M&S extends Plan A sustainable sourcing commitments

Article taken from Greenwise. To view article click here

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced 80 new initiatives under its 'Plan A' programme and committed to begin implementing them within the next five years.

Amongst the most ambitious commitments set out by the high street retailer is to ensure that at least 50 per cent of M&S' 2.7 billion products across 36,000 product lines carry at least one sustainable or ethical quality - such as Fairtrade or Marine Stewardship Council certification - by 2015, and that all M&S products meet this criteria by 2020.

Also unveiled by the retailer, which sells clothing, food and homeware, is a goal to get all 2,000 of its suppliers to adopt Plan A best practice. This will include backing 200 sustainable factories and encouraging 10,000 farmers to join M&S' sustainable agriculture programme.

In another significant move, M&S has announced the launch a £50 million five year Plan A incubator fund to support the development of innovative new products and services at the retailer.
M&S, which is one of the leading UK retailers with over 21 million customers visiting its stores each week, said these and other measures it has committed itself to introduce by 2015 will ensure it becomes a world leading sustainable retailer.

"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 £50 million by being more efficient," said M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose. "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."

The original Plan A committed M&S to 100 sustainable initiatives by 2012 - 46 of which the retailer says have already been achieved. M&S said it has extended Plan A by seeking to involve all of its customers and employees and embedding sustainability across its business operations.

M&S recently commissioned ComRes to survey its UK consumers, which found 72 per cent of them were worried about environmental issues, while 73 per cent said the recession had not changed their level of concern.

Other actions unveiled include sourcing all cardboard for M&S food packaging via a single 'model' forest programme, and increasing the number of customers' clothing garments recycled every year from two million to 20 million.

M&S has also promised to provide full traceability of all the key raw materials used in its clothing and home products, and to ensure that six of them - palm oil, soya, cocoa, beef, leather, coffee - come from sustainable sources that do not contribute to deforestation.

"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 Rose.

Glyn Davies, director of Programmes at 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."

M&S recently announced that it had entered into partnerships with four local authorities across the UK to collect an additional 60,000 tonnes of recyclable material from six million people every year by 2015, with approximately 15,000 tonnes of it being diverted back into food packaging and reused by M&S.

M&S says that in 2009/10 alone, its Plan A has delivered cuts in CO2 emissions of 40,000 tonnes, reduced 10,000 tonnes of packaging and diverted 20,000 tonnes of waste from landfill.

To find out more about Plan A, click here

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