Industry Reports
Report 1: Mintel
Fashion & Sustainability: Importance of Sustainable Fashion
This Mintel report explores the newly developed consumer priority of sustainability. According to the 2020 report, out of the 2,000 aged 16 and over internet users, ‘56% felt that sustainability was either very or somewhat important to them when shopping for fashion items.’ This evidences the newly formed consumer requirement for sustainable fashion items, ranging from clothing to accessories and shoes. In addition to this, Mintel identified that this heightened interest in sustainability amongst the target consumer market was as a result of increased coverage from the media, in the forms of news outlets, environmental protests led or inspired by eco-activist Greta Thunberg, and educational documentaries such as David Attenborough’s latest Netflix release ‘A Life On Our Planet’. This increased media coverage is resulting in the core consumer market educating themselves on the issues of climate change and pollution, which is leading them to purchase from brands they view as sustainable or environmentally friendly.
Whilst H&M are in the midst of the sustainable movement, pledging themselves to sustainability through their 'Conscious Collections'. This increased media attention on the topic of sustainability is causing the consumer market to question their own purchasing habits and whether high-street brands, such as H&M are genuinely sustainable in their practices. To avoid potential negative attention or scrutiny, and in order to win over the eco-conscious consumer base, it is possible that introducing more long-term sustainable solutions into the H&M brand could be a viable route to take. For example, increasing the levels of sustainability through incorporating biotechnological materials into their normal product ranges. Giving the consumer more sustainable options for purchasing and decreasing the amount of non-sustainable product offerings, providing the consumer with limited options in terms of non-sustainable fashion items. Not only would they be leading the fashion industry in introducing biotech and sustainable materials to the masses of consumers who shop at brands like H&M, but they would be encouraging practicing sustainability within other factors of the consumers lives.
Report 2: Business of Fashion
How to Avoid the Greenwashing Trap
This Business of Fashion article explores the ways in which fashion brands ‘greenwash’ or make false or misleading claims about their business practices in relation to sustainability. A key point of the article was that according to McKinsey & Company, ‘more than 60% of fashion stakeholders believe that sustainable materials will become mainstream’, and that Forrester Research found in a late April survey, that ‘41% of US adults said they would prefer to buy products that are environmentally friendly.’ This evidences that whilst sustainability is a growing priority amongst the consumer demographic, innovation in terms of materials are being considered a solution amongst industry stakeholders to the devastating impact the fashion industry has on the environment and climate change. In addition, the article highlighted how the consumer views fashion brands which operate under the fast fashion business model and how easily their opinions can change depending on a brands somewhat unsustainable or greenwashed actions.
One consumer stated: “H&M releases [two] ‘conscious collections’ a year and calls themselves sustainable... how about you make all your clothes sustainable (and properly disclose how they’re even sustainable).” This response in particular highlighted how critical the newly environmentally-aware consumer is of fashion brands who are gradually releasing conscious or sustainable collections into their current product range, as whilst it’s evident that the industry is responding to the increased awareness of issues like climate change, their actions simply aren’t enough for this new green consumer market.
Whilst H&M champions itself on leading the change towards a more circular and renewable industry, it’s evident that whilst they continue to operate as a fast fashion business, selling both sustainable and non-sustainable products, in their customers' eyes, this is not a viable solution to the wider issue of climate change and the damaging effects the fashion industry has on the environment.
As long as the consumer continues to prioritise the environment in their purchasing decisions, the somewhat paradoxical format of selling both fast fashion and sustainable clothing will not be a worthwhile solution for the brand or the consumer. If H&M were to fully rebrand themselves to being a fully transparent and guaranteed sustainable fashion brand, through the introduction of biotechnological materials like Bolt Threads’ Mylo or Microsilk, not only would they be meeting the consumer demand for honest and ethical fashion, they would be leading the sustainable revolution, paving the way for other high street industry giants to introduce such practices and giving themselves credibility within the sustainable fashion market.
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Report 3: First Insight
The State of Consumer Spending: Gen Z Shoppers Demand Sustainable Retail
This First Insight article highlights the key statistics of which consumer generation demographics are the most dedicated to shopping sustainably, which generations were willing to pay more for a guaranteed sustainable product and how much more they were actually willing to pay for this. The 2019 survey containing 1,000 candidates found that Generation Z (1995-2012) and Millennials (1980-1994) were the generation demographics most likely to make purchasing decisions based on values and principles, whether they were personal, social or environmental. Reinforcing the idea that these younger generations, and target consumer markets for fashion brands such as H&M, are increasingly opting for more sustainable brands when purchasing fashionwear.
Furthermore, the survey presented the data that ‘62% of both Millennials and Generation Z preferred to purchase from sustainable brands’, evidencing the heightened interest from these generations in purchasing sustainable fashion products from brands, as a result of the increased media coverage on topics such as climate change, global warming, pollution, species and habitat extinction. This infers that H&M are on the right track by providing sustainable ‘conscious’ collections into their current brand offerings, as well as their garment collecting scheme, which allows customers to drop off any unwanted clothing, from any brand, to their stores where the customer will receive a 15% discount for their next in-store purchase.
In addition, the survey showed that ‘73% of Generation Z consumers were willing to pay a premium rate for sustainable products’ and ‘54% were willing to pay 10 percent or more for those products’, whereas ‘50% of Millennials were willing to pay 10 percent more’. This is beneficial to H&M as whilst they are on the right track by providing sustainable product offerings, it's evident that a complete rebrand of their business is plausible. Despite it being costly for their brand, increasing their prices by 10 percent would allow them invest in biotechnology and offer fully sustainable products to their consumers at an increased rate. Their consumer market are not only asking for genuine sustainable solutions but are willing to pay a premium rate for such products as these prices would still be within reach for the socially conscious consumer market.
t was found that throughout the survey, all generations believed that fashion brands should become sustainable, and expected them to do so in order to meet their customer needs and wants.
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