Sustainability Shout Out: H&M Group's Treadler Grows the Sustainable Supply Chain for Textiles

Shoutout to Treadler, a B2B service by H&M Group, for partnering with global fashion and retail brands to enable the growth of sustainable supply chains from product development to logistics. By sharing the core H&M Group assets, Treadler hopes to move the textile and apparel industry towards a more sustainable future.

Leading the Cause

In 2020 H&M Group announced the launch of Treadler, a B2B service that offers other textile and apparel retailers access to its suppliers—leveraging H&M’s 70+ years of experience building one of the world’s most quality-assured supply chains. The United Nations Environment Programme reported the same year that the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global wastewater and 10% of carbon emissions globally, yet employs over 60 million people worldwide across the value chain. Treadler and H&M Group are working to combat this waste and these traditionally unsustainable ways of working by serving clients with tailored supply chain strategies, to optimize production and work towards a Climate Positive future.

The Goal

The goal of Treadler is to help clients move past the intrinsic barriers of organizational structure and capital investment required in making the necessary changes for a more sustainable supply chain. Over the last 70+ years, H&M Group has strategically built a supplier base and supply chain led by sustainable practices. With transparency and optimization at the forefront of this initiative, Treadler has identified a seven-step process in helping others become more sustainable.

The process starts with Product Development followed by Sourcing. In efforts to optimize suppliers and production across the Treadler client base, H&M Group is sharing its list of suppliers with the supporting facts and figures. The subsequent steps are Sampling, Quotation, and Ordering, all putting transparency and optimization at the forefront. The final steps in the Treadler process for a more sustainable supply chain are Production and Logistics. In these steps, products are put through a physical and chemical quality test for quality control and shipped to their brand warehouses with a reported 95% track record of on-time delivery.

Advancing the Climate Positive Supply Chain

Internally, H&M Group is working to drive the use of only recycled or sustainably sourced materials and to create a Climate Positive value chain.

Currently, H&M Group uses 57% recycled or sustainably sourced materials, 97% recycled or sustainably sourced cotton with over 150 employees in their supplier base working to advance the sustainability initiative. By 2030, the goal is to “only use 100% recycled of other sustainably-sourced materials” in their supply chain and to guide others towards that goal through the help of Treadler.

Shout out to Treadler and H&M Group for helping to move the textile and apparel industry towards a more sustainable future by enabling the growth of sustainable supply chains from product development to logistics and sharing it with the world.