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Marks & Spencer Plan A shows strong progress

08 Jun '13
4 min read

Target – provide training and education for 500,000 workers in supply chain
To date M&S programmes have trained 244,000 workers in the M&S supply chain, principally in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh and China. The training includes health education (for example nutritional and family planning education in Cambodia), financial literacy (for example helping workers in India open bank accounts) and employee rights and employment contract training.
 
Target – source 25 per cent of cotton from sustainable sources
11 per cent of the cotton used to make M&S products, up from 3.8 per cent last year, is now either Fairtrade, Organic, recycled or grown to Better Cotton Initiative standards.
   
Target – help a million customers to develop personal sustainability goals online
Last year 470,000 M&S customers engaged with Plan A online in activities designed to help them live more sustainable lifestyles. Examples include people signing up online to help the Marine Conservation Society clean beaches and customers using the Shwopping app, a facebook application that ‘socialises’ M&S’ clothes recycling scheme.
 
Target – reduce store refrigeration gas carbon emissions by 50 per cent
Refrigeration CO2e emissions were down by 60 percent in 12/13 when compared to the 2007 baseline. This has been achieved by improving maintenance, introducing cleaner R407a HFC gases and only fitting modern CO2 refrigeration systems in new stores.
 
Other Plan A Report highlights
Shwopping, M&S’ clothes recycling campaign, helped M&S customers recycle 3.8 million used or unwanted items of clothing through Oxfam last year. Customers also returned to M&S for recycling 199 tonnes of used Christmas cards, 2,800 mattresses, 4,700 items of upholstered furniture and 161 million clothes hangers.
 
Over £8 million was raised for good causes last year by M&S customers and employees, including £1.5 million for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, £2.3 million forOxfamand £690,000 for MacMillan Cancer Support.  
Water use at M&S is down by 27 per cent. This has been achieved by installing water saving technology in hundreds of stores, such as sensor taps and waterless urinals.
 
Fairtrade food and drink sales have more than doubled since the launch of Plan A in 2007. New lines included M&S Six Hats wines, produced by the Citrusdal Cellar in South Africa, a cooperative made up of local farmers who ensure growers are paid a fair price for their grapes.
 

Marks and Spencer

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