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Case Study
Retail

H&M Foundation: Sustainable fashion innovation at scale

H&M Foundation fashions positive change with the Billion Dollar Collection.

Call for change

Fashion industry leaders are calling for radical change and exploring ways to be more sustainable.

Sustainable innovators and entrepreneurs are critical to finding new solutions, but often struggle to attract the necessary support to scale innovations. And time is short. Billions of dollars need to be funneled into sustainable fashion innovation annually to reinvent the industry.

This is where the non-profit H&M Foundation comes in. Since 2015, it has supported early stage sustainable innovation through the Global Change Award (GCA), in collaboration with Accenture and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. With 20,000+ entries since its inception, the GCA shows that the collective talent exists to transform the fashion industry. To take sustainable fashion to the next level, the H&M Foundation wanted to measure the multidimensional value some of these innovations could yield with support.

How could the non-profit spotlight 10 of its GCA winners and quantify their potential impact?

"It's crucial to support sustainable innovation if fashion is going to make the shift to a more sustainable industry. The Billion Dollar Collection highlights this untapped opportunity."

— KARL-JOHAN PERSSON, Board member of H&M Foundation and Chairman of H&M Group

When tech meets human ingenuity

The H&M Foundation called on its long-term partner Accenture, to help show what the future could look like.

We helped the H&M Foundation develop and launch a virtual collection of five looks—the Billion Dollar Collection (BDC). Showcased as designer garments, each of the 10 GCA-winning innovations selected come from across the globe and encompass elements from sustainable materials to traceability.

The H&M Foundation drew on Accenture's diverse skills to support the BDC launch. Mackevision (Accenture Song), created a digital avatar from scratch and brought the designer's sketches to life as 10 3D garments using digital twin and CGI technology. To demonstrate the potential impact of the 10 innovations, Accenture applied its 360-degree value approach to each startup with the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals in mind. We also helped create a high-end digital fashion lookbook, featuring the design, solution and potential industry value generated if the innovation is scaled up.

A valuable difference

The H&M Foundation's Billion Dollar Collection helps create a new paradigm to articulate value and innovation in the fashion industry.

The BDC highlights how companies can measure success in a more holistic way by looking at dimensions like sustainability.

The H&M Foundation now has a way to showcase the potential ground-breaking impact of the GCA innovations if they are adopted and scaled. Its sustainable innovations-backed up by thorough analysis-offer the industry an opportunity to reinvent itself to fuel future growth and bring positive change. With these advances, H&M Foundation is changing the face of the fashion industry to make sustainability and innovation default practices by design.

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