H&M, Zara, And Other Fashion Brands Are Tricking Shoppers With Vague Sustainability Claims

If you’ve been working to curb your environmental footprint, H&M’s Conscious Collection seems like a dream come true. For great prices you can restock your closet with fashionable staples at low prices: a $4.99 jersey top, a $34.99 lyocell dress, $29.99 mom jeans. But look closely at the product descriptions, and there is no specific information about why these items are better for the environment than anything else you might buy from H&M. You have to trust that H&M is not just using sustainability as a marketing ploy. Now, the Norwegian Consumer Authority (CA), the country’s equivalent to the U.S. Consumer Protection Bureau, is calling H&M out. The CA told Fast Company that H&M is “misleading” consumers by failing to provide adequate detail about why their garments are less polluting than other garments. Without more information, it is unclear to the consumer whether H&M is in fact engaging in sustainable manufacturing and sourcing, or simply painting itself as more sustainable than it really is to sell more products. Read more at Fast Company.