Governing Emissions Beyond Ownership: H&M’s Scope 3 Governance in the Garment Value Chain

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how H&M’s scope 3 emission governance is connected to the distributionof power, responsibility, and value between H&M and its garment manufacturing suppliers.The background explains why scope 3 emissions are particularly relevant in the garmentindustry, where many emissions occur outside H&M’s direct operations. Drawing on a Global Production Network perspective, the study understands H&M as a lead firm in an outsourcedproduction network. Methodologically, it uses qualitative document analysis of H&M reports,policy documents, NGO reports, media articles, and industry sources concerning suppliers andgarment production contexts. The empirical findings show that H&M governs without owningfactories through climate targets, supplier requirements, reporting systems, monitoring, andsupport programmes. The material concerning suppliers indicates that suppliers are expected toimplement environmental practices and provide data while operating under cost pressure anddependency. The discussion argues that scope 3 governance can support emission reductionsand environmental upgrading, but also raises questions about data reliability, cost distribution,and value capture within the value chain. The study concludes that responsibility is shared, butthat H&M is better positioned to define expectations and capture strategic benefits, whilesuppliers may face uncertain economic returns.