The fashion industry faces a critical crossroads in its race to decarbonize and embrace sustainability. The non-profit H&M Foundation, through its prestigious Global Change Award (GCA), is spotlighting ten pioneering innovations poised to reshape fashion’s future—ushering in cleaner production methods, circular systems, and mindful consumption. Each winner receives a €200,000 grant and enters a yearlong Changemaker Programme designed to accelerate transformative change, aiming to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade and achieve net-zero by 2050. From advanced recycling technologies in China to community-driven circularity in Ghana, these early-stage changemakers are challenging the status quo with bold ideas for a just and sustainable fashion system.
Reimagining Fashion’s Footprint: The Urgency of Decarbonization
The Global Change Award 2025 represents more than a showcase of innovative projects—it is a clarion call for systemic transformation in an industry historically marked by high carbon emissions and resource-intensive processes. The fashion sector is responsible for roughly 10% of global greenhouse gases, placing immense pressure on brands, manufacturers, and consumers to rethink production and consumption patterns. The GCA seeks to back visionary innovators at the early stages of their journey, providing not only funding but strategic support through its Changemaker Programme, which combines innovation coaching, systems thinking, and personal development.
Gabriella Jonsson, CEO of the H&M Foundation, emphasizes, “Fashion’s future depends on our ability to innovate boldly and inclusively. The Global Change Award supports changemakers who are not just fixing problems but reimagining how fashion can serve people and planet fairly.” The ten winners of 2025 embody this ethos, offering scalable solutions that target multiple points along the value chain—from raw material sourcing and textile recycling to sustainable dyeing and new consumption models.
Ten Changemakers, Ten Transformative Ideas
This year’s winners span the globe, reflecting a diverse and holistic approach to tackling fashion’s climate impact. Their innovations fall into three key categories: Responsible Production, Sustainable Materials & Processes, and Mindful Consumption.
Responsible Production
Among the frontrunners is DecoRpet from China, a low-temperature decolorization technology that drastically reduces energy consumption while producing high-quality recycled PET for textile manufacturing. This innovation promises to significantly cut the environmental cost of polyester recycling, a major contributor to microplastic pollution and emissions.
From the UK, Thermal Cyclones presents revolutionary industrial heat pumps that can replace conventional boilers, reducing energy use by over 75%. Meanwhile, Pulpatronics, also from the UK, has developed metal-free, chipless RFID paper tags made with carbon-based ink—pioneering a sustainable approach to traceability and product lifecycle transparency.
Sustainable Materials & Processes
Germany’s CircularFabrics introduces NYLOOP®, a cutting-edge technology that recycles nylon from blended textile waste, closing the loop on one of the most widely used—and problematic—synthetic fibers. In India, A Blunt Story creates UNCRUDE®, a plastic-free sole crafted from bio-based and recycled materials, moving away from fossil fuel dependency in footwear.
UK-based Brilliant Dyes uses cyanobacteria to produce biodegradable, low-energy dyes, redefining textile coloration with minimal environmental impact. Bangladesh’s Decarbonization Lab focuses on pioneering low-emission textile treatments and dyeing methods, aiming to modernize an industry long reliant on polluting practices. Sweden’s Renasens rounds out this group with waterless, chemical-free technology that transforms blended textile waste into raw materials without depolymerization, ensuring a pollution-free process.
Mindful Consumption and Wildcards
Beyond production, the award recognizes innovations in consumption patterns that foster circularity. The UK’s Loom platform connects users with designers to upcycle unworn clothes into bespoke pieces, encouraging personalized reuse and reducing waste. Ghana’s The Revival Circularity Lab is a standout wildcard, transforming textile waste into artisan-made products in Accra’s Kantamanto Market—empowering local communities while building circular economies at the grassroots level.
The Changemaker Programme: Beyond Funding
Winning the Global Change Award is only the beginning. Each innovator joins the yearlong Changemaker Programme, delivered in partnership with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. This unique initiative blends hands-on innovation support with training in systems thinking and personal growth, equipping changemakers to scale their ideas and address complex challenges holistically.
This year’s cohort benefits from expert mentorship, collaborative networks, and access to cutting-edge research—ensuring that their projects not only flourish but embed social equity alongside environmental sustainability. The programme exemplifies how funding coupled with strategic support can accelerate early-stage ideas into industry-wide breakthroughs.
Towards a Just and Net-Zero Fashion Future
The Global Change Award’s vision aligns with the broader imperative for a just transition in fashion—a future where sustainability is intertwined with fairness for workers, communities, and consumers. The award’s founders emphasize that true decarbonization requires rethinking every step of the fashion value chain—from fiber production to garment reuse—and nurturing innovations that prioritize long-term planetary health alongside social justice.
Since its inception in 2015, the GCA has supported 56 game-changing innovations with over €10 million in grants, continuously evolving to meet the pressing challenge of climate change. Importantly, the H&M Foundation and its partners do not claim ownership over the innovations, allowing changemakers full freedom to collaborate and commercialize their solutions on their own terms.
Gabriella Jonsson summarizes, “The future of fashion demands courageous imagination and decisive action. The Global Change Award is proud to champion the changemakers who are daring to transform the industry from within, crafting a legacy of sustainability and justice for generations to come.”
About Global Change Award and H&M Foundation
The Global Change Award accelerates fashion innovation aimed at halving greenhouse gas emissions every decade and achieving net-zero by 2050. It empowers early-stage innovators with financial support and a comprehensive accelerator programme focused on solutions benefiting people and planet alike. The award is run by the H&M Foundation, a philanthropic organization funded by the Persson family, dedicated to fostering transformative change within the textile industry and promoting a socially inclusive, planet-positive future.
