hi I'm Kristen and welcome to my channel
you might have heard of this small
Swedish fashion brand it's called hmm
they have 4,300 stores globally there's
a second largest fashion retailer after
indie type such as ours caring company
but you can find all that information on
their Wikipedia page doing a little more
digging I discovered on their website
they have a full have dedicated to
sustainability and in the about Us
section right at the top they mentioned
they want to dress customers in a
sustainable way then there is more talk
about sustainability they were also
named one of the world's most ethical
companies by the Ethisphere Institute
which is totally not like it's the Human
Centipede won an Oscar one of my
favorite lines from their website is we
want to make sustainable good quality
fashion accessible to as many people as
possible
but pay attention to the grammar it says
we want not we our big difference
between future and present and they
continue to say we have a passion for
fashion for our planet and how we affect
the world around us today being
conscious in every part of the fashion
making process is at the core of our
business I'm sorry but this color is the
fashion industry is the third most
polluting industry in the world they are
a fast fashion brand they release a new
micro season every week that's 52 new
collections per year of selling more
than 600 million garments annually and
182 thousand tons of clothing even if
100% of their garments was made from
organic cotton and recycled fabric was
Buick worn hair in it it would still be
destructive to the environment and
incredibly unsustainable I mean come on
people can't really be buying this candy
aisle apparently they are because H&M is
2.5 billion dollars in profit in 2015 so
how sustainable is hmm really 13.7
percent of its total garment production
is organic cotton and around 1 percent
recycled fabric 14.7% that's it that's
how sustainable their garments are it's
like ordering a burger and saying is
vegan just because it has one leaf of
organic lettuce in it honey is not they
are doing something but only a tiny bit
of something and plastering all the
sustainability all over their
website is incredibly misleading to
their customers I've been thinking lol
but note at the bottom of the page that
says our efforts may not completely
destroy the planet and stuff we are kind
of trying to what H&M is doing is called
corporate green washing they are paying
more on celebrities advertising and to
raise like girls or cycleways to
convince us they are a sustainable brand
then they actually pay to have their
clothes Nate Lucy Segal wrote an article
on the Guardian expanding on this and I
highly recommend you guys check it out
and have it linked in the description
box below
next up commitment to employees and
working conditions
well far less mentioned on their website
which only means get ready to uncover
some shady shakin and just like all
other fast fashion corporations has
independent suppliers often in
developing countries making their
products hmmm negotiates with the
supplier factories to get the lowest
price
Bangladesh is its largest supplier with
about 285 factories and from those only
34 are somewhat safe to work and without
dying in a fire or passing out from
toxic chemicals heat or lack of
ventilation every day at work for H&M is
an adventure all those in 2014 they've
stated they are planning on paying their
textile workers a fair living wage by
2018 but problem number one they don't
really define how much that is hole
number two they are openly admitting
their workers are currently not making a
fair living wage
problem number three they are not even
close to reaching that goal guys its
2017 what have you been doing all this
time the minimum wage in Cambodia
another top supplier for H&M is reported
to be 140 dollars in 2016 but the ASW a
calculates a viable living wage is three
hundred and ninety three dollars that is
more than double and in a lot of cases
garment factory workers make less than
the minimum wage and they are forced to
work illegal overtime up to 15 hours a
day in order to earn enough to survive
and in many cases they're not
allowed to have bathroom breaks and it
doesn't end there
women and supplier factories in India
and Cambodia are reported to routinely
get fired if they become pregnant in
2016
Syrian refugee children were found
working in hmmm supplier sweatshop this
year in 2017 child labor was uncovered
in the production of the david beckham
for H&M collection in burma teenage
girls as young as 13 were found working
for as little as thirty pen an hour
oh well that's of the tiger gas the list
goes on and on and honestly this video
would never end
if i wanted to include every single
human rights violation that has taken
part in hmm supplier factories but i'm
going to mention one that is very
personal to me here in greece hmm
employees were recently demonstrating
against the new labor contract the
company was forcing them to sign one of
the new terms with giving ancient and
the ability to relocate employees
anywhere in greece out their own cost as
a ploy to make them quit so they didn't
have to fire them and pay compensation
but if they can done really to blame for
doing what every other fast fashion
corporation is doing putting profit over
people and doing everything possible to
beat the competition and make more cash
stefan person billionaire CEO of H&M
makes more than 16 million dollars
annually is he to blame for wanting more
or per houses it all of us we're no
longer people we're consumers with an
unquenchable appetite for low prices and
more more more our demand for cheap
clothing and our indifference for the
people that make them is what brought us
to this point we buy clothes and don't
even wear them we make impulse purchases
and end up throwing them away is
anything ever going to be enough to make
a stop how many more workers have to be
abused
how many more tons of clothing need to
end up in landfills how many more
billions are we going to keep giving to
billionaires simply so we can look good
today and outdated tomorrow perhaps all
it takes is for instance simply not the
truth because the only thing about
fashion brands has been selling us so
far it's lies watching the true cost
documentary is what made me change
have it and perhaps it can inspire you
to do the same I have loads of videos on
my channel with information and tips on
how to shop consciously and you can find
it all in a playlist right over here or
in the description box also please make
sure to share this video around to as
many people as possible and help your
friends and your family to learn about
hmm secrets and help spread this message
to as many people as we possibly can
also if you want to you can contact a
company through social media requesting
them to improve working conditions ASAP
and increase their wages also thank you
so much for watching this video please
make sure it's like comment below and
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