January 26, 2010

H&M: Organic Cotton Fraud?



via: Ecouterre

Two weeks ago, we blogged about H&M's new eco-friendly "Garden Collection." Although we were supportive of their efforts, we did have some doubts as to how "eco-friendly" the line was, considering such a low price point.

So it's not to our surprise to hear the recent speculation that H&M's eco-friendly materials are actually 30% genetically modified cotton, and not organic. The contaminated cotton was traced back to India, which is responsible for more than half of the global supply of organic cotton. This means that it is not just H&M who is using genetically modified cotton, leading other retailers and brands to investigate the issue.

Although H&M is moving in the right direction with their attempt to be more eco-friendly, this mishap can be a lesson for all designers, brands, and retailers to see how imperative it is to thoroughly monitor the supply chains and work in transparent production systems.
 
Creative Commons License
MBF Trend Talk by MBF Trend Consulting is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at mbf-trendtalk.blogspot.com.