Marks and Spenser's Corporate Sales Responsibility Plan

In January 2007 Marks and Spenser launched Plan A, setting out on hundred commitments to achieve in five years. They claim they are doing so because it is what the customers want and also what is the right thing to do. Plan A is broken down into five key areas that M&S believe faces them as a retailer:

• Climate Change
• Waste
• Sustainable Raw Materials
• Fair Partner
• Health

Climate Change:
M&S' goal is to be carbon neutral by 2012 in the UK and Republic of Ireland operations. They plan to achieve this by reducing energy consumption and increasing the use of renewable energy sources. They have also established a relationship with Westbridge Furniture to develop 'a truly sustainable factory'. They have also opened their first Eco factory in Sri Lanka.

Waste:
Their aim is to try and make sure that none of M&S' clothing or packaging ends up as landfill. To prevent this they are reducing packaging, improving recycling and cutting down on the use of plastic bags.

• They have established a relationship with Oxfam to generate the 'clothing exchange'.
  
• Last January they introduced the Christmas Card recycling Scheme with the Woodland trust and together collected 175 tonnes of cards which is equivalent to almost 9 million cards.
• Since 2006 they have reduced 12% of all non-glass packaging and in 2008 ran 335 packaging reduced products. In 2009 they reduced packaging of Easter Eggs by an average of 30%.
• In 2008 125 million hangers were collected for reuse or recycling.

Sustainable Raw Materials:
To ensure high standards M&S have focused on animal welfare, sustainable fishing and Farming as well as the manufacturing of polyester, wood and water use. They have done this by:

• Providing Free range fresh turkey, duck and Geese and are currently trailing fresh free range pork in 100 stores.
• Introduced ranges of clothing made from organic cotton.
• Used plastic bottles to make Polyester instead of oil for use in the homeware, bedding, lingerie and children's wear ranges.
• M&S have worked with the WWF to establish a water footprint and have identified 'hotspots' of water use and are working with suppliers to reduce them.
• M&S also aim to ensure that all wood they use is Forest Stewardship Council certified or recycled.

Fair Partner:

• Marks & Start is a programme established in 2004 to help groups such as the disabled and the homeless to get into work via placements in M&S stores. 40% of those who completed their placements have gone on to find employment.
  
• M&S now stock over 300 lines of fair trade products and food sales are up 38% since the launch of plan A.
  
• M&S have sold over 8 million fair trade cotton garments and home products.
• Customers and employees raised over 2 million pounds for the breakthrough breast cancer charity last year. M&S plans to continue its support to the charity.

Health:

• M&S use the Food Standard Agency's traffic light labels on food.
• The number of products with a red label has fallen by 30%.
• M&S have removed all artificial colours and flavouring from their food and soft drinks production as of the 1st of April 2008.
• They have also introduced 1,500 healthy eating assistants in stores with the plan to extend knowledge across the entire food section employees.
• M&S are the sponsors for the Royal Parks half Marathon.