H&M Foundation announces Global Change Award 2026 winners for textile innovation

The Sweden-based philanthropic organisation H&M Foundation, privately funded by the Stefan Persson family, founders and majority owners of the H&M Group, has announced the 10 winners of its Global Change Award (GCA) 2026. The annual initiative recognises early-stage innovations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating the textile industry’s progress toward net zero by 2050.

The winning teams focus on raw material production and wet processing, which represent the most emissions-intensive stages of the textile value chain. This year’s cohort introduces solutions spanning bio-based material alternatives, textile-to-textile recycling methods, low-impact manufacturing, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Beatrice Oldenburg, project manager at the H&M Foundation, stated: “What stands out this year is not just the strength of the ideas, but the people behind them. These changemakers combine deep understanding of real-world challenges with the drive to address them. A common thread across many of the solutions is resource efficiency, from reducing waste to making better use of existing materials and resources.”

Capital injection and scaling support

Each of the 10 selected winning teams will receive a 200,000 euros (around 2,31,000 dollars) grant, drawing from a total funding pool of two million euros. Alongside the financial injection, the winners enter the year-long GCA Changemaker Programme, organized in collaboration with strategic partners Accenture, the US-based professional services company, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Sweden-based technical university.

The structural support programme focuses on systems thinking, industrial networking, and technical validation to scale early-stage concepts into commercial realities. The H&M Foundation operates on a non-profit model, retaining zero equity and no intellectual property rights from the participating companies to encourage open adoption across the global textile trade.

Karl-Johan Persson, board member of the H&M Foundation, commented: “The solutions we need already exist, what’s missing is speed and scale. By supporting changemakers at an early stage, we can help unlock the kind of innovations that don’t just improve the textile industry, but transform it.”

Since its inception in 2015, the challenge has supported 66 teams across 24 countries, distributing a total of 12 million euros in non-dilutive grants.

Focus on raw materials and digital innovation

The 2026 winners demonstrate a distinct shift toward scalable bio-synthetics and systemic automation tools designed to displace fossil-based polymers and high-impact inputs.

The materials sector features several next-generation developments:

1. India-based material startup Canvaloop introduces Agro-Lyocell, which processes agricultural waste into forest-free cellulosic fibres to replace wood-derived inputs;

2. Sweden-based biotechnology firm ArtSilk cultivates spider silk-inspired fibres using specific microorganisms;

3. Tanzania-based KelTex manufactures biodegradable leather alternatives using harvested seaweed;

4. UK-based innovator Tera Mira alters the stretch-wear sector by converting seaweed into performance elastic fibres, aiming to replace synthetic elastane with a bio-based counterpart;

5. India-based enterprise Microbeworks presents MicroBlue, a line of biodegradable textile dyes engineered to integrate directly into existing commercial dye house infrastructure.

In circularity and software engineering, the remaining winners leverage computational models to optimize supply chain inefficiencies:

6. US-based technology platform Alu employs behavioral psychology and AI models to transform digital product passports into consumer-facing tools for repair, resale, and circularity;

7. UK-based developer EntroMetrix creates proprietary AI models to deploy a digital twin of factory floors, allowing manufacturers to reduce energy and raw material waste;

8. France-based textile recycler Fiberly extracts cellulose from post-consumer waste using green chemistry, reconstructing it into engineered fibres that replicate the performance of cotton;

9. US-based biochemical company Rhea's Factory develops RheaCycle, utilizing AI-designed enzymes to break down polyester textile waste into virgin-grade monomer building blocks;

10. Bangladesh-based factory automation firm threadBridge introduces smart glasses integrated with computer vision to automate real-time fabric defect detection during production.

The ongoing initiative aligns with the foundation's mandate to support the global apparel industry in halving its aggregate greenhouse gas emissions every decade.