H&M Foundation unveils Global Change Award winners

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 6, 2022

H&M Foundation has unveiled five winners of its latest Global Change Award. They include a laundry solution that prolongs garments' life and AI helping smallholder cotton farmers to increase yield and income. The 2022 winners share a €1 million grant from the non-profit foundation. 

H&M Chairman Karl-Johan Persson said that the winners “hold the key to the complex challenges we are facing and prove that it's possible to reinvent fashion”.

So who are the winners this time round? They include UK-based BioPuff by saltyco whose alternative to goose down is “crafted from plants that heal damaged land”.

Then there’s Sweden’s Biorestore, a laundry solution that is claimed to restore old and worn garments to “mint condition”.

Meanwhile, India’s CottonAce by Wadhwani AI has come up with an AI solution that reduces pesticide use, increases yield and raises incomes for smallholder cotton farmers.

The next winner is from China with Re:lastane being the first mild process making elastane and polyester blend fabrics recyclable.

Finally, US-based Rubi makes viscose and lyocell from carbon emissions.

As well as the financial grants, the winners get access to the one-year GCA Impact Accelerator programme provided by H&M Foundation in partnership with Accenture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and The Mills.

That mean “invaluable coaching and support, along with a strong network and memories for life”. The GCA Impact Accelerator aims to help the winning ideas scale at speed. It also offers winners a mix of “inspiring digital sessions and meet-ups at key locations”.

The award first launched in 2015 as the company worked to “transform fashion and make it planet-positive, in order for the industry to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030”.