Packaging & Transport at H&M | H&M

Packaging helps items arrive safely and reduces damage. However, all packaging uses resources, such as paper and plastic, and creates waste. We are focused on reducing our environmental footprint caused by packaging in these ways:

We do this by optimizing the size and weight of packaging and eliminating any unnecessary elements. Most of our markets charge for shopping bags, which helps reduce customer demand. In 2023, the total weight of packaging was reduced by 17% in absolute numbers compared to the year before.

When plastic is used, we focus on increasing the amount of post-consumer recycled plastic. For larger polybags used for moving products between garment factories and our distribution centres, we only use post-consumer recycled plastic.

Our strategy is based on the key principles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF): eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value) and regenerate nature.

H&M Group are signatories to the global , led by EMF in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme.

H&M Group are also supporters of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, convened by the EMF and the WWF, which promotes a common vision to develop a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste or pollution and the value of products and materials is retained in the economy.

H&M Group continues to endorse Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative, which underscores our commitment to focus on recycled fibres and fibres from sources such as agricultural residues.

Transport involves moving goods from where they’re produced to where our customers and stores are. We work with external transport service providers to move garments by sea, road, rail and air. H&M is a part of the larger H&M Group, which works with transport in an aggregated way. In 2023, transportation accounted for approximately 4% of H&M Group’s total emissions. The primary climate impact of transportation comes from the production and combustion of fossil fuels.

Although transportation accounts for a small share of our total emissions, we are determined to further reduce our transportation emissions by collaborating with like-minded companies, increasing renewable fuels in our network, scaling up the use of low-emission modes of transport and avoiding unnecessary driven kilometres.

• We used preferred transport options — such as 100% biofuel, electric and zero-emissions vehicles — for 11% of our transportation distance during 2023.

• H&M Group have a strategic partnership with Maersk (one of the largest transport companies in the world) to accelerate logistics decarbonization. We also partner with other companies (Electrolux and Volvo) to focus on creating shared routes from ports to distribution centres in support of zero-emissions solutions.

• We invest in testing equipment that increases the efficiency of product transportation by maximizing the number of bags loaded into each cage or pallet box.