From WGSN we made our way to the Marks & Spencer (M&S) head office where the team there were kind enough to put on lunch for us whilst we discussed their environmental strategy. We met with Richard Gillies, Director of Plan A & Sustainable Business who shared with us some of the amazing environmental work M&S are doing. He explained to us that the group is at the 2 year mark of a 5 year environmental project that has the group hoping to achieve 100 commitments across different areas. Richard explained that the venture into sustainability has grown far beyond what they ever expected. At the 2 year mark they have realised a cost neutral benefit from their campaign and expect by the 5 year mark they will have reached a stage of cost benefit from all their initiatives.
One of the most interesting initiatives involves aid group, Oxfam. M&S customers are encouraged to take their second hand clothes to Oxfam and in exchange they receive M&S vouchers to spend in store. M&S have tracked this voucher use and have found that customers spend far more than the voucher amount they are given and so far a million UK customer are participating, so you can imagine the value M&S are receiving out of this venture! What was also interesting about this was that any product in-store that is marked down to a value of 10 pound or less automatically goes to Oxfam instead of continuing through the markdown cycle. This of course helps Oxfam to be able to pass on new, good quality clothing to their participating charities but it also helps M&S to clear old merchandise.
As mentioned, M&S are well ahead of their targets under the Plan A initiative and are busy planning for the next instalment. The new environmental/social plan will be more holistic and focus on HR needs, in a broad sense. These were just some of the highlights from this visit, but hearing all about the initiatives, large and small, really inspired the group and many of us felt overwhelmed by the task that awaited us back in Australia!
Richard Gillies, Director of Plan A
The group hearing about how environmental efforts have been
