Deforestation
Find out about our approach to protecting forests
Progressively sourcing all the timber and wood fibre used in our products and operations from the most sustainable sources and ensuring that the impact of fabric sourcing on forests is understood and addressed
- Wood is legally harvested
- Forests with High Conservation Values (HCV) are protected
- Plantations from natural woodland are avoided
- The traditional and civil rights of people and communities are upheld
As a proud partner of the CanopyStyle Initiative, we're committed to:
- Ending the sourcing from ancient and endangered forests, endangered species habitat and controversial sources
- Supporting lasting conservation solutions
- Promoting the use of next generation alternative feedstocks that have a reduced environmental footprint, such as recycled textiles and agricultural residues from food production
Identifying, understanding and taking action on commodity-driven deforestation in our supply chains, with a specific focus on palm oil, soy and cattle that comes from a forest risk region
Palm oil is the most used vegetable oil across the world and is found in many products across food, household and beauty. As an oil, it has the highest productivity and requires less than 50% of the land that other crops need to produce the same volumes. However, over the years its efficiency has led to unacceptable practices such as high levels of deforestation and peatland drainage, and human rights issues faced by local communities and workers. To ensure we don’t contribute to deforestation we are committed to sourcing palm oil sustainably, for which we set out our minimum standards in our M&S Palm Oil Policy. In 2020, 100% of the palm oil used in M&S products was Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified.
We are active members of the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition and are working to transition palm oil in M&S food products from mass balance to segregated status. In 2020, 75% of the palm oil used in M&S products was RSPO Segregated and 25% Mass Balance. Though our goal was to reach 100% RSPO Segregated status, the availability of segregated palm oil derivatives and fractions continues to be a challenge in our non-food supply chain. To reach our target, we are continuing to work with suppliers and peers to increase the demand for RSPO segregated status.
The majority of the soy we use is found in the animal feed of our livestock, and to ensure we don’t contribute to deforestation we have a goal of sourcing all soy from approved or recognised sustainable soy schemes, including the Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS) credits and ProTerra Foundation.
We’ve supported the sustainable production of soy through the purchase of RTRS credits or via our direct supplier procurement to a deforestation free production standard for 100% of the soy in our supply chain from South America.
From 2020, our focus has shifted to ensure that 100% of our soy is sourced from verified deforestation free regions by 2025. To achieve this we work collaboratively throughout the sector via the Cerrado SoS Group, UK Roundtable for Sustainable Soy, the Retail Soy Group and the Soy Transparency Coalition - a new organisation we helped to create to assess key soy traders’ performance.
In 2021, we also joined 39 other companies to write to Brazil’s National Congress encouraging them to reject a legislative proposal that could open up the Amazon for deforestation.
As part of our protein diversification strategy, we are exploring alternatives to soy-based animal feed through the M&S innovation programme. In 2020, we worked with our 44 British farmers that produce M&S RSPCA Assured milk to replace soy feed with alternatives such as rapeseed oil and sugar beet – avoiding nearly 4,000 tonnes of soy being used each year. We’re also working with pig and poultry suppliers (where the vast majority of soy is used) on projects exploring alternative protein sources and the reduction of soy use as a whole.
Beef
We know our beef sourcing doesn’t contribute to deforestation because we only source from the UK and the Republic of Ireland (for our Irish stores). All our beef is DNA traceable so we can trace each pack back to the individual animal and farm it came from. You can find out about our farmers on our interactive map.
Leather
We apply rigorous standards to our leather and any suppliers sourcing leather from South America must verify that it does not come from cattle reared in the Amazon biome.
We ask all leather product suppliers to annually disclose the country of slaughter of all our leather. This allows us to understand our sourcing footprint and to verify our policies are being followed.
If leather is being sourced from deforestation risk regions, we required that suppliers must either:
1. Demonstrate the route for supply has avoided the use of cattle reared in the Amazon biome through the following:
- A public commitment to prohibit the use of cattle reared in the Amazon biome by the slaughterhouse
- GPS mapping of supplying farms to demonstrate avoidance of cattle reared in the Amazon biome
- Policies to remove suppliers who do not meet these standards
OR
2. Participate in multi-stakeholder, industry or regional schemes that help companies to avoid the purchase of cattle from the Amazon biome if the data from such schemes is made publicly available or audited by an independent third party.
A public commitment to meeting the Minimum Criteria for Industrial Scale Cattle Operations in the Brazilian Amazon Biome (also known as the Cattle Agreement or G4 Agreement), which aims to stop deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, would meet M&S criteria.
Supporting market transformation through collaboration with industry partners and other stakeholders
We can’t achieve zero deforestation worldwide alone, so we’re working with others. These include the Consumer Goods Forum, which comprises many of the world’s leading food manufacturers and retailers. We’re also working with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the Round Table Responsible Soy, and the Leather Working Group, as part of our efforts to remove commodity-driven deforestation from all supply chains.
- Stewardship – promoting the value of independent certification standards and verification, alongside a clear aspiration to move to more sustainable landscape level management
- Transparency – to encourage a high level of transparency within our supply chains and as a component of land management policy
- Resource Efficiency – to encourage continual improvement in productivity and resource management within agriculture and through the supply chain to reduce our reliance on virgin materials
- Innovation – to promote innovative practices and a greater understanding of the opportunities offered by developing a more circular economy