H&M Foundation explores the power of early-stage innovation
What would the textile industry look like if more bold innovations were scaled earlier? In collaboration with Accenture and the 2025 Global Change Award winners, the H&M Foundation unveiled its reimagined System Map in the From Signals to Systems Change report. The map — which builds on Actor Network Theory — visualises how early-stage innovation could drive a just and net-zero textile future.
Image credit: H&M Foundation
From Signals to Systems Change explores how early ideas can become a catalyst for a just and decarbonised textile future.
It maps the key forces reshaping fashion — from AI and geopolitics to resource scarcity and biodiversity loss — calling on industry leaders, investors, and policymakers to recognise their place in an interconnected system.
“If we don’t see the system, we can’t change it, and that’s exactly what this work helps us do,” says Annie Lindmark, programme director, innovation at the H&M Foundation.
“By looking at the fashion system as it is today and reimagining what it could become, we visualised how scaling early-stage innovations might ripple across the industry.
“Our hope is that different stakeholders will explore the System Map and ask themselves where in the system they have the most power to influence change, and in doing so, ignite new sparks of transformation.”
To understand what early-stage innovation can achieve at scale, Accenture applied its 360° value approach to estimate the potential impact of four Global Change Award 2025 winners: Loom, PulpaTronics, Renasens, and The Revival Circularity Lab.
The findings show that when small ideas are supported early, they can deliver outsized returns for both climate and communities.
By 2050, their innovations could:
- Save 570,000 tonnes of CO² annually, equal to the life-cycle emissions of 170 million cotton T-shirts.
- Save 160 billion litres of water, enough for the annual drinking needs of 200 million people.
- Create 30,000 designer jobs and reduce 3,000 tonnes of e-waste each year.
Check out the reimagined System Map and report here.