Marks & Spencer has produced an ambitious 100-point five-year plan
on social and environmental issues that, among other things, aims to
‘set new standards’ in ethical trading and promote a healthier
lifestyle for customers and employees.
The £200million ($392m) programme, announced last month, is intended to
influence every part of the retailer’s operations. Chief executive
Stuart Rose said it would change the way the company operates ‘beyond
recognition’.
Rose is positioning M&S firmly at the head of the pack of large
retailers vying to present themselves as leaders in responsible
business practice. Two of the biggest – Wal-Mart (EP7, issue 7, p3) and Tesco (EP8, issue 2, p7) – recently announced they are extending their social and environmental programmes.
Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future, which
advised M&S on the plan, said it ‘raises the bar for everyone else
– not just retailers’.
The M&S programme, called Plan A, will cover five areas: climate
change, waste, raw materials, fair trade and healthy eating.
The key points include a commitment to make all M&S operations in
the British Isles carbon-neutral by minimizing energy consumption,
maximizing the use of renewables and offsetting only ‘as a last
resort’. It will convert ‘key clothing ranges’ such as T-shirts to 100
per cent Fairtrade cotton, covering about 20 million garments during
the next year and adding new ranges.
In view of obesity concerns, M&S will also introduce 1500 in-store
‘healthy eating assistants’ and give healthy diet training, to be
developed with the British Nutrition Foundation, to all staff in food
halls within three years. Simultaneously it will introduce an M&S
‘health and lifestyle information intranet’ to advise employees. The
plan additionally includes pledges to:
minimize the amount of food delivered by air, and to label such products for consumers conduct five research projects to develop ways of reducing its proportion of imported food use 50 per cent biodiesel in its lorriesdevelop and sell more low-carbon products use only wood that is recycled or certified as coming from a sustainable source by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Not all parts of Plan A are new – many are commitments to continue or
slightly upgrade existing programmes, such as Marks & Start, which
helps homeless people set up work placements with the company.
Despite this, the plan’s scale and ambition have been welcomed by
pressure groups as an important milestone in responsible business
practice. ‘If every retailer in Britain followed Marks & Spencer’s
lead it would be a major step forward in meeting the challenge of
creating a sustainable society,’ said Blake Lee-Harwood, Greenpeace
UK’s campaign director. Robert Napier, chief executive of WWF-UK, said
the plan would put pressure on other retailers to follow suit.
