H&M Group invests in Rondo Energy to further strengthen their climate strategy
22 June 2024: Fashion company H&M Group is partnering with Rondo Energy, the leading provider of zero-carbon industrial heat and power, to explore potential for heat storage technologies in its supply chain. The fashion company is also making an investment in Rondo and joining Rondo’s Strategic Investor Advisory Board (SIAB). The new collaboration will help Rondo deliver clean, affordable heat powering textile factories around the world.
Rondo Heat Batteries combine century-old materials and cutting-edge automation to turn intermittent renewable electricity into the continuous, high-temperature heat and power required by industries including textile producers. H&M Group and Rondo will explore opportunities for factories in the group’s global supply chain to replace fossil fuels with clean heat and power delivered by Rondo Heat Batteries. Rondo will use H&M Group Ventures’ investment to expand its international operations and to develop and build storage projects serving this need.
Rondo Heat Batteries deliver deep decarbonization by changing the fuel, not the factory. As a member of Rondo’s advisory board, H&M Group will join other global leaders seeking large-scale, low-cost, zero-carbon energy to power their operations, including Rio Tinto, Aramco Ventures, SABIC, SCG, TITAN, and SEEIT.
“Producing and finishing fabrics requires large amounts of low-cost energy, which makes our brick batteries a perfect fit,” said John O’Donnell, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Rondo Energy. “Today, coal delivers most of the heat and most of the carbon pollution making fabrics, because it’s always been cheap and simple to burn. But the world is changing. Region by region around the world, wind and solar power are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels.”
“Rondo is thrilled to be working in partnership with H&M Group to explore how our technology can be of use in their supply chain, and to have H&M as an investor and member of our Strategic Investor Advisory Board,” said Eric Trusiewicz, CEO of Rondo Energy.
The fashion industry has been called “hard to decarbonize,” due to the structure of the industry and its needs for low-cost energy. Today, making what we wear releases some 5% of global greenhouse gases, and emissions are rising every year. Rondo Heat Batteries replace most fossil fuel use in fabric production, and could cut the carbon footprint of our clothing by nearly two-thirds.
