Sustainable by Design? : A Critical Analysis of H&M’s Sustainability Reporting

Sammanfattning

This study examines how sustainability is represented in fast-fashion companies’ sustainability reports, using H&M as a single-case study. It applies a qualitative research design to analyse four sustainability reports published between 2002 and 2025, guided by Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach and is analysed through the lens of institutional theory and Foucault’s concept of governmentality. Together, these frameworks enable an examination of how sustainability issues are problematized and governed within corporate discourse. Certain ways of thinking about sustainability are made visible, while others are marginalized. The findings show that H&M consistently represents sustainability problems as issues related to emissions, materials, supply chains and production processes rather than as consequences of the fast-fashion business model. Sustainability is framed as an issue that can be addressed through innovation, efficiency, circularity and collaboration within existing business structures. At the same time, structural issues such as overproduction, overconsumption and the compatibility between economic growth and ecological limits remain largely unaddressed. The study contributes to research on corporate sustainability communication by demonstrating how sustainability reporting can function as a mechanism for legitimizing existing business models while limiting the scope for more transformative alternatives.