The aim of the Global Change Award is to find and support game-changing innovations that can break the linear traditions of fashion and completely change the way garments are designed, produced, shipped, bought, used and recycled.
We are already using resources equivalent to 1.75 planets a year. The world population is expected to increase by 32% to 10 billion people by 2050. However, the global fashion consumption is expected to increase by 202% during the same time. It’s clear a shift is needed to create a planet positive and regenerative fashion industry. We need to wear our clothes for a longer period and reuse our resources more efficiently in a closed loop.
202%
The expected growth of the global fashion consumption by 2050.
Supporting winners to scale
We look for innovators and entrepreneurs all over the world to submit their ideas. The five most promising innovations are selected by a panel of international experts and announced at a prize ceremony.
The winners share a 1 million euro grant and participate in a one-year tailor-made Innovation Accelerator Program, provided by the H&M Foundation, in partnership with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
”Winning the Global Change Award has really accelerated our technology. We’re literally a year ahead of where we thought we would be before winning.”
Isaac Nichelson, Co-founder of Circular Systems/Agraloop, winner of GCA 2018
The teams receive individual coaching and support from our partners and are connected with the industry and important stakeholders. The Accelerator Program is designed to support the winners to scale their innovations and bring them the market as quickly as possible, to maximize their impact on the industry. Once the year is up, the winners join our alumni network, where the coaching and networking continues. Our previous winners have shown impressive results, far beyond anyone’s expectations.
H&M Foundation and H&M Group will not take any shareholder equity or intellectual property rights in the innovations. The aim is to find innovations that allow major change for the entire industry, and the winners can collaborate with whomever they want.
Next round opens August 2021
Since 2015, we have been pushing the fashion industry to reinvent itself to become circular. Now, circularity is in most large companies’ strategies. But circularity is not the silver bullet that will erase our footprints on the planet. It is time for us to raise the bar. In August 2021 we will open Global Change Award for new applications with a new scope to ramp up our impact on the industry and beyond.
Learn more about how we can reinvent fashion at globalchangeaward.com.
