Product Standards

We are restless in our aim to improve things for the better. We work closely with our suppliers to develop high quality and innovative products that are only available at M&S.

Products
We operate rigorous quality management systems which have been developed with our suppliers. These operate on a precautionary principle and are supported by a range of on-site audits and product testing. Suppliers are required to meet a range of quality, safety, environmental and social standards.

Our Environmental and Chemical Policy can be found here

Microbeads

M&S is committed to not using solid plastic microbeads in M&S own brand personal care products and working with our suppliers to remove them from branded products sold in M&S stores. No own-brand products are manufactured with such microbeads and all products, own-brand and branded, sold in M&S stores will be free from these microbeads by end of 2017.

We are restless in our aim to improve things for the better. We work closely with our suppliers to develop high quality and innovative products that are only available at M&S.

Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP)

Since 2012, M&S has been a member of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), a UK based initiative with a mission to reduce the use of resources across the clothing industry.

In collaboration with other brands, we have pledged to reduce the impact of the products we sell over their entire lifecycle. We agreed, along with 10 other brands, to achieve the below targets by 2020:

15% Carbon Footprint Reduction
15% Water Footprint Reduction
3.5% Reduction in waste arising over the whole product lifecycle

From careful fabric and fibre selection, influencing consumer behaviour or encouraging re-use and recycling, we’ve been working hard to reduce the impact of our products. You can see our progress from 2012 to 2018 below:

11.4% Carbon Footprint Reduction
29.6% Water Footprint Reduction
0.13% Reduction in waste arising over the whole product lifecycle

The Waste and Resources Action Plan (WRAP) Footprint Calculator has been used to estimate environmental impacts, and potential reductions due to recommended improvement actions. The calculator provides a consistent methodology for measuring the carbon, water and waste impacts of our garments. Details about the methods used and data sources, including a data quality assessment, are provided in a report on WRAP’s website.

Product Standards

Find out more about our approach to managing chemicals in our Clothing & Home supply chain