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Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2013 32Strategic review
Plan A
Sustainable Clothing Action Plan and we
were delighted that other major retailers
followed our lead and introduced
versions of Shwopping.
Of our top 100 clothing suppliers, 48
have worked with us to implement
energy efficiency measures and we now
have a total of 35 qualified for our
rigorous Eco-Factory status. The launch
of our Supplier Training and Education
Programme (STEP), made it even easier
for suppliers to benefit from the lessons
we have learnt through Plan A. Hosted
on our Supplier Exchange website, it
provides access to a wealth of free
resources and information.
Involving our customers and
employees
Our customers are the central force for
driving change and this year, over five
million customers took part in Plan A
activities. We added a more digital
dimension to Plan A too, using social
media to tell customers how they can get
involved and our Shwopping app on
Facebook attracted over 700,000
customers.
Customers helped raise £1.5m for
Breakthrough Breast Cancer through
their donations and more than £690,000
for Macmillan Cancer Support, through
our World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. At
our Big Beach Clean-Up in April 2013,
9,000 M&S customers and staff helped
clean over 160 beaches and canals
collecting over 4,000 bags of rubbish.
This year 3,000 schools registered to
take part in our School of Fish
educational programme.
You can find out more about the
progress we made this year by visiting
our online Plan A 2013 report available at
marksandspencer.com/plana2013
After our five year milestone in 2012,
this year was one of planning and
progress for Plan A. The commercial
benefits of our commitment remained
clear, as Plan A generated its biggest
net benefit to date, with £135m
available to be invested back into the
business. Having achieved our
ambitious operational targets of
becoming carbon neutral and sending
no waste to landfill, we continued our
journey of improvement; stretching
ourselves further and extending the
influence of Plan A.
Continuing our journey
In line with the seven pillars of Plan A, we
extended our involvement with our
stakeholders to combat climate change,
reduce waste, use sustainable raw
materials, trade ethically and help our
customers and employees lead more
sustainable lifestyles. We are now
measuring our progress against our 2015
targets and have achieved 139 of our
180 commitments, with a further 31 on
plan. As we move towards our goal of
becoming the world’s most sustainable
major retailer, we face some challenging
targets: to meet sustainable sourcing
standards for key raw materials, to
ensure 50% of products have a Plan A
quality and improve our suppliers’
sustainability performance.
We have made good progress and 45%
of M&S products sold now have a Plan A
quality such as Fairtrade, organic or
made from recycled material, compared
to 31% last year. We now use cotton
sourced from the Better Cotton Initiative
(BCI) in over 900 M&S products,
including our bestselling jeans and
lingerie and are committed to sourcing
25% of our cotton from sustainable
supplies by 2015.
We extended the scope of our external
collaborations so that our initiatives can
influence behaviour beyond M&S. In
conjunction with Oxfam and Business in
the Community, we extended our
successful Shwopping scheme with a
free clothes recycling service for offices
and workplaces. More than 10,000
garments were collected in the first
month, with over 70 companies signed
up to Shwop at Work, including B&Q,
IBM and Thames Water. We are working
with other retailers as part of the
Recognition of our
achievements
Our performance was
recognised in more than 40
social and environmental
awards and league tables.
M&S was the only retailer
included in the global Carbon
Performance Leadership
Index and for the third time,
M&S was named the
‘Responsible Business of the
Year’ by Business in the
Community.
Supporting Fairtrade
We continued to introduce
new lines of Fairtrade foods,
and sales have doubled since
Plan A began in 2006/07.
ENC
Plan A Commitments
180
Commitments met
139
Commitments on plan
31
PLAN A HIGHLIGHTS