Marks & Spencer has announced a programme to be the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015, launching 80 major new commitments under M&S’ eco and ethical plan, Plan A.
The new commitments will ensure all M&S products become ‘Plan A products’ with at least one sustainable quality, enable their 2,000 suppliers to adopt Plan A best practice and encourage M&S customers and employees to live ‘greener’ lifestyles.
They include:
· Converting all 2.7bn individual M&S food, clothing and home items (across 36,000 product lines) sold every year into ‘Plan A products’.
· Encouraging 21m M&S customers to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
· Becoming the first major retailer to actively tackle and bring clarity to the living wage debate.
· Working with M&S suppliers to provide training and education programmes.
· Helping suppliers create 200 ‘Plan A’ factories with either ethical or environmental features, or both, and encouraging 10,000 farmers who produce fresh foods to join the sustainable agriculture programme.
· Sourcing all cardboard for M&S food packaging via a single ‘model’ forest programme.
· Becoming the first major retailer to ensure full traceability of all the key raw materials used in our clothing and home products, including cotton, wool, polyester, nylon, leather and wood.
· Becoming the first major retailer to ensure that six key raw materials they use – palm oil, soya, cocoa, beef, leather, coffee – come from sustainable sources that do not contribute to deforestation.
· Increasing the number of clothing garments customers recycle every year from two million to 20m.
· Launching a five-year £50m Plan A incubator fund to support the development of innovative new ‘Plan A’ products and services at M&S.
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 local communities.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of M&S said: “Since we launched our eco plan, Plan A, in 2007 we’ve reduced our environmental impact, developed new sustainable products and services, helped improve the lives of people in our local communities and saved around £50m by being more efficient.
“We’ve 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.”
