How are we managing our sustainable raw materials?
We've maintained our good progress across a wide range of raw materials. On animal welfare we've led the market in implementing lower stocking densities for chicken, and again received the RSPCA Award for animal welfare in fashion. On clothing we’ve introduced more Fairtrade and organic cotton, organic linen and recycled polyester. We’ve also increased sales of organic food by 48%. And from all of the materials that we use as a business, and those used in our products, 51% are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), or recycled from an independent certification scheme.
General merchandise
Animal welfare
We continue to play a leading role in extending animal welfare criteria into non-food products. During 2007 we introduced a fixed cut off date for all of our 1000 beauty products, and since then have further extended this to all of our household products, and won the RSPCA’s award for animal welfare leadership in fashion for the third consecutive year.
Sustainable textiles
Customers have reacted positively to the introduction of garments made using recycled polyester from waste bottles and over the past year we’ve sold around 300,000 items made from a total of 2 million bottles.
As one of the largest retail users of cotton in the world, we want to use our influence to improve environmental and social standards in its production. As part of our strategy we’ve converting 10% of the cotton we use to Fairtrade, organic, or both.
We’re also supporting the Better Cotton Initiative to define good social and environmental standards to encourage mainstream cotton growers across the world to improve their practices. We were the first major UK clothing retailer to launch organic wool and linen garments and sold a total of 750,000 garments made from organic cotton, wool and linen during 2007.
Sustainable wood based materials
We’ve made steady progress on our commitment to switch to FSC/recycled wood. 90% of our garden furniture range is FSC, all our tissue products are FSC or recycled, all of our customer publications and in store display materials are FSC and now around 30m Marks & Spencer Christmas greeting cards are FSC certified.
Water
In 2007, we commenced a partnership with the WWF to help us in better understanding our water footprint, and with this knowledge, work with our suppliers to reduce any impact that we may have, and introduce more sustainable practices wherever we can.
Already we have conducted an initial analysis of the water used in our textiles manufacturer and we have selected a number of key food product ranges to undertake a water footprint analysis.
Food
Sustainable fishing
We were named joint leaders of the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) supermarket league table on responsible fish sourcing. We have also completed research by the MCS into sustainable sources of fish meal and fish oil for use in farmed fish feeds.
We have recently funded development of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) assessment of small scale fisheries where the history of fish landings is lacking and therefore certification is difficult. This project is focused on the Cornish Sardine fishery which M&S helped to develop but will have widespread application globally and hopefully increase the number of fisheries that can be MSC certified. We have also supported the launch of the Seafish Industry Authority's Responsible Fishing Scheme for the UK fleet and have encouraged all boats supplying fish to M&S to adopt this standard within our Plan A timeframe.
Organic food
Sales of organic food are up 48% this year, with our organic range doubling in size to almost 500 products. All our children’s chocolate products are organic and all our shortbread is now made with organic butter.
Pesticide reduction
Our farmers have responded well to the introduction of a Pesticide Reduction Network, which involves several eminent experts in the use of pesticides to act as advisors to assist in reducing chemical treatments for M&S production. We’ve already banned the use of 70 pesticides in our products and the Network will help us to phase out a further nine by 2009.
See our latest pesticide testing results here
Animal welfare
Pushing ahead on animal welfare, we’ve reduced the stocking densities of our Oakham chicken flocks to RSPCA standards and converted all fresh whole ducks and whole Christmas turkeys to free range, alongside our fresh whole geese that were already free range. We also recently became the first major retailer to commit to stop selling imported white veal and calves’ liver due to welfare concerns. As from January 2008, we only sell UK-reared rosé veal which meets high animal welfare standards, backed by Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA.
Palm oil
We’ve identified all our food and beauty products that contain palm oil. Our suppliers have been asked to avoid the use of palm oil wherever possible and where an oil is present in a product, it will now be labelled by its name e.g. palm oil or rapeseed oil.
We’re active members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and we’re encouraging the RSPO to implement a robust certification process for sustainable palm oil. For further information visit www.rspo.org.
We are also funding a WWF project to re-plant forests in Borneo that have been affected by the palm oil and logging industries.
Soya
We have become a member of the Round Table for Responsible Soy. This is an international initiative bringing together key players from all sectors of the soy industry, from producers to retailers; to develop a standard for the responsible production of soya. For more information visit: www.responsiblesoy.org
Sustainable packaging
We are also working to make our packaging raw materials more sustainable by extending the use of cardboard from forests that have been independently certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Currently 21% of the cardboard used in our food packaging is FSC certified and we will be extending this further.
Stores
Throughout the year we’ve worked closely with our suppliers to assess the environmental impact of the materials we use to build and fit out our stores. We’re incorporating the learning from this work into a Sustainable Construction Manual which has now been rolled out to our construction supply base. The Manual will help the analysis of initial store designs and selection of construction materials. It will also support key suppliers in their efforts to deliver sustainable construction methods.
Key challenges for 2008
Our efforts in 2008 will include a particular focus on our water footprint, implementation of our cotton strategy, addressing clothing animal welfare issues, continuing to increase the amount of FSC and recycled materials that we use and further work on sustainable palm oil and soy.