Sustainability and Responsibility Case Study Report

This case study report focuses on the sustainability and responsibility of H&M clothing company. It includes an internal analysis of the company's strengths and weaknesses related to sustainability, an external analysis to identify potential opportunities and threats, an aggressive strategy to leverage competitive advantage, and a defensive strategy to deal with the threat of pollution. The report also discusses environmental, political, economic, social, and technological factors affecting H&M.

Sustainability and
responsibility

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Internal analysis of the H&M company to identify its strengths and weaknesses in context of
sustainability(pollution, water waste, CO2, human rights)....................................................4
External analysis Undertake an external analysis of H&M company to identify potential
opportunities to be more sustainable and responsible and threats to the ongoing sustainability
and responsibility of your organization..................................................................................6
Aggressive strategy Undertake matching of strengths and opportunities to identify a
competitive advantage that H&M company has to be more sustainable and responsible and
propose an aggressive strategy to leverage this......................................................................8
Defensive strategy Identify where H&M company is particularly vulnerable to a possible
threat to their sustainability and responsibility due to their weaknesses ...............................9
Defensive strategy by H&M to deal with the threat of pollution..................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In the functioning of a company, sustainability is considered as major approach which
helps a company to facilitate environment (Alba-Hidalgo, Benayas del Álamo, and Gutiérrez-
Pérez, 2018). The future generations, employees, customers and government are key
stakeholders in the process of sustainability. It is the major ethical duty of management of a
business to focus on increasing sustainability of the organisation in order to set an example for
other companies at the marketplace. In this project example of H&M clothing is taken into
consideration for better understanding key aspects of sustainability. The H&M clothing is a
multinational organisation which belongs to Sweden. The company was founded in the year
1947 and is headquartered in Stockholm. This report will cover internal analysis of H&M
clothing company and identify its strength and weaknesses. This project will also cover external
analysis of the company in order to analyse the sustainability based practices in a defined
manner.
Illustration 1: H&M clothing, 2022

MAIN BODY
Internal analysis of the H&M company to identify its strengths and weaknesses in context of
sustainability(pollution, water waste, CO2, human rights)
The internal analysis is important framework which helps a company to deliver key
practices related to environment. The internal analysis of H&M is analysed in relation to the
sustainability. The internal analysis is mentioned below with the help of SWOT analysis in order
to know the strengths and weaknesses of the company.
 Strengths- Strengths are considered as key points which highlights capabilities and
abilities of a firm to face the environmental challenges. The major strength of H&M
clothing is it creates a less environment pollution (Baland, Bardhan,. and Bowles, 2018).
The company has set different rules and regulations in order to overcome environmental
challenges. Another strength of H&M clothing is, it also creates less noise pollution.
Illustration 2: Water pollution in United Kingdom, 2022

 Weaknesses- It is crucial for a business entity to focus on certain weaknesses in order to
overcome them with help of plans and policies. The weakness of H&M clothing related
to sustainability is, it creates more water waste. The water waste done by H&M clothing
is harmful for the aquatic life and for the society as well.
 Opportunities- Implementation of best practices related to human rights is one of the
key opportunities available to H&M company. The company should follow the human
rights policy of government in order to conduct ethical and legal business.
 Threats- The threats are considered as obstacles and hurdles for a business which create
a negative impact. It is essential for H&M company to analyse major threats associated
with the business to develop best environmental practices (Balasubramanian, ,and
Chanchaichujit, 2021). The major threats related to environment for the H&M company
are increasing water pollution and air pollution. In order to deal with key threats,
strategic framework can be helpful.
Illustration 3: Statistics of Air pollution in United Kingdom, 2022

External analysis Undertake an external analysis of H&M company to identify potential
opportunities to be more sustainable and responsible and threats to the ongoing
sustainability and responsibility of your organization.
External analysis is one of analysis that can be used by H&M in their business in order to
identify factors that create threat and opportunity for their business. There are different factors
which create impact over sustainability and responsibility of organization. These factors can be
includes interference and regulation of government, growth rate of economy, awareness among
people, legislation, environmental regulation and other things. Explanation of these factors in
context of H&M is mentioned below:
 Political Factors: It is one of important factor that consist government regulation and
interference in business. Government of a country interfere in business like H&M in
various manner. Government of UK has made various regulations for business and it is
important for business to follow their regulation in order to ensure their survival in
marketing environment of UK. It is expected by government from business to ensure
sustainability in business and also fulfil their responsibility towards people of their
country (Barwell, 2018). In order to fulfil, these expectation of government, H&M needs
to consider these regulation of government in business.
Illustration 4: The Climate change in United Kingdom, 2022

 Economic Factor: It is a factor that focus on growth rate of economy that create impact
over business It consist element like inflation rate, interest rate, wages rate and other
things. Sustainability also includes economic perspective as it is important for H&M to
carry out its business in a manner that will provide various benefit to economy of a
country in current as well as future period of time.
 Social Factor: These factors includes demographic factors and believe of people live in
that country. Education rate in UK is high as it is developed economy and these people
are aware about advantage and disadvantage of sustainability (Cheng, and Li, 2019). Due
to this, it is important for H&M to fulfil sustainability requirement and responsibility as it
will develop positive image of company in minds of customers.
 Technological Factor: it is a factors that focus on advancement and development of
technology. Increasing development of technology also results in negative impact over
environment. It cause pollution in environment as different types of machines are used in
factory due to which pollution level increased. It is important for business of H&M to
consider these factors and ensure use of technology that focus on reducing negative
impact over environment.
 Legal Factors: There are different types of laws and legislation included in this factor.
These laws are related to environmental sustainability that allow H&M to fulfil their
responsibility. It is important for business to follow these legislation as it will improve
image of company in minds of customers (Hamid, and Norman, 2017). It also allow
them for purpose of selling more products in market and allow them to avoid inference of
legal authority in business.
 Environmental Factors: It is also consider as important factor in business as people of
UK are highly aware about environment (Higón, Gholami, and Shirazi, 2017). Due to
this environmental awareness among people it is important for H&M to fulfil its
sustainability responsibility towards environment as it can reduce demand of their
products in UK.

Aggressive strategy Undertake matching of strengths and opportunities to identify a competitive
advantage that H&M company has to be more sustainable and responsible and propose an
aggressive strategy to leverage this.
It is important for H&M clothing company to develop a focused and strategic approach in
order to deal with key issues and challenges related to environment. The strategy developed by
H&M company will help in gaining competitive advantage. The proposed strategy for H&M
company is given below:
 Decision-making- The H&M clothing company should develop effectiveness in its
decision-making process to create emphasis on sustainability. The company should focus
on making crucial decisions related to conservation of environment to develop focused
practices.
Illustration 5: Environmental policies, 2022

 Product innovation- Innovation in key products of company is very much essential to
support idea of sustainability (Katakojwala, and Mohan, 2021). H&M clothing company
should develop innovation in products and services in order to provide environment
friendly goods to customers. This will help the company to develop sustainability in key
operations and functions. Product innovation will also help the organisation to set an
example for other companies and they will be also motivated to save the environment.
 Planning framework- The planning framework is major approach which can be strategic
to achieve key outcomes related to environmental development (Koul, Yakoob, and Shah,
2022). This is one of the key role of a business to develop planning framework with the
help and support of sustainability based practices to lead the competition.
Defensive strategy Identify where H&M company is particularly vulnerable to a possible threat
to their sustainability and responsibility due to their weaknesses
In the recent times, all major companies in the international and national marketplace
focus on development of defensive strategy (Wheaton, 2020). H&M company should deliver key
practices based on identifying major threats which can impact on its revenue and profitability.
Sustainability and responsibility of the H&M company are two major things which can be
impacted by the threat. The main threat for H&M company related to sustainability and
responsibility is pollution. The pollution includes mainly water waste is a major concern of
H&M company which creates major impact on the environment (Nguyen, and Johnson, 2020).
Water waste is also creating a concern for government of UK and government is planning to
evaluate and develop key measures in order to solve the problem. It is also important for the
H&M company to resolve this issue in order to set an example for development of sustainability.

Defensive strategy by H&M to deal with the threat of pollution
It is very much essential for H&M company to deal with the threat of water pollution to
provide healthy and aquatic life. There is a need of implementation of strategy with full
supervision and control to achieve the desired results. The H&M company should focus on
following defensive strategic options to deal with the issue:
 Establish system and process- The system and process should be developed by H&M
clothing company to deal with key consequences. The system and process should be
developed with the help of top level management and board of directors to perform key
operations in a well defined manner.
 Set goals and commitments- The H&M clothing should set goals and commitments
related to sustainability. In order to achieve goals related to sustainability, it is important
for H&M clothing to take help of precise and systematic plans and policies. The goals
and targets set by the company should be analysed and performed according to
requirements of the environment (Sarkis, and Zhu, 2018). Once key environmental,
social and governance issues have been identified and engagement methods for each
stakeholder group have been defined, efforts must focus on reducing risks and seizing
opportunities around these issues centred on sustainable practices.
 Track progress- Tracking the progress of sustainability based plan will also help the
company to deliver best environmental policy (Song, Cen, and Huisingh, 2017)(Stern,
2018). It is major role of the company to take into consideration suggestions by
environment experts in order to perform key operations. The progress should be
monitored in a defined manner and the results should be analysed in order to achieve key
targets in a set period.

CONCLUSION
From the above stated report it can be concluded that in the era of stiff competition
between different companies, it is necessary for a company to focus on increasing sustainability.
This is major role of a company to focus developing strategies with the help of strategic and top
level management in order to develop effectiveness in all major tasks and activities. This project
concludes the importance of strategic and top level management in order to develop precise plans
and policies which are developed to maintain sustainability. The project also concludes the
importance of internal and external analysis in order to achieve all major goals and objectives
related to sustainability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alba-Hidalgo, D., Benayas del Álamo, J. and Gutiérrez-Pérez, J., 2018. Towards a definition of
environmental sustainability evaluation in higher education. Higher Education Policy, 31(4),
pp.447-470.
Baland, J.M., Bardhan, P. and Bowles, S. eds., 2018. Inequality, cooperation, and environmental
sustainability. Princeton University Press.
Balasubramanian, S.,and Chanchaichujit, J., 2021. Do firm characteristics affect environmental
sustainability? A literature review‐based assessment. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 30(2), pp.1389-1416.
Barwell, R., 2018. Some thoughts on a mathematics education for environmental sustainability.
In The philosophy of mathematics education today (pp. 145-160). Springer, Cham.
Cheng, R. and Li, W., 2019. Evaluating environmental sustainability of an urban industrial plan
under the three-line environmental governance policy in China. Journal of environmental
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Hamid, S., and Norman, A.A., 2017. Social media for environmental sustainability awareness in
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Higón, D.A., Gholami, R. and Shirazi, F., 2017. ICT and environmental sustainability: A global
perspective. Telematics and Informatics, 34(4), pp.85-95.
Katakojwala, R. and Mohan, S.V., 2021. A critical view on the environmental sustainability of
biorefinery systems. Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 27, p.100392.
Koul, B., Yakoob, M. and Shah, M.P., 2022. Agricultural waste management strategies for
environmental sustainability. Environmental Research, 206, p.112285.
Nguyen, N. and Johnson, L.W., 2020. Consumer behaviour and environmental
sustainability. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 19(6), pp.539-541.
Sarkis, J. and Zhu, Q., 2018. Environmental sustainability and production: taking the road less
travelled. International Journal of Production Research, 56(1-2), pp.743-759.
Song, M., Cen, L.,and Huisingh, D., 2017. How would big data support societal development
and environmental sustainability? Insights and practices. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142,
pp.489-500.
Stern, M.J., 2018. Social science theory for environmental sustainability: A practical guide.
Oxford University Press.
Wheaton, B., 2020. Surfing and environmental sustainability. In Sport and the Environment.
Emerald Publishing Limited.