H&M: Saving the planet through fashion

This almost sounds like a line out of Kanye West's Twitter account. As ambitious as the statement may sound, giant fashion retailer H&M is walking the talk in its green efforts to reduce waste in the fashion industry and save our planet's increasingly scarce, natural resources.

Their plan? Recycle unwanted garments to help save natural resources and contribute to the mission of closing the loop for textile fibres.

Look good. Feel good. Do good.

H&M's stand is clear. They offer both fashion and sustainability.

So while they are passionate about creating beautiful pieces for us to don, they are also dedicated in doing it consciously through various efforts. One of it is to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Making great fashion uses up a lot of our planet's natural resources such as water. Apart from the fact that massive amount of water is used during the creation of fashion, cotton - a primary material in the fashion industry - need water to grow.

Now, recycling one T-shirt can save about 2,100 litres of water. Imagine the amount of water saved if 10 thousand T-shirts were to be collected! Another benefit of recycling massive amount of garments is that the environmental impact of clothes sitting in landfills around the world is reduced too.

Karl-Johan Persson , CEO of H&M said: "We have set ourselves the challenge of ultimately making fashion sustainable and sustainability fashionable. We want to help people express their personality and feel proud of what they wear. I'm very excited to see the progress we've made so far and how this will help us to make you an even better offer - and create a more sustainable fashion future."

According to H&M's 2015 Conscious report, it has collected more than 12,000 tonnes of garments - this is as much fabric as over 60 million T-shirts!

Give old clothes a new lease of life

For this global fashion movement to take off, we need to come together and make a concerted effort to drive it.

Be it a pair of scruffy jeans, tattered top, or any past seasons' fashion, drop them off at collection boxes placed at every H&M store in Singapore. H&M will then turn pre-loved clothing into new fashion.

With the fashion industry so dependent on natural resources, it is important to minimize textile waste.

World Recycle Week

Although H&M's garment collection programme was launched in 2013, the brand is taking it up a notch this year with World Recycle Week from April 18 - 24.

World Recycle Week is a global H&M initiative, and is part of the fashion retailer's goal to close the loop in fashion - reducing, reusing, and recycling garments to give them a chance at a second lease of life.

It's a win-win situation, truly. Passing on unwanted garments to H&M anytime during this special week, also allows you to receive two vouchers in return; each entitles you to a 15 per cent off one item on your next H&M purchase!

You don't need to be a UN messenger like Leonardo DiCaprio to change the world. Your part, however little it may be, is just as essential in saving our planet's increasingly scarce resources.

So, join H&M in a global fashion movement for the planet today.

For every bag of unwanted garment that you bring to any H&M store, you will receive two H&M vouchers - each entitles you to 15% off one item purchase.

This article was part of a sponsored series first published by SPH Content Studio.