Marks & Spencer is in the midst of a unique 5 year partnership with BRE, a research and consultancy group for sustainability. Together they developped "Plan A" back in 2007, which listed 100 commitments towards going green. M&S's goal was, and still is, to become completely carbon neutral, send no waste to landfill and extend the use of sustainable raw materials by 2012.
Today they report a 20% reduction in food packaging, a 19% increase with in store energy efficiency, 417 million fewer plastic bags used during the last year and over 50 million GBP of profit invested back into the business from Plan A activities.
62 of the original 100 commitments have been achieved, 30 are on plan, to be achieved by 2012 and 7 are actually behind plan, due to unexpected challenges. One of those being the use of bio-diesel, which is on hold until sustainable supplies become available. It has also recently been reported that these 100 commitments have been extended to 180 with a new target deadline of 2015 and beyond.
Economics teaches us that when there is a price to pay for carbon emissions, such as by way of cap-and-trade or taxation to name a few, people will switch to alternate methods of production. In this case, M&S has developed a way by which it can minimize its costs of production by going green. In a nutshell, there has been a relative price change between original technologies which produce lots of carbon emissions and more sustainable ones.
As an endnote for anyone who has had to vacation in Bournemouth (no doubt dragged by family those poor souls), or has seen the classic movie Seperate Tables...
M&S's first completely remodelled and converted "green store" was in Bournemouth. The store was completely remodelled and was the first to incorporate the reduction of its carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency.
For more information on Plan A go to http://plana.marksandspencer.com/
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