the H&M Foundation, Missing Children Europe is using smart technology to help young newcomers find their way to safety.

30 Mar 2018 Read in 2 mins

Innovations creating a waste-free fashion industry awarded

From food crops, smart stitches and 3D-modelled clothes, to advanced recycling processes and biodegradable clothes with health benefits. On March 20, five innovations that can help speed up the shift to a circular fashion industry were awarded the third Global Change Award, sharing a 1 million euro grant from the non-profit H&M Foundation.

2017

September 11, 2017 Read in 3 mins

Technological breakthrough: new method for recycling blend textiles into new fibres

The four-year innovative partnership between the non-profit H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) finds groundbreaking solutions to recycle blend textiles into new fabrics and yarns – without any quality loss – through a hydrothermal process using heat and pressure. The technology will be scaled up and made available to the global fashion industry. The finding is a major breakthrough in the journey towards a closed loop for textiles.

"This is a breakthrough for the whole fashion industry. These very encouraging findings on the separation and recycling of textile blends has the potential to change the game."

— Karl-Johan Persson, board member of H&M Foundation and chairman H&M Group

26 Sep 2017 Read in 1 min

What if we could reinvent fashion?

What if we could make a shift from “take-make-waste” to a fashion world where there is no more waste? What materials would we use? What would the process and business models look like?

8 Jun 2017 Read in 2 mins

We proudly reveal ”Foundation 500” – an all-female list of 500 business leaders

500 outstanding business leaders growing their companies in the harshest of startup environments. No, we’re not talking about Silicon Valley. With Foundation 500 – a list of successful female business leaders from emerging markets – the non-profit H&M Foundation and humanitarian agency CARE wanted to challenge stereotypes and re-define what a business leader looks like. Why? It can help reduce poverty and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality.

1 Apr 2017 Read in 2 mins

500,000 people reached through our global programs

During our first years, the H&M Foundation and our partners UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE achieved remarkably ambitious goals, reaching hundreds of thousands across the world with quality education, clean water and sanitation and economic empowerment while successfully pushing these issues to the global agenda.

“The H&M Foundation were bold, they agreed to take a risk and they weren’t looking to invest in a ready-made recipe.”

— Pia Rebello Britto, Representative UNICEF

2016

The photo exhibition Noori Tales in Stockholm

15 Aug 2016 Read in 2 mins

Noori Tales: Stories from the Indus Delta

Noori Tales: Stories from the Indus Delta was a exhibition of works by award-winning Swedish-Eritrean photographer Malin Fezehai. The exhibition was available in Kungsträdgården in Stockholm August – September 2016 and was a collaboration between WaterAid and the H&M Foundation.

11 Feb 2016 Read in 2 mins

Presenting the winners of the Global Change Award 2016

On 10 February, HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden awarded the winners of the first Global Change Award, an annual innovation challenge for circular fashion initiated by the non-profit H&M Foundation. Most votes, and a grant of €300,000, were awarded to the Finnish team behind Making waste-cotton new; conversion of waste-cotton into new textile. To further accelerate the transformation towards a circular fashion industry, the Foundation now launches the Global Change Award Network, an open-source database for innovations.

“We aim to advance the strategic business growth of the five Global Change Award winners by guiding and coaching them through the Innovation Accelerator to develop their ideas further.”

— Jennie Perzon, Strategy Program Lead at Accenture

2015

25 Aug 2015 Read in 2 mins

€1 million grant to pioneering ideas closing the loop for fashion

On August 25, the H&M Foundation launched the first ever Global Change Award − one of the world’s biggest challenges for early stage innovation and the first such initiative in the fashion industry. By catalysing green, truly ground-breaking ideas the aim of the challenge is to protect the earth’s natural resources by closing the loop for fashion.

“We commend the H&M Foundation for their commitment to assisting the marginalised and for working towards an equal society.”

— Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

2014

February 11, 2014 Read in 2 mins

H&M Foundation supports UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE with SEK 180 million

With the aim of achieving long-lasting improvements in the areas of education, clean water and strengthening women, the H&M Foundation initiated three Global Programs, one each with UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE. These three programs for change started in February 2014 and the organizations received a total of SEK 180 million over a three-year period.

"I am confident that with H&M Foundation's commitment and global reach these efforts will promote many important initiatives. We can indeed be the generation that ends poverty and protects the earth's ecosystems and biodiversity.”

— Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, twice named as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential World Leaders

2013

30 Oct 2013 Read in 2 mins

Three global focus areas chosen

An experienced advisory board picked the big challenges they thought the H&M Foundation should take on, but the final choice was up to the public.

9 Apr 2014 Read in 3 mins

Model Alek Wek appointed official H&M Foundation Ambassador

H&M Foundation has named Sudanese model Alek Wek as its official ambassador as the foundation initiates its work for its three prioritized global development issues; education, clean water, and strengthening women.

18 Apr 2013 Read in 1 min

Persson family donates SEK 500 million to the H&M Foundation

The Persson family donates SEK 500 million to the H&M Foundation, which marks the beginning of the foundation and its work to create positive change for people and communities.

"We hope and believe that our donation will make a noticeable difference to many people and will help bring about lasting improvements.”

— Karl-Johan Persson, CEO H&M