Ray Cooling

ONE of Britain's favourite high-street stores - Marks & Spencer- seeks to be the world's most sustainable retailer by 2015, after launching 80 major new commitments under its ecological and ethical strategy called Plan A.

The commitments will mean all M&S products become "Plan A products" with at least one sustainable quality. It will enable M&S's 2,000 suppliers to adopt the plan's best practice and encourage M&S customers and employees to live greener lifestyles.

The strategy includes converting all 2.7 billion individual M&S food, clothing and home items (across 36,000 product lines) sold every year into Plan A products, so that each has at least one sustainable or ethical quality (such as carrying Fairtrade or Marine Stewardship Council certification or using free range or other sustainable ingredients).

It will aim to convert 50 per cent of its products by 2015 and 100 per cent by 2020.

The company is encouraging its 21 million customers to live a more sustainable lifestyle with the launch of a new competition - Your Green Idea - for them to submit their ideas for eco-friendly actions for M&S to adopt.

The winning idea will receive 100,000 pounds to be spent on greening an organisation such as a school, charity or small business.

Sir Stuart Rose, M&S chairman said: "Since we launched our eco plan, Plan A, in 2007 we have reduced our environmental impact, developed new sustainable products and services, helped improve the lives of people in our local communities and saved around 50 million pounds by being more efficient.

"We have now set ourselves the ambitious target of becoming the world's most sustainable retailer by 2015, so that we lead the way in making a positive contribution to the environment and society across everything we do and everything we sell," he added.

"Our extended Plan A will reach further and move us faster - covering every part of our business and reaching out to forests, farms, factories, lorries, warehouses and into our customers' and employees' homes.

"We believe sustainability is a key ingredient of business success and that Plan A will continue to make us more efficient, develop new markets and build customer loyalty. It's therefore not just the right thing to do morally but also makes strong commercial sense," said Sir Stuart.

M&S aims to become the first major retailer to actively tackle and bring clarity to the living wage debate. It will do this by determining and agreeing a fair, living wage before implementing a process to ensure its clothing suppliers pay this wage to their workers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.

Based on a pilot scheme in Bangladesh, M&S will do this by working with suppliers to improve productivity and management practices.

M&S is working with suppliers to provide training and education programmes - including in basic healthcare and workers' rights - for 500,000 workers in their factories.

The business is helping its suppliers create 200 Plan A factories with either ethical or environmental features, or both, and encouraging 10,000 farmers who produce its fresh foods to join its sustainable agriculture programme.

It is becoming the first major retailer to ensure full traceability of all the key raw materials used in its clothing and home products including cotton, wool, polyester, nylon, leather and wood.

It hopes to become the first such retailer to ensure that six key raw materials it uses - palm oil, soya, cocoa, beef, leather, coffee - come from sustainable sources that do not contribute to deforestation, one of the biggest causes of climate change.

And it is increasing the number of clothing garments its customers recycle every year from 2 million to 20 million, including, via its partnership with charity group Oxfam, significantly reducing the tonnage of clothing sent to landfill.

In addition it is offering free home insulation and a free home-energy monitor to all eligible M&S employees and giving them one paid, day off a year to work in their communities.

Environmental and social issues remain important to UK consumers. A commissioned survey found that 72 per cent of people are worried about environmental issues, with 73 per cent saying that the recession had not changed their level of concern.

Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future, said: "Three years on, Plan A has become an undisputed ‘market leader' in terms of corporate sustainability initiatives. Through it, M&S is addressing the right things, in the right way, to secure critically important outcomes.

"Forum for the Future is delighted to see how that momentum is being maintained, and the intense focus this time round on helping M&S customers undertake their own Plan A is hugely encouraging. It's not just progress against all the specific actions that matters, but the way in which M&S is transforming its core business model through Plan A."

At the Ethical Trading Initiative, director Dan Rees added: "M&S is at the forefront of ethical sourcing and its new Plan A commitments to implement mechanisms to achieve a living wage for the workers who make its products across Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are fantastic and sector-leading.

"Its plan to educate and train half a million workers in its supply chain is a tremendous commitment. We look forward to working with M&S on both initiatives, and learning what can be achieved by these stretching targets."

Glyn Davies, director of programmes at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said: "WWF is delighted to see the progress M&S is continuing to make - with a new action plan to become the world's most sustainable retailer. This raises the bar and provides leadership for other retailers, as well as offering an opportunity to engage staff and customers in Plan A, so helping to reduce their ecological footprint.

"WWF is working with M&S on a range of innovative projects aimed at reducing the environmental and social impacts of the food we eat, including working towards sustainable fisheries, stopping deforestation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving efficiency of irrigated water use.

"Importantly, a strength of Plan A is to measure details of sustainability, so that success can be verified, and encourage us all to make better shopping choices."

Marks & Spencer launched its ethical and eco Plan A in January 2007 with the overall goals of making M&S carbon neutral; sending no waste from its operations to landfill; extending sustainable sourcing; setting new standards in ethical trading and helping customers and employees live a healthier lifestyle.

In 2009/10 alone, Plan A has:

Delivered cost savings of about 50m pounds for M&S; delivered new products and services, including 250,000 customers from M&S Energy; cut CO2 emissions by 40,000 tonnes; recycled 2m used garments via Oxfam; reduced 10,000 tonnes of packaging; diverted 20,000 tonnes of waste from landfill; saved 387m food carrier bags; used 1,500 tonnes of recycled polyester (equivalent to 37 million bottles); saved 100m litres of water; recycled or re-used over 130m clothing hangers; given 15m pounds for charities.