H&M was established in Sweden 1947 and sells clothes and cosmetics through our more than 1500 stores in over 28 countries, employing more than 68,000 people. With Germany still our biggest market, H&M continues to expand to new markets and during 2007, the net increase of stores was 177. In 2007 H&M expanded into China, Slovakia, Greece and Qatar, and the turnover exceeded SEK 92 billion.

In REACH terms, H&M is a "downstream user" and "importer of articles". H&M does not own or run manufacturing plants ourselves, but is a major purchasing power, continuously working with over 700 suppliers worldwide.

Phasing Out Harmful Chemicals from Textiles

Many processes involved in making garments, such as spinning, knitting, bleaching, printing, dyeing etc. require the use of various chemicals. It could be knitting oils, bleaching agents, dye stuff, softeners etc. Those chemicals are essential for producing garments that meet consumers' demands. Some chemicals such as dye stuffs are intended to stay in the fabric after processing to add value to the product. Other chemicals are used only to facilitate the processing of the fabric but even after rinsing they may remain as unavoidable impurities.

H&M's quality concept requires the garments to be manufactured without the use of environmentally hazardous chemicals or harmful substances and to be produced under good working conditions. As a tool to achieve this H&M published, for the first time already in 1995, a set of standards known as H&M Chemical Restrictions, which is a list of chemicals that H&M ban or restrict from our products. The list covers legislations within H&M's sales countries, but the main part of the list is based on the precautionary principle. H&M continuously monitors new chemical related information that becomes available from authorities, NGO's etc. and updates the restrictions as needed in order to continue to make it represent that principle.

The latest update was made in December 2007. A few examples of substances that have been phased out in favour of substitutes are brominated flame retardants, phthalates, nonylphenol ethoxylates and PVC. Each supplier to H&M needs to sign a commitment to comply with the restrictions. H&M educates and supports suppliers regarding the restrictions and also performs tests to make sure products comply.

Supply Chain Challenges

The supply chain of a consumer product like a garment is often very long and complicated with various subcontractors spread out geographically. For a typical garment, these subcontractors could include farmers, traders, spinners, weavers, dye mills, printers, accessories producers and chemical manufacturers. To get the right information through to all involved people is probably the biggest challenge in getting compliant products. Therefore, H&M has chemists employed at our offices in the production markets who frequently visit suppliers and their subcontractors. The purpose of their work is to make sure that H&M's requirements are well known and understood throughout the supply chain, and that suppliers have a suitable chemical management system in order to prevent and avoid any non-compliance.

We believe that REACH will be of great help in this work as it will facilitate and improve the information flow from chemical manufacturers to users. REACH will also fill information gaps and establish clear criteria for identifying unacceptable substances, for all retailers to use. Having the same obligations in place for all actors on the European market will create leverage in the supply chain so that we all can get safer products more cost-effective.

Cooperation for Better Compliance

More and more retailers are setting up requirements for the chemical content of the products they buy. The specific demands might differ between companies depending on where they market their products, but the objective is often the same; to purchase and sell safer products. In 2005, H&M joined the Apparel and Footwear I nternational RSL Management Working Group (AFIRM), with over 10 major retailers as its members. AFIRM's mission is to reduce the use and impact of harmful substances in the apparel and footwear supply chain. This is partly achieved by organising seminars for the supply chain to spread information about restricted chemicals and how to control them. Next such seminar will take place in New Delhi, India, see www.afirm-group.com for more information.

With many retailers sharing suppliers, cooperation like this is a perfect way to increase suppliers' knowledge and also to share information and benefit from each others' experiences.

Preparations for REACH

Articles 6 and 7 of REACH establish obligations to register and notify substances in preparations and articles that are produced in or imported into the E uropean Union. H&M will, for relevant products according to article 6 such as cosmetics carry out the necessary pre-registrations. According to Article 7.2 of REACH, each importer of articles (e.g. garment) into the E U shall notify the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) if those articles contain substances of very high concern (SVHC) above a certain concentration and their total amount exceeds 1 ton per year.

Since an official SVHC-list does not yet exist, H&M has created its own with information retrieved from various public data bases, using the criteria in article 57 of REACH. Any substances on that list deemed relevant for our product range have been added to H&M Chemical Restrictions which works as an industry specific SHVClist. H&M's intention is to not purchase articles that require notification. All in order to make sure we continue to work according to one of REACH's main principles; the precautionary.

Conclusion

A strong REACH with strict and clear guidelines will facilitate H&M's work to ensure that all products we offer our customers are free from substances that are, or could potentially be, harmful for health and environment. Safe products can only be achieved through partnership among retailers, suppliers and manufacturers.