H&M is making progress in its sustainable fashion quest

The H&M Group has announced that 57% of the materials it now uses are created using recycled or other sustainably sourced fibers.

The figure was announced as part of the fashion conglomerate's new ‘Sustainability Report,' which summarizes its progress towards promoting a circular fashion industry.

A huge factor in the company's sustainability ethos is its mission to eventually use only recycled and sustainably sourced materials. In 2018, it increased this percentage from 35% to 57%, revealing that 95% of the cotton it used was sustainably sourced or recycled.

"Recycled materials are truly a win-win: they stop waste material from going to landfill and reduce the use of virgin raw materials," said Cecilia Brännsten, Environmental Sustainability Manager H&M Group, in a statement. "However, for many types of textiles, viable recycling solutions either do not exist or are not commercially available on a large scale. We are therefore collaborating with scientists and innovators to tackle this change, but at the same time working to increase other sustainably sourced materials as quickly as possible."

Starting later this month, the H&M and H&M Home labels will also add more information about the materials used in their products to hm.com, so that shoppers can see which factories produced certain items, and learn about material composition and solutions for recycling used products.

The report also highlights that the group -- which counts the brands H&M, Cos, Monki, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories and Weekday as part of its portfolio -- reduced its CO2 emissions from its operations by 11% over the course of last year, in addition to setting a goal of achieving 100% recycled or sustainably sourced packaging materials by 2030.

H&M spent much of 2018 generating headlines for various sustainable fashion initiatives, but the company is not alone in tackling environmental issues. January saw Asos and PVH Corp. (which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) join the Global Fashion Agenda, an initiative promoting a sustainable fashion industry, alongside Kering, Nike and Target, among others.