Titled Accelerating Fashion Decarbonisation – An Efficient Approach to Unlocking Corporate Value and Financing, the paper says the industry must join forces to protect operations from climate-related disruption and meet current commitments. It also notes that some solutions to these issues already exist.
The white paper aims to provide a resource for finance leaders and offer practical guidance. Rather than offering a single model, it provides a framework to translate climate ambitions into actionable investment pathways.
“The cost of inaction on climate change is simply too high – for the planet and for our industry,” said Adam Karlsson, chief financial officer (CFO) at H&M Group.
“CFOs have a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard long-term business resilience, not just short-term profitability. As CFOs, our role is not to debate whether sustainability targets should be met, but to ensure how they are delivered. This requires a conversation combining cost efficiency and value creation: reducing risk, strengthening resilience, and safeguarding long-term corporate value.”
Practical steps towards decarbonisation
H&M Group and EY say they hope the white paper will inspire others to join forces and engage with decarbonisation efforts in a way that strengthens business resilience.
It focuses on three interlinked barriers to decarbonisation:
- unclear corporate value of financing scope 3 decarbonisation efforts
- complex and fragmented supply chains
- a lack of relevant financing tools
In response, the paper also notes three potential pathways:
- linking impact to financial value
- industrywide collaboration
- scaling decarbonisation with new finance models
The white paper argues that CFOs can play a pivotal role in decarbonisation. It states that integrating climate risk and championing cross-industry financing models will help steer their organisations toward long-term value creation.
“Fashion has a unique opportunity to work together to solve these challenges. We are seeing growing momentum for industry-wide collaboration and an openness to explore new financing models that can help accelerate the green transition,” commented Anna Ryott, Nordic chief impact officer and partner at EY.
“Many industry leaders already recognise that supply-chain decarbonisation not only strengthens resilience but also builds long-term confidence, and they understand that this is the moment to act. The case studies in this paper show that the foundations are already in place, and the ongoing initiatives signal that this is the time to strive for greater impact and global collaboration. Fashion brands must be active stewards of their value chains, not just customers of them.”
"Investing in climate mitigation today can help to reduce long-term costs and business risk," added Clair Smith, head of sustainable trade solutions at HSBC. CFOs can play a critical role by embedding climate risk into capital allocation decisions and championing collaborative financing models.
