A group of companies, including fashion and design brands company H&M Group, power company ENGIE, along with Erste Group, Philips and Vėjo projektai, announced today that they have joined the EU Commission’s Green Consumption Pledge Initiative, with a series of sustainable future-oriented commitments.
Launched in January 2021, the Green Consumption Pledge aims to encourage companies to make voluntary commitments that facilitate sustainable production and consumption. The pledge is built around several core areas, including calculating and communicating the carbon footprint of the company and of selected flagship products, increasing the sale of sustainable products, committing part of the corporate public relations expenditure to the promotion of sustainable practices, and ensuring information provided to consumers in relation to the company and product carbon footprints.
The new companies to the pledge join founding companies Colruyt Group, Decathlon, LEGO Group, L’Oréal and Renewed.
Helena Helmersson, CEO H&M Group, said:
“Climate crisis and the necessary transformation of our industry requires us to take great steps. But we believe it’s only possible to do so by collaborating with others and developing forward-thinking solutions at EU level. With our commitment to the pledge we want to lead by example and contribute to the European Commission’s goal to accelerate positive change across our industry.”
Each company highlighted several commitments in joining the pledge. H&M’s commitments include targets to apply carbon footprint calculation to 100% of its H&M brand’s apparel products within 3 years, and to increase the number of products designed according to the company’s Circular Product Development Guideline. ENGIE has committed to increase the overall share of renewable energy in electricity production from 31% in 2020 to 58% in 2030, to completely phase out coal-fuelled power in Europe by 2025 and to step up investments in renewable assets. Each of the company’s commitments under the pledge can be seen here.
Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, said:
“I welcome the commitments made by those six companies for concrete actions towards greater sustainable production and consumption, beyond what is required by EU law. This determination to step up climate action shows the kind of effort European consumers want to see. By now eleven companies are already participating in the Green Pledge and I am looking forward to even more in the future.”
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