Marks and Spencer: Plan A

• Mur - Lee Murphy
• 10 June 2010
• Green Finance

In 2007, M&S announced its intention to become carbon neutral by 2012. This good practice example looks at Plan A – the company’s blueprint for success.

In January 2007, Marks & Spencer (M&S) unveiled Plan A: its ground-breaking five year ‘ecoplan’. Under this ambitious sustainability initiative, the organisation aimed to be carbon neutral by 2012. [1] This article provides an overview of the key features of Plan A, and looks at how the organisation has delivered on its promises.

Getting started

Following the success of its 'Look Behind the Label' campaign in 2006, in which M&S highlighted its commitment to ethical and environmental sourcing and production to customers, the organisation began to develop its already broad-reaching CSR strategy on a far grander scale.

The result, Plan A, has been heralded by sustainability campaigners as the most progressive project of its kind by a mainstream UK retailer. [5] Initially it provided a five year blueprint for action, focusing on five key areas of improvement. The original plan set out 100 practical and measurable targets that M&S intended to reach in its quest to be a model corporate citizen.

The plan was originally set to cost the company £200m – a price which the then Chief Executive, Stuart Rose, insisted would not be passed on to customers. He was willing to risk lower margins in the short term, in the belief that M&S’s greener credentials would set the cash tills ringing in the future. [7]

Aims of Plan A [8]

1. Tackle climate change

M&S planned to become carbon neutral by 2012. It aimed to reach this target by:

M&S claimed that its intended carbon savings would amount to taking 100,000 cars off the road every year. [9]

Five years after Plan A was introduced, M&S reported that it had indeed reached its aim to become fully 'carbon neutral', the first major UK retailer to do so. [10]

2. Reduce waste

By 2012, M&S wanted none of its clothing or packaging to go to landfill, and to find new ways of recycling and reusing materials and products.

It sought to do this by:

• converting food waste from its food halls, farms and factories to green energy for its stores, using anaerobic digestion [11]
• reducing packaging and using more recyclable materials
• reducing the amount of carrier bags the organisation uses
• helping suppliers and customers to reduce waste, e.g. labelling products with recycling guidance

By 2012, the company was recycling 100% of its waste, with 89% of its food waste from stores going for anaerobic digestion and the remainder being composted - an impressive achievement. [12]

3. Safeguard raw materials

M&S wanted its key raw materials to come from the most sustainable resources, as well as securing high standards of welfare for animals.

For example it aimed to:

• obtain wood that is either from recycled sources or that is certified as coming from a sustainable source
• ensure in future that all its fresh turkey, goose, duck and pork was free range 
• develop a long-term strategy to source all its cotton from sustainable sources
• trial and introduce new sustainable fibres  

4. Be a fair partner

Some of the ways M&S sought to do this was by:

• supporting its suppliers, e.g. through sharing best practice and helping them develop more sustainable working practices
• leading on labour standards, including the introduction of a rewards system to encourage suppliers to improve working conditions
• giving farmers at home and overseas a fair deal, including extending M&S’s commitment to Fairtrade products
• helping the communities it does business with, including assisting suppliers to invest in their local communities, and the continuation of the 'Marks and Start' programme, which helps disadvantaged people into work

5. Promote health and wellbeing

As well as being a fair partner, M&S tasked itself with encouraging its employees and customers to adopt healthier lifestyles. The organisation had made strides towards this already, e.g. by introducing healthy eating ranges, but was determined to expand on its efforts by:

• selling more healthy food, e.g. through its nutritionally-balanced ‘Eat Well’ range
• improving labelling to help customers identify healthier foods at a glance
• offering advice to customers and employees on how to look after their health, including trialing the services of qualified nutritionists in five stores, and launching a Health and Lifestyle section on its employee website

Further initiatives

Between 2007 and 2012, M&S took the following additional steps towards meeting its original 100 point plan. [14]

• It launched new care labels for its clothing, encouraging customers to ‘Think Climate – Wash at 30°C’ to help reduce energy consumption.
• The organisation pressed ahead with its aim to use ‘air freight’ stickers to show food that has been imported to the UK by air – putting pressure on other retailers to indicate those products that are making a significant contribution to their organisations’ carbon footprints.
• M&S opened ‘eco-stores’ in Bournemouth and Sheffield.  
• It switched to renewable energy to power its stores, with anticipated savings of at least 24,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. It has also secured renewable energy to power all of its Scottish stores.
• It launched the world’s first plastic milk bottle made from recycled material.
• The company started to sell fleece jackets made from recycled plastic bottles.
• M&S also introduced 1,500 Healthy Eating Advisors into its food halls.

A different approach

One of the most impressive things about Plan A is that it focuses on prevention rather than cure. For example, M&S is more interested in cutting its emissions, and using renewable and sustainable resources, than in carbon offsetting, which it has promised to use only as a last resort.

The company has also been transparent about where it has fallen short on some of its aims. In 2012 it had failed to meet six of Plan A's original commitments, including its targets for free range produce, sustainably sourced wood and Fairtrade cotton. There has been a variety of reasons for these shortcomings, from the complexity of the supply chain, to falling consumer demand for particular products. M&S continues to make improvements in these areas, however, and has set itself revised targets for 2015.[15] 

Gaining recognition

M&S has received much praise for its vision and commitment to the CSR agenda. In 2006, prior to the launch of Plan A, M&S had already been awarded Business in the Community’s Company of the Year. By 2012, in recognition of its impressive achievements, the retailer brought home Responsible Retailer of the Year at the World Business Awards.

Plan A: the next wave

Having reached the majority of its initial aims for Plan A by its target date of 2012, M&S has set itself yet more stretching sustainability targets for the coming years. The five core 'pillars' of the plan have been extended to include two more:

• 'Involve customers in Plan A', which seeks to communicate M&S's sustainability efforts to customers and make it easier for them to play a part.
• 'Make Plan A how we do business'. This is about integrating Plan A into everything the organisation does, from the products M&S makes and sells, to the stores it builds, as well as applying it to supplier relationships and employee engagement.   

By 2013, the company had already delivered 139 of the aims on its expanded list of 180 sustainability commitments. [16]

New initiatives have included 'schwopping', whereby customers have been encouraged to hand in an unwanted item of clothing when buying something new. The unwanted items are either sold in UK branches of Oxfam, sent out to developing countries or recycled. The schwopping idea certainly caught the public imagination, with half a million items being donated in the first six weeks alone. [17]

The company also continues to build on many of its original aims. In 2012-13 there were 1,100 participants in the 'Marks and Start' programme, with an estimated 50% of participants finding work as a result. [18]

Enlightened self-interest?

Of course, M&S, like many organisations that show a commitment to CSR, is not without its critics. While many environmental and sustainability activists have welcomed any steps to advance the sustainability cause, there is a certain amount of scepticism about Plan A:

 

Inevitably, there are also those who question whether the company is doing good for the sake of it, or because it wants to be seen to be doing good. The fact remains, however, that if M&S achieves its ambitious target, it will bring great benefits to its customers, suppliers, staff and the wider community.

Conclusion

"We don’t have all the answers but we are determined to work with our suppliers, partners and government to make this happen." Stuart Rose [20]

In devising and implementing Plan A, M&S has thrown down the gauntlet in terms of the sheer ambition and scale of its commitment to CSR. Its message to other retailers and businesses is loud and clear: "We believe responsible business can be profitable business." Let the battle for the green pound commence.

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[1] Being carbon neutral requires a person or organisation to calculate their total carbon emissions, and reduce them where possible. Remaining emissions after this reduction can then be cancelled out by carbon offsetting, e.g. by paying towards reforestation.

[2] www.corporate.marksandspencer.com (26 February 2014).

[3] Rose Goes Green in Pursuit of Profit at www.bbc.co.uk (12 July 2007).

[4] Marks and Spencer Plan A Report 2013 at www.corporate.marksandspencer.com (26 February 2014)

[5] M&S Promises Radical Change with £200m Environmental Action Plan at www.theguardian.com (12 July 2007).

[6] M&S Unveils Carbon-neutral Target at www.bbc.co.uk (12 July 2007).

[7] Rose Goes Green in Pursuit of Profit at www.bbc.co.uk (12 July 2007).

[8] www.marksandspencer.com (12 July 2007).

[9] M&S Unveils Carbon-neutral Target at www.bbc.co.uk (12 July 2007).

[10] Plan A Report Confirms M&S as First Carbon Neutral Major Retailer at www.marksandspencer.com (26 February 2014).

[11] Anaerobic digestion is a process for breaking down organic matter. The process is usually carried out in an airtight container, known as a digester.

[12] M&S Becomes Carbon Neutral at www.theguardian.com (26 February 2014).

[13] www.marksandspencer.com (12 July 2007).

[14] Ibid.

[15] Plan A Report Confirms M&S As First Carbon Neutral Major Retailer at corporate.marksandspencer.com  (26 February 2014).

[16] Marks and Spencer Plan A Report 2013 at www.corporate.marksandspencer.com (26 February 2014).

[17] Lumley Hails M&S 'Scwhop' Campaign a Success at www.retailgazette.co.uk (26 February 2014).

[18] Marks and Spencer Plan A Report 2013 at www.corporate.marksandspencer.com (26 February 2014).

[19] M&S Promises Radical Change with £200m Environmental Action Plan at www.theguardian.com (12 July 2007).

[20] M&S Unveils Carbon-neutral Target at www.bbc.co.uk (12 July 2007).