H&M has launched a new €1 million prize has under the H&M Conscious Foundation for eco-innovations working to ‘close the loop’ in the fashion industry. Chosen by a jury, five winners of the first Global Change Award will share the prize money and get access to industry support to develop their ideas further. According to Karl-Johan Persson, H&M CEO, and H&M Conscious Foundation board member, the challenge is open to everyone as he believes that ground breaking, game-changing ideas can come from anywhere. Explaining the aim of the award, Person said that each year, the Global Change Award tries to find truly brave and bold ideas that make change.
In collaboration with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the innovation accelerator, will include an innovation boot camp in Stockholm, that would be provided by KTH Innovation, and guidance from Accenture Strategy on how to develop the winning ideas further, Person added.
The closing date for application is end of October and the jury will announce the five winners on February 1, 2016. Each winner gets €100,000 and the public is invited to distribute the other half of the grant through an online vote. The votes’ result will be declared at an award ceremony in Stockholm on February 10, 2016.
Funded by the Stefan Persson family, the H&M Conscious Foundation is a non-profit global foundation. The Persson family is also the founder and main owner of fashion company, H&M. Neither H&M, nor the foundation will take any equity or intellectual property rights in the innovations.
