The H&M chain operating stores with fast fashion starts to be known for their effort to achieve a higher level of sustainability. The company committed to use 100 % of recycled or ecologically sustainable materials by 2030 and this year it’s going to start using cotton exclusively from ecological resources. They dedicated a whole goods collection to the introduction of sustainable resources. The company has long term experience that goes back before 2010 with ecological approach and effort in sustainable development.

What technologies are being used when searching for more sustainable practices?

Artificial intelligence and predictive technologies play a crucial role when understanding even the smallest details of every material and its passing through the supply chain. Based on these data, it is then possible to perfectly plan delivering and adjust the supply to match the demand.

As Arti Zeighami, global head of advanced analytics and AI, states: “It’s about how you make sure the right product is in the right place at the right time and is transported into the warehouse. Utilizing data analytics allows us to do that. You see a significant impact. And we’re thinking of how we can do this for our entire production.”

Decision making based on real data

H&M created a department dealing with AI implementation in 2018 and one of the published goals was to help the entire company to realize more sustainable business decisions. There are currently 270 people working on the project of AI implementation into various departments and they strive for as many decisions as possible to be based on real data.

The purpose is to calculate and quantify how many pieces of a certain item is going to be purchased by customers. Thanks to the perfectly tuned demand prognosis, it’s possible to use resources that they need and nothing more. Absence of exact planning of demand leads to waste which is a big problem of not only the fashion industry.

H&M has very intense experience when it comes to handling waste. In 2017, Danish journalists accused them of burning 12 tonnes of clothing. In their defence, H&M stated that the goods were damaged and customer safety was their utmost priority.

Using modern technologies should be done with caution

The use of AI for demand planning is however a relatively new thing and as Zeighami emphasizes, it’s important not to forget about all the experiences in the fashion industry of the last 70 years because of innovations. So instead of artificial intelligence, H&M prefers the term amplified intelligence, because it captures the fact that modern technologies serve as support of all the things that the company has been using for years with success.