UK retailer Marks & Spencer has launched a new sustainability plan to tackle the main issues facing retailers and society.
Plan A 2025 is described as a customer focused 'eco and ethical' programme, that will convert Marks & Spencer into a zero-waste business within the next eight years.
Key Elements
Marks & Spencer's plan centres on the areas of wellbeing, transforming communities, and caring for the planet, and seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2030.
The retailer aims to have at least half of food sales coming from healthier products by 2022, with all single portion snacks, confectionery and ice cream having less than 250 calories by 2018.
It also aims for all packaging to be 'widely recyclable' by 2022, with all raw materials coming from sustainable sources. The company also plans to halve food waste by 2025.
Sustainable Future
Steve Rowe, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, said that the retailer is determined to play a "leading role" is the area of sustainability.
"Plan A 2025 will help us build a sustainable future by helping our customers live healthier lives, supporting the communities they live in and we source from and looking after the planet we all share," he said.
"We believe we can engage all of our 32 million customers, 85,000 colleagues and 200,000 shareholders in the plan that becomes a mass voice for sustainable change.”
Performance
Plan A was originally launched ten years ago, and since then Marks & Spencer says that it has saved over £750 million is costs through schemes to reduce energy usage, packaging, and transport distances.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
