Marks & Spencer has unveiled a five-year £200 million scheme that will outstrip all of its high street competitors in the drive to go green.
At the centre of the retailer’s challenging 100-point plan is a pledge to become “carbon neutral” by 2012.
As well as climate change, the programme outlines measures for waste, energy, ethical trade and health.
The company is also planning to stop sending waste to landfill sites, and stop customers having to throw away any of its products by increasing its use of recycled materials.
M&S chief executive Stuart Rose said the 460-strong chain would convert empty plastic bottles into polyester clothing and out-of-date food into renewable energy.
He claimed the programme, entitled Plan A, is a necessary response to the pressure to go green but added that it would provide another unique selling point for the upmarket retailer.
“I also believe this is another way of differentiating ourselves - rather than just going down the normal bog-standard supermarket tactic of all pretending we’re reducing prices by £70m,” Rose said.
Rival supermarkets have all made pledges to reduce their waste outputs in recent months but environmental activists are praising M&S for its particularly ambitious move.
Jonathon Porritt, former director of Friends of the Earth, advised the company during the six months it was working on the project.
He said: “This plan raises the bar for everyone else - not just retailers but businesses in every sector.”
Blake Lee-Harwood, campaign director at Greenpeace UK, added: “We’re glad a company like M&S has proposals that begin to match the scale of the challenge of climate change…Probably it is fair to say it is the most comprehensive sustainability programme by a British supermarket. But it is still only a step in the right direction. Not a revolution.”
M&S is due to open a model green factory in conjunction with one of its major suppliers, as well as three pilot green shops - in Glasgow, Bournemouth and Liverpool.
