As the IDEO website notes, H&M chief executive Helena Helmersson set ambitious sustainability goals when she stepped into her role. She wanted to reduce the fashion giant’s impact on the environment and enable meaningful growth.

Fashion e-commerce is estimated to grow by 10% annually through 2024, requiring even more packaging. Packaging accounts for 26% of plastics produced globally every year. But change is tough for any company, let alone one with eight brands operating across 74 markets.

(above) Examples of H&M’s new plastic free packaging

(above) Video displaying design by IDEO

(above) Video displaying design by IDEO

After gaining valuable insights from the project, a team called Design Studio evolved into an established strategic capability; leading the organisation in developing innovative approaches to address intricate issues in circularity, inclusion, supply chain, and the customer experience.

As the studios head, Catharina Frankander noted:

“Sustainable packaging was our first beacon project for using a design-led approach to deliver on big shifts as a company. Today we’ve built a design capability tackling challenges in key strategic areas while unleashing human centred ways of working across our organisation.”

Together IDEO and the H&M Group created new plastic-free packaging, rallying around a more sustainable packaging solution that’s easily customisable. This project has led to 100 million plastic free packages being shipped in 2022 and 2,000 tonnes of plastic being eliminated from H&M operations. This was a really interesting project to study as it highlighted that evolving how design can be applied to huge brands to reduce waste.