娱乐英语新闻:Sweden's H&M group issues sustainability report

STOCKHOLM, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Sweden's fashion company H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB Thursday published its Conscious Actions Sustainability Report for 2010, marching towards a good company.

"We want our customers always to feel that we do our best to ensure that the fashion we offer has been made, transported and sold responsibly. To achieve this, transparency is key and our Sustainability Report is an important tool to show our progress and challenges," Karl-Johan Persson, CEO at H&M, said in a statement.

H&M Conscious sustainability work include seven commitments including a target for all cotton to come from more sustainable sources by 2020.

"A total of 68 thousand cotton farmers were educated on more sustainable farming practices through our active engagement in Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). 2010 also saw the first cotton harvest from the BCI," the statement said.

H&M used more organic cotton than ever before in their products with a total of 15 thousand tons, an increase of 77 percent compared to 2009 and it makes H&M the fifth largest users of organic cotton in the world.

The company used 1,600 tons of recycled materials to make new clothes. It also played an active role in forming the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, working to create a universal index to show the environmental impact and fair labor practices for clothing and footwear production.

The company also educated more than 300,000 workers in Bangladesh to teach them on their rights.

H&M announced a global ban on sandblasting for all their products while having saved 50 million liters of water in denim production due to improvement of production method. It will introduce the technique to all denim suppliers in Bangladesh.

H&M also reduced the energy use per square meter in all H&M stores by 8 percent from 2007-2010. It plans to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2020.