#Sustainability

2025-05-29

Ten bold ideas to decarbonise fashion: Meet the winners of Global Change Award 2025

The H&M Foundation has revealed the ten winners of the Global Change Award 2025 – spotlighting groundbreaking ideas aimed at decarbonising the fashion industry in a just way. Each winner will receive a €200,000 grant and take part in the yearlong GCA Changemaker Programme – one of the few programmes of its kind focused on early-stage fashion innovation. Designed to accelerate the industry’s journey toward net-zero, the programme offers a mix of innovation support, systems thinking and personal growth.

The non-profit H&M Foundation announces ten early-stage innovations set to reshape the fashion industry – from clean tech recycling in China to community-powered circularity in Ghana © 2025 H&M Foundation

This year’s winners come from across the globe – from Germany to Ghana, India to the UK – with ideas spanning from smart recycling and heat pumps designed to replace outdated gas and oil steam boilers to radically inclusive circular systems. All are united by a shared goal: to halve the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions every decade and reach net-zero by 2050 – in a way that’s just for both people and planet.

"GCA is about more than specific innovations. It’s about reimagining the entire fashion system. One innovation alone won’t fix fashion – we need to shake the foundations and innovate how we innovate. That’s why we back bold thinkers at the very start of their journeys. These changemakers aren’t just solving problems, they’re challenging outdated systems and showing us what a new future could look like. It’s time to stop tweaking and start transforming", states Annie Lindmark, Programme Director H&M Foundation.

The 2025 winners and their innovations:

Responsible Production

DecoRpet (China) – A low-temperature decolorisation process that slashes energy use while delivering high-quality recycled PET for new textile production. Changemakers: Youbing Mu, Xiaobo Wu & Shuang Su

Thermal Cyclones (United Kingdom) – Revolutionary industrial heat pumps that can replace traditional boilers and reduce energy consumption by over 75%. Changemakers: James Parkin & Chris Benson

Pulpatronics (United Kingdom) – Metal-free, chipless RFID paper tags – recyclable, cost-effective, and made with carbon-based ink. The future of sustainable traceability. Changemakers: Chloe So & Barna Soma Biro

Sustainable Materials & Processes

CircularFabrics (Germany) – NYLOOP® tech recovers high-quality nylon from blended textile waste – closing the loop on one of fashion’s most used materials. Changemakers: Josephine Mayer, Miguel Chacon-Teran, Ruben Serrano

A Blunt Story (India) – UNCRUDE® is a plastic-free sole made from bio-based and recycled materials – a clean break from fossil-based footwear. Changemaker: Chandni Batra

Brilliant Dyes (United Kingdom) – Harnessing the power of cyanobacteria, this start-up creates biodegradable dyes with a low-energy extraction method. Changemaker: Mohammad Redwanur Rahman

Decarbonization Lab (Bangladesh) – A dedicated R&D space pioneering lowemission with a focus on textile treatments and dyeing techniques to modernise outdated industry practices. Changemaker: Mohammad Abbas Uddin

Renasens (Sweden) – Waterless, chemical-free technology that turns blended textile waste into raw materials – no depolymerisation, no pollution. Changemaker: Jade A. Bouledjouidja

Mindful Consumption

Loom (United Kingdom) – An intuitive tech platform that connects users with designers to upcycle unworn clothes into one-of-a-kind pieces. Changemaker: Daisy Harvey

Wildcards

The Revival Circularity Lab (Ghana) – A creative hub in Accra’s Kantamanto Market that turns textile waste into value – empowering artisans and building local circularity. Changemaker: Yayra Agbofah

All ten winners will now join the GCA Changemaker Programme – a hands-on, yearlong initiative delivered by the H&M Foundation with GCA partners Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The programme focuses on advancing each early-stage idea while equipping changemakers with the tools to grow personally, think systemically and develop solutions that will benefit both people and the planet.

"To truly decarbonise fashion, we need to reimagine every part of the value chain – from how fibres are made to how garments are reused. These changemakers remind us that transformation starts with imagination and action. Their ideas demonstrate concrete ways to challenge the status quo and move the industry towards a net-zero future," says Karl-Johan Persson, Founder and Board Member of the H&M Foundation.

As the Global Change Award enters its tenth year, its mission remains more urgent than ever: to back diverse changemakers with bold ideas and spark system-wide transformation that benefits both people and planet. Since 2015, the GCA has supported 56 innovations with a combined grant of €10 million, constantly evolving to meet the industry’s greatest challenge – decarbonisation.

Neither H&M Foundation nor the GCA partners, take any equity or intellectual property rights in the innovations. The idea is to find the changemakers and innovations that have the potential to drive meaningful change for the entire industry. The winners are free to collaborate with whomever they want.

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