Fashion giant H&M is partnering with Rondo Energy to help expand on its climate strategy and decarbonise its supply chain.

The retailer is working with the firm, which provides zero-carbon industrial power and heat, to explore the potential for reducing its carbon footprint in the supply chain.

H&M Group will use the partnership to look at opportunities for factories within the group's supply chain to replace fossil fuels with clean heat and power delivered by Rondo Heat Batteries.

These batteries delver decarbonisation by chainging the fuel rather than the factory.

"Producing and finishing fabrics requires large amounts of low-cost energy, which makes our brick batteries a perfect fit," Rondo Energy founder and chief innovation officer, John O'Donnell said.

"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. At Rondo, we've created a simple, practical tool to harness those new energy sources."

The fashion industry has previously been called "hard to decarbonise," due to the structure of the industry and its needs for low-cost energy.

H&M Group has been investing steadily in decarbonising its supply chain through several initiatives to support suppliers reducing their use of energy, increasing their use of renewable electricity and replacing fossil fuels.

"Rondo is H&M Group Venture's first investment in decarbonisation technology. The company's thermal battery energy storage has the potential to help factories electrify, which is key to achieving our climate targets. We look forward to working closely with Rondo and the broader ecosystem in scaling decarb tech," H&M Group sustainability investments, Laura Coppen said.

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