The H&M Foundation has announced the ten winners of the prestigious Global Change Award 2025, each receiving a €200,000 grant and a place in the year-long GCA Changemaker Programme aimed at accelerating breakthrough innovations for a more sustainable fashion industry.
Delivered in collaboration with strategic partners Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the programme provides the winners with innovation coaching, systems-thinking tools, and leadership development to help turn promising ideas into real-world impact.
Global Innovation at the Forefront of Circular Fashion
The 2025 cohort spans the globe and a wide spectrum of technological innovation — from textile recycling and clean dyeing to smart platforms for circular fashion and sustainable materials.
Among this year’s standout innovations:
- DecoRpet (China): Developed a low-temperature process that removes nearly all dyes and impurities from polyester, yielding a 99.9% pure recycled material while cutting energy use by 30%.
- Thermal Cyclones (UK): Introduced electric heat pumps designed to replace outdated gas and oil steam boilers, slashing industrial energy consumption by more than 75%.
- Pulpatronics (UK): Created recyclable, low-cost RFID tags made with carbon-based materials, eliminating metals and microchips without compromising on performance.
- Loom (UK): A digital platform enabling consumers to upcycle unworn garments by connecting with designers to create unique pieces, helping reduce textile waste and promote circularity.
- CircularFabrics (Germany): Pioneering a method to extract high-quality nylon from blended textile waste using its Nyloop technology, which avoids depolymerisation and preserves fibre integrity.
- Uncrude (India): Developed a sustainable sole material for footwear made from agricultural waste, recycled components, and plant-based ingredients.
- Brilliant Dyes (UK): Using phycocyanin from cyanobacteria to create biodegradable, non-toxic dyes through a low-energy process, supporting a safer and greener dyeing industry.
- Decarbonization Lab (Bangladesh): An innovation hub focused on developing low-emission dyeing, finishing, and textile treatment technologies for climate-smart production.
- Renasens (Sweden): Introduced a waterless and chemical-free process to recycle blended textiles without breaking down fibres, reducing microplastic pollution and conserving fibre performance.
Revival Circularity Lab (Ghana): Upcycles unsellable textile waste into new products through repair and design while training local artisans and supporting community livelihoods.
This year’s winners are not just solving problems; they’re rethinking the systems behind them. Their ideas reflect the kind of early-stage innovation we need to unlock system-level change, and remind us that transformation starts with brave, often uncertain steps.
Annie Lindmark, Programme Director, H&M Foundation.
Driving Systemic Change in Fashion
“These winners are not just solving technical problems — they are reimagining the systems that create them,” said Annie Lindmark, Programme Director at the H&M Foundation. “Their solutions reflect the kind of early-stage innovation we urgently need to unlock system-level transformation. It’s a reminder that real change begins with bold, often uncertain, first steps.”
Now in its tenth edition, the Global Change Award continues to be a cornerstone in the global search for innovations that can redefine fashion’s future. Through direct funding and structured acceleration, the initiative empowers start-ups to challenge the status quo and scale solutions that support a circular, inclusive, and low-impact fashion ecosystem.
