Man-made cellulosic fibres
Our approach
Man-made cellulosic fabrics represents 10% of our Clothing & Home business. Since 2015 we have been working to source these fibres more responsibility. In 2023/24 47% of the MMCFS used to make products come from an M&S preferred source.
The sourcing of man-made cellulosic fibres can leave a significant environmental and social footprint. Approximately 150 million trees are logged annually to produce the feedstock for viscose fibre, according to Canopy. Avoiding forest loss and degradation is imperative in reducing carbon emissions, preserving biodiversity and maintaining critical services to local communities.
We are committed to achieving greater supply chain transparency and, where appropriate, traceability of our key raw material sources.
In 2018, we mapped our own supply chain and published our first policy for the responsible sourcing of man-made cellulosic fibres, which introduced minimum sourcing principles to address the environmental and social impact of this fibre group in both raw material sourcing and production.
To enhance supply chain transparency, we publish the locations of our MMCF supplier partners on our M&S interactive sourcing map. We are also aiming to use ‘next generation’ cellulosic fibres, that are produced with alternative raw materials, such as textile waste or agricultural by-products in our clothing.
Our partners
We are committed to using only MMCFs from supplier partners with the highest environmental credentials by the end of 2025/26.
In practice this means the MMCFs we use have a low risk of deforestation in their supply chain and are made using the best available technology.
As part of our man-made cellulosic fibre policy, all viscose, modal and lyocell fibres used in all our M&S products must be fully traceable via the Textile Genesis platform. Traceability is the ability to trace and track raw materials through the end-to-end supply chain this is driven by an increase in legal requirements in different markets, the need for more data to measure progress toward Net Zero and for compliance verification. Information collection from such traceability platform are not used to by-pass element of the supply chain and confidentiality between supply chain partners is insured.
Our policy
We’ve strengthened our MMCF sourcing requirements in our M&S Man-Made Cellulosic Fibre Sourcing Policy.
In addition to our minimum responsible sourcing policy, we also recognise some man-made cellulosic fibres as more responsibly sourced, for their demonstration of elevated environmental performance and traceability.
You can read our list of more responsibly sourced MMCF's here.