Resource efficiency is the common thread binding this year’s H&M Foundation Global Change Award (GCA) winners.
The foundation, funded by the Persson family behind retail chain H&M, said the 2026 winners bring fresh perspectives to next-generation materials and bio-based alternatives, as well as showing advances in textile-to-textile recycling and other important areas related to emissions reduction.
With the textile industry still a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with the most intensive impacts occurring in material production and wet processing, the sector continues to find ways to improve how it does business.
Who are the 2026 Global Change Award winners?
Agro-Lyocell by Canvaloop (India) – turns agricultural waste into forest-free textile fibres, replacing wood-based inputs
Alu (US) – uses psychology and AI to make digital product passports drive circular behaviour
ArtSilk (Sweden) – creates spider silk-inspired fibres using microorganisms
EntroMetrix (UK) – develops its own AI models to optimise energy and material use in manufacturing
Fiberly (France) – turns textile waste into precision-engineered, cotton-like fibres
KelTex (Tanzania) – turns seaweed into biodegradable leather alternatives
MicroBlue by Microbeworks (India) – biodegradable dyes that work in existing dyeing systems
RheaCycle by Rhea’s Factory (US) – uses AI-designed enzymes to break down polyester waste into new fibre building blocks
Tera Mira (UK) – turns seaweed into stretch fibres, replacing elastane with a bio-based alternative
threadBridge (Bangladesh) – Brings real-time defect detection to factory floors using smart glasses.
Beatrice Oldenburg, project manager at H&M Foundation, said: “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.”
She added: “Ultimately, transforming the textile industry will depend on both breakthrough technologies and the people determined to bring them to life.”
Each winner receives a €200,000 grant and will now join the year-long GCA Changemaker Programme, provided by the H&M Foundation in collaboration with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Ultimately, the programme is designed to help turn early-stage ideas into solutions that can be tested, refined, and brought into the real world. H&M Foundation said it takes no equity and no intellectual property; instead, its focus is on enabling solutions that can be adopted across the industry.
Karl-Johan Persson, board member of the H&M Foundation, remarked: “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.”
According to H&M Foundation, since 2015, it has supported 66 teams from 24 countries with a total of €12 million in grants through the GCA.
Read more about the H&M Foundation on Green Retail World
[image credit: H&M Foundation]
