Emma Sjöström

H&M, a global giant in affordable fashion, had begun a limited use of organic cotton in its clothing manufacturing, four years ago, and was in the process of scaling up the project further. The initiative had so far been much more successful than an earlier attempt ten years ago. Organic clothing no longer meant beige shirts with coconut shells for buttons. Instead, the concept now coupled high fashion with environmental awareness. At the same time, H&M had to resolve a number of issues in order to increase the use of organic cotton in the company. For instance, developing clothes in organic cotton required long lead times and one challenge was how the company could ensure a sustained focus on organic cotton when the design and production teams at H&M were used to short lead-times and constantly working with new trends? Further, should the company devote greater effort to marketing the organic cotton line, even though it seemed to be self-selling? And given the limited world supply of organic cotton, a number of purchasing challenges had to be dealt with, not the least how to secure access to enough cotton, and at the best price.