Evaluation of CSR Activities of H&M Clothing Retail - MNG81001

This report provides an evaluation of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of H&M Clothing Retail, fulfilling the requirements of a Management Communication assignment (MNG81001) at Southern Cross University. The report begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction to CSR and its importance in modern organizations. It analyzes H&M's CSR initiatives, including water conservation, environmental education, and empowerment programs. The analysis includes an examination of H&M's CSR report, evaluating its commitment to sustainability, value chain practices, and communication strategies. The report also addresses challenges faced by the company, such as lack of dialogue and corporate scandals related to worker conditions. Recommendations are provided based on the analysis, aiming to improve H&M's CSR performance. The report uses the SCU Harvard referencing style and includes appendices with screenshots from H&M's website.

Running head: EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
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EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
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EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
Evaluation of CSR Activities of H& M Clothing Retail
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EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
Executive Summary (200 words)
This particular report talks about various CSR activities undertaken by the Company, various
questionnaires to investigate into the methods of sustainability standards that prevail in the
product market. The report also discusses various corporate scandals as well as certain
challenges faced by the Company and methods or processes involved by the industry to
revive in order to achieve economic growth in the country.

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 100..................................................................................................................4
2. Evaluation and analysis associated with CSR activities of H& M Clothing Retail...........4
Q1: Tables 1 and 2 (200 words).................................................................................................6
2.1 How green is my Company.............................................................................................6
2.2 Analysis of the CSR Report............................................................................................6
3. Communication about CSR [Q2] [350 words]...................................................................7
4. The lack of dialogue [Q3] [350 words]..............................................................................7
5. Dangers associated with empty boasting as well as CSR [Q4] [350 words]......................8
5.1 Empty boasting as well as reputation..............................................................................8
5.2 Corporate Scandal 1.............................................................................................................9
5.3 Corporate Scandal 2.............................................................................................................9
6. Conclusion 100.......................................................................................................................9
7. Recommendations 50.............................................................................................................9
8. Appendices (Screenshot of website of the Company H& M Clothing Retail)....................10
References 12 [SCU Harvard].................................................................................................11

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
1. Introduction 100
Department looking after Corporate Communication in most of the organizations usually
work towards taking care of as well as managing the socially evolved perceptions of the
Company. This can be termed as Corporate Social Responsibility that is also known by the
name of CSR function and this acts as most crucial part of department of communication.
This particular department usually involve engagement of the Company with that of societal
actions through involving in activities undertaken by the communities. This usually takes into
account monetary contributions as this assist in finding a solution to social cause that could
easily be engaged with that of community in person. Nowadays several organizations are
becoming aware of engagement of CSR functions as this helps in creating a difference in
terms of big roles played by department of communications by spreading awareness through
social media channels. It is basically the role of department of communication so that an
appropriate CSR report could be created that keeps in mind various achievements made by
the Company. This report is made as such so that stakeholders can read that in the form of
newsletters, emailers or sets of internal communication.
2. Evaluation and analysis associated with CSR activities of H& M
Clothing Retail
H & M Hennes & Mauritz Retail Private Limited is termed as one of the world-renowned
most famous fashion as well as Design Company and since it carries a lot of reputation, it
participated in various kind of social activities that would create an improvement towards
quality of lives of that of the communities in which operation takes place. It usually aligns
with visions of sustainability, several activities are usually undertaken in order to address the
necessities of that of communities in which various kinds of operations take place.

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
The Company has undertaken consultation programs with the CSR committee and decided to
pay focus on certain actions from which maximum value can be gained. These are mainly the
following areas:
Water or sanitation facilities:
The Company has raised focus on creating awareness towards conservation of water and
therefore looking forward to the fact that proper health and hygiene are maintained in most of
the places and it also ensures safe drinking water is available in most parts of the world
(H&M, 2019).
Facilities towards education and protection of environment
The Company has taken important initiatives to foster spreading of awareness and ensure
activities prove beneficial for the environment in terms of maintaining sustainability.
Environmental education is taught to young children and certain programmes are also
arranged by H & M to spread awareness slogans like “Reuse, Reduce and Recycle”, these
have positive impacts on environment both natural as well as social.
Empowerment of youth especially women as well as small girls
The Company usually lays focus on enhancement of livelihood and this also takes into
account further empowerment associated with youth especially young girls, elder women and
aged people in the community. H & M takes part in engagement with numbers of
stakeholders that comprise of experts in education, NGOs as well governments of individual
countries who would take up certain CSR activities which would stay in line with intentions
of Government that are important for society at large (H&M, 2019).

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
The Company keeps aside a budget of fixed amount that would be spend on various CSR
programmes undertaken with respect to various plans on CSR. These CSR projects that are
conducted by the Company do not provide special benefits to their executives.
Q1: Tables 1 and 2 (200 words)
2.1 How green is my Company
The famous Company H & M Foundation that is actually non- profit organization has been
backed the founders of this industry who are looking forward to boost up utilization of
recycled clothing items by engaging a new form of hydrothermal recycling machine. H& M
Group actually launched the first Collection of garments in the spring season of the year 2011
that usually involved certain materials like organic cotton, some recycled polyester and this
form of collective initiative was undertaken in the financial year 2013. Experiments were
undertaken by the Company in accordance to combined form of deliveries, vans run by
electric power as well as packaging free deliveries that helped in reducing impact due to e-
commerce effect. It is predicted that if retailers can lay their emphasis on production of fibre
materials, fabric production as well as dyeing then this would have 97% positive form of
impact on global climate in the year 2016 (H&M, 2019).
2.2 Analysis of the CSR Report
On analysing the CSR report of H & M Retail Industry, it has been identified that this
particular producer of fashionable clothes and fabric usually work such that it can provide
best servings to those customers and it follows sustainable methods of production. From the
reports on sustainability in the year 2017, it has come to the fact that H & M Group can
effectively run value chain products (Herbohn, Walker and Loo, 2014, pp. 444). This forms
of value chain is usually described as an entire sequence of various processes that take into

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
account production as well as lifespan of most of the products and also formulates ideas
associated with customer utilization as well as disposal. They have positive commitment
towards United Nations Global Compact and they constantly work in collaboration with
various forms of stakeholders, global experts as well as various NGOs in order to bring
positive changes in the work environment through shared responsibilities (Turker and
Altuntas, 2014, pp. 843)
They have taken initiatives towards reducing emissions through various operations by an
amount of 21% (Garcia-Torres, Rey-Garcia and Albareda-Vivo, 2017, pp. 2256). This
actually put forward an another step closer on part of H & M Group to achieve positive forms
of value chain due to impacts on climate by the financial year 2020. In the similar way their
mission is to achieve 100% sustainable forms of sourced cotton by the annual year 2020
(H&M, 2019). They have a vision to lead several changes towards renewable fashion
industries and they expect to grow in terms of adopting creative methods in the coming
future.
3. Communication about CSR [Q2] [350 words]
As per the words of Hendrik Alpen who is the sustainability manager at H & M Retail Group,
achievement of methods of systematic change cannot be made possible in single hand and so
collaboration is essential part of the process. Various stakeholder as well as experts, the
business partners, colleagues as well as customers involve together to achieve group vision of
particular fashion as well as design industry. They undergo through various challenges in
terms of collaboration as well as advancement of new technologies in order to create rapid
rise in demand for products in the market. It launched a new brand known in the name of
Arket and this went successful in providing customers in the market with certain forms of
transparencies with respect to their origin.

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
4. The lack of dialogue [Q3] [350 words]
It has recently come to the surface regarding H & M Fashion Industry that it was basically
losing favour in association with American Fashionistas and this was produced in the annual
report of the Company thus drawing concerns of large number of people as well as senior
managers in the Company (Yang, Song and Tong, 2017, pp.1266). The weakness mainly
aroused due to changing patterns in association with customer behaviour that has been
frequent these days and also because large number of shopping sites and online sales has
reduced sales of H & M Group brand in the market. Recently due to these issues there had
been closure of 170 stores of the brand and according to the remarks made by Bloomberg it
has come to known that stores were mainly closed down in Germany and U.S. because of
weak performance in the mature markets. However the Company tried to migrate its sales
through online shopping sites, it has often faced challenges due to uninspired fashion that
does not create good demand for those products through advertisement in social media sites.
5. Dangers associated with empty boasting as well as CSR [Q4] [350
words]
This topmost brand of H & M Group although shared a brand value image in the market,
however workers are exposed to very inhumane conditions associated with working in most
of the supplier factories and this has drastically breached CSR policies as well as moral Code
of Conduct that is prevalent in the market. This brand used to abide by Code of Conduct rules
that various supplier factories shall be paying same wage in order to meet basic needs of most
of the workers however detailed investigation revealed certain true facts that workers were
usually pushed towards overtime work and the wage scale differs according to the peak or
lean season production and they were sometimes not paid (Turker and Altuntas, 2014, pp.
840). Further investigations laid out before certain facts that managers of the Company act as

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
partial to some workers, provide them additional favour while others are deprived of those.
This has led the workers to cause strikes and this poses major threat to the brand image value
in the market if it continues in future.
5.1 Empty boasting as well as reputation
Although this fashion industry underwent several forms of development in the late 20th
century however the Company had been empty boasting about its production strategies as
well as brand designs in the market. However the Company empty boasted regarding its
performances and in the year 2014, it claimed the fact that it has been successful in creating
more production than one of its competitor ZARA, a similar type of retail Company and it
claimed that rewards and bonuses are being provided to most of the staff manufacturers
(Bhattacharya, Korschun and Sen, 2012, pp. 14). Those information were proved to be false
on investigations later on. There had been significant gaps in purchases from merchandise
and more people who used to work in factories where gap products were manufactured did
not know positive information on this fact. This gave rise to confusion in the market and
there was large portion of employee turnover as a result production rate fell quite
significantly.
5.2 Corporate Scandal 1
5.3 Corporate Scandal 2
6. Conclusion 100
Therefore from the above discussion on CSR activities as well as bad reputations and
challenges undergone by the Company signify the fact that the Company has to keep a record
of fashion consciousness in association with products and they should adopt right measures to
control various aspects in the organization, so that the production of the Company is not

EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES OF H& M CLOTHING RETAIL
hampered to much extent. Development of human resource practises can increase
employment opportunities in the market, and this would also enhance sustainable
development towards growth in the economy.
7. Recommendations 50
According to discussion made above, it can be suggested that obtaining the product right can
be considered as one of those key elements that will create long term sustainability of the
Company. It basically puts laser focus on various assortment of products in order to ensure
sustainability in the market and this would also help to meet the demands as well as
necessities of customers.
8. Appendices (Screenshot of website of the Company H& M Clothing
Retail)
Table 1: How 'green' is my company
1. Company name: H and M Clothing Retail
2. Industry type: Cloth Retail, Fashion
3. Is there a CSR
department?
Yes