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Leaders are responsible for designing the operating models that embed sustainability into business. That’s the clear view of Helena Helmersson – if it sits only within a specialist team, it will remain peripheral. Climate, circularity and human rights goals must sit with the leaders who own margins, growth and supply chain risk. That shift moves sustainability from a compliance function into operational responsibility.
Measurement and cadence matter just as much as structure. Sustainability metrics such as science-based targets and circular material targets should be tracked with the same frequency as commercial performance. If emissions are reviewed quarterly while sales are reviewed weekly, the organisation quickly learns which numbers carry weight. Embedding sustainability means integrating it into the same performance rhythm as financial metrics.
Incentives reinforce those signals. If bonuses reward short-term profit alone, behaviour will follow that pressure. Sustainability performance needs to form part of incentive structures in a way that genuinely influences decisions. As she said during the webinar, executive management teams can “deliberately design sustainability in a very business relevant way”.
Profits vs resilience
These structural choices determine how trade-offs play out in practice. Helmersson pointed to circular materials as an example. They often cost more than virgin alternatives, yet individual buyers are typically measured weekly on margin. That creates friction across hundreds of decisions.
Looking back, she believes more of those decisions should have been taken centrally. If leadership absorbs the premium and creates internal cost parity, buyers are no longer forced into a daily conflict between profitability and sustainability. The complex decision sits at the top, freeing the many to execute consistently.
Board alignment forms part of the same system. While she highlights the unique position she had at H&M with strong leadership buy-in, sustainability and commercial performance are not automatically aligned in every boardroom, particularly during times of crisis. During her tenure as CEO, H&M navigated store closures, supply chain disruption and shifting consumer demand. Strategy and milestones had to be paced carefully. Some flexibility was required without losing sight of long-term ambition. But when the board, CEO and executive team share a long-term mandate, sustainability decisions become easier to defend.
Policy engagement
Helmersson is clear that regulation is not a threat to business. In her view, clarity on regulatory direction is fundamental for embedding sustainability into the operating model. Many sustainability efforts remain voluntary because environmental and social externalities are not consistently priced. As long as operating outside planetary boundaries carries limited financial consequence, incentives remain uneven.
Predictable regulation helps create a level playing field. When standards apply across competitors, long-term investments become easier to justify in the boardroom. That reduces the perceived risk of acting alone.
For that reason, she believes companies should lean in. Businesses understand their value chains in detail and are well placed to shape practical, effective regulation. Corporate leadership and updated rules need to move together rather than in opposition.
Engaging partners
Governance choices extend beyond company walls. Helmersson’s early career included time working in Bangladesh and China, which shaped her view on supplier relationships. Fragmentation remains one of the biggest barriers to progress. Too many suppliers, too many short-term transactions and too little visibility create complexity that overwhelms organisations.
Her response is consolidation and strategic partnership. Concentrating volume with fewer suppliers and providing multi-year commitments gives partners the confidence to invest in cleaner processes and improved labour standards. This is not philanthropy. It is commercial logic.
There is a common misconception that long-term planning reduces flexibility. In her experience, the opposite is true. When significant volumes are planned with trusted partners, adjustments can be made within an established relationship. That stability improves quality and helps secure margins on both sides. Trust creates room for flexibility rather than rigidity.
Stronger partnerships also improve traceability and risk management. Moving from transactions to relationships supports both sustainability and business resilience.
Data, traceability and AI
Traceability is often framed as a compliance requirement. Helmersson sees it as a business clarity issue. One of the biggest inhibitors to progress is not unwillingness but lack of usable data. Companies look at complex, multi-tier supply chains and feel paralysed by the scale of the task.
Her advice is to “start where you stand”. For a fashion brand, that means beginning with direct garment suppliers, improving data quality at that level and consolidating relationships. From there, the work can move upstream to fabric suppliers and beyond. It is a step-by-step process rather than a single transformation.
As she noted during the webinar, companies can feel that their industry is “simply too complex for us to be able to change it”. Incremental clarity counters that paralysis. Better data helps identify where carbon sits in the value chain, where human rights risks are concentrated and where material innovation could deliver the greatest impact.
There is capital investment required, but in her view the business benefits extend beyond the cost. Data and artificial intelligence are not only efficiency tools. They can support demand matching, reduce overproduction and enable smarter growth. Used well, they strengthen commercial performance while reducing waste.
Consumer engagement
Helmersson is realistic about market dynamics. Many sustainability strategies assume that consumers will choose products because they are better for the planet. In practice, price, convenience and style remain decisive factors.
For sustainability to scale, it must connect to real customer needs. It’s less about the balance between greenwashing and greenhushing but instead embedding sustainability within the product offer itself. Competitive pricing, ease of use and compelling design are essential.
When material choices, durability or resale options enhance the overall proposition, sustainability becomes part of value creation rather than a separate virtue. That integration strengthens both brand relevance and long-term resilience.
Scaling innovation
The fashion industry does not lack ideas. What it often lacks is scale. Helmersson points to circular materials as an example. The technology exists but scaling it requires capital and coordinated demand across brands.
Too often, companies launch pilots, communicate progress and move on. Real change requires depth and persistence. “You need to go deep,” she said. “That also means that you need to collaborate and take step by step in your value chains.”
Going deep means committing to scale and integrating innovation into core business processes rather than running it at the margins. It requires patience, partnership and long-term alignment. Innovation, in her view, is not separate from sustainability. It is one of the main routes to making it commercially viable at scale.
Holistic approach
When asked what being chief sustainability officer taught her, Helmersson said sustainability requires system thinking. It means connecting governance, incentives, culture, partnerships and policy rather than treating them as separate initiatives. It is about understanding how to pull different levers to move a whole company forward.
Culture matters as much as structure. Leaders shape not only KPIs but expectations, norms and priorities. The same applies at industry level. Collaboration is rarely quick or simple. It takes time, patience and compromise.
Helmersson referenced the Gartner hype cycle, typically used to describe new technologies. Around 2020, sustainability reached a peak of inflated expectations. Ambitious targets were set. Since then, external shocks, missed milestones and accusations of greenwashing have led to greater scrutiny and some loss of trust.
Yet commitment has not disappeared across the industry. Many companies continue to invest and collaborate, even if progress is less loudly communicated. The next phase may be quieter, focused on building deeper partnerships and scaling what works rather than launching pilot after pilot, that is where lasting impact can be built.
Helena Helmersson spent 26 years at H&M in 12 different roles across operations, supply chain and sustainability, including chief sustainability officer, before becoming CEO in 2020. She led the global retailer through Covid-19, when 4,000 stores closed, and through subsequent geopolitical disruption following the invasion of Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.
Since leaving H&M in 2024, she has taken on board and advisory roles with ON and Mango, as well as working with innovators focused on materials, circular business models and value chain transformation.
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