M&S is a British retailer with 32 million customers across the world. We’re known for our award-winning food, clothing and homeware
Marks and Spencer
Moving Beyond Commitments: Collaborating to End Deforestation
8 years ago - Deforestation can pose significant operational and reputational risks to businesses, and we at EDF are seeing companies start to take action in their supply chains. Deforestation accounts for an estimated 12 percent of overall GHG emissions worldwide — as much global warming pollution to the atmosphere as all of the cars and trucks in the world. In addition, deforestation wipes out biodiversity and ravages the livelihoods of people who live in and depend on the forest for survival.
12 Industry Leaders Unveil Methodology for Assessing Social Impacts of Products
8 years ago - A group of companies united in the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics today announces the publication of the Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment, a practical tool for assessing a product’s social impacts throughout its life cycle. The handbook is the result of a unique collaborative effort of a group of market leaders across a variety of industries.
Starbucks, M&S Sign On to Launch of neighbourly's Philanthropic Matching Service
8 years ago - The first tech entrant into the UK’s £800m corporate philanthropic sector launched Thursday — with corporate giants Starbucks and Marks & Spencer among the first companies to sign on to the service.neighbourly, a finalist in our 2013 SB London Innovation Open, is a social network designed to help connect community and charity projects with socially responsible companies that can contribute funding or volunteers.
Sainsbury's, M&S Lead Effort to Recycle 1.3 Billion Plastic Food Trays Annually
8 years ago - Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer (M&S) are leading a consortium of UK packaging, retail and recycling organizations to launch a market trial aimed at recycling as many as 1.3 billion plastic food trays each year.The campaign focuses on reducing waste from black CPET trays, which are commonly used in supermarket ready meals. The trays are recyclable, but the black color of the trays makes them undetectable with Near Infra-Red optical sorting equipment typically used at plastic sorting and recycling facilities.
Life-Size Living™: How to Find Meaning Within Our Means Once More
8 years ago - The time when we were happily seduced into reaching far, far beyond our means with a promise of infinite everything and the glittering lure of a‘larger-than-life’ life, seems, to some of us at least, quite archaic now.But even in our socially enlightened, austerity-shredded, community-conscious, light-speed-connected present, we still struggle to get to grips with a smarter, lighter, less financially and materially burdensome style of life.We’re all still living ‘larger-than-life’ lives. We seem to struggle to find meaning in the things that exist comfortably within our means.
Measuring the Social Footprint of Products — Why Bother?
8 years ago - For over 20 years, PRé has been the metrics solutions partner for first-movers in a variety of industries aiming to create business value from sustainable products. Perhaps best known for their pioneering SimaPRO LCA software, PRé has recently shifted its focus to examine the social impacts of products. We spoke with Renée Morin, president of PRé North America, to find out more about the company’s new direction and what it has learned so far.
M&S Earns Triple Carbon Trust Certifications for Energy, Water and Waste
9 years ago - Marks & Spencer has become the first retailer to receive the triple award of certification for achievements in carbon, water and waste reduction from the Carbon Trust. The Carbon Trust Standards are independent certifications recognising organisations that successfully measure, manage and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use and waste — demonstrating leadership within their sector by making year-on-year progress.
adidas, M&S, IKEA Among Brands Making Great Strides to Source Slave-Free Cotton
9 years ago - The Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a nonprofit dedicated to ending human rights abuses associated with the raw materials found in everyday products, today released a new report, Cotton Sourcing Snapshot: A Survey of Corporate Practices to End Forced Labor. The report includes survey results and ratings of 49 companies in the apparel and home goods industries reflecting steps companies are taking to identify risks and establish procedures to prevent cotton from Uzbekistan picked with forced labor from entering their supply chains.
With New Worker-Engagement Technologies, 18 Million Is Just the Beginning
9 years ago - It has the potential to benefit 173 million workers in global supply chains and provide livelihood benefits or savings of US $30 billion annually, according to Vodafone and Accenture.What is the ‘it’? It’s a series of six disruptive opportunities for mobile to enhance the lives of workers in global supply chains. Details are laid out in their report, Connected Worker: How mobile technology can improve working life in emerging economies, with corresponding reach, benefits and business case for each of the six:
Burberry Is Latest Apparel Brand to Commit to Eliminate Hazardous Chemicals
9 years ago - … Or, as Greenpeace refers to its apparent victory: “How to Detox a fashion brand in 14 days, 6 cities and 10,000 tweets.”British luxury fashion brand Burberry has responded to recent allegations by Greenpeace that some of its clothing contains hazardous chemicals by committing to remove all such substances from its operations by 2020.
Unilever Becomes Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Newest Global Partner
9 years ago - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) announced today from the World Economic Forum in Davos that Unilever has joined Cisco, Kingfisher, Philips and Renault as the EMF’s latest Global Partner. The partnership will find the Foundation supporting Unilever as a pathfinder in unlocking the value of the circular economy within the FMCG industry. Unilever CEO Paul Polman has long viewed the circular economy model as a key opportunity for business development. In his foreword for the Foundation's second economic report, he stated:
The Alchemy of Sustainability: 5 Forces That Will Drive More Meaning, Growth and Impact in 2014
9 years ago - At BBMG, we often use archetypes to help reveal a brand’s true character and provide a North Star for the products, services and experiences it can bring into the world.My favorite is the Alchemist, whose core desire is to search out the fundamental laws of how things work and apply these principles to make things happen. The Alchemist integrates physical, environmental and spiritual elements to spark transformation in people, organizations and our times.In 2014, we see an alchemy of economic, environmental and social values that will bring new opportunities for business and society, and we’ve identified five forces that will advance a more sustainable marketplace:
Top 10 Ways Brands Used Their Power to Create a More Sustainable World in 2013
9 years ago - 2013 was a banner year for companies using their muscle to drive transformative change, both internally and globally. Without further ado, here is just a taste of some of the progress we found most inspiring.
CDP: Many Businesses Still Unaware of Supply Chain Risks Due to Deforestation
9 years ago - In a year of extreme weather events, commodity price spikes and supply chain disasters, the latest data from CDP’s forests program reveals that the business community remains largely unaware of the deforestation risks in their own supply chains, threatening shareholder value.
M&S, Waitrose Among UK Retailers Working ‘Stronger Together’ to Fight Forced Labor
9 years ago - Leading organisations and industry bodies within UK food production, retail and horticulture have joined forces to tackle the issue of modern-day slavery, human trafficking, forced labor and other hidden migrant worker exploitation, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
IKEA, M&S, lululemon Join Brands Protesting Forced Child Labor in Uzbek Cotton Fields
9 years ago - In the lead up to Uzbekistan’s annual cotton fair, a mounting number of international brands and retailers have declared their refusal to source from the country until it ceases the forced labor of children and adults in the cotton fields. Representing an estimated $1.024 trillion USD in revenue, 136 brands and companies have now signed the "Company Pledge Against Forced Child and Adult Labor in Uzbek Cotton," according to the Responsible Sourcing Network.
M&S, BT, Unilever, Sainsbury's Top FTSE 100 Carbon Ranking
9 years ago - For the second year in a row, retailer Marks & Spencer has topped Carbon Clear’s ranking of the carbon performance of the FTSE 100. This is the third year that Carbon Clear has undertaken the research, examining the extent and depth of FTSE (London stock exchange) 100 companies’ carbon measurement and reporting practices, ranking companies based on a well-developed scoring matrix.
M&S the First of Few Companies That Come to UK Consumers’ Minds as Being Environmentally Responsible
9 years ago - New research released this week by the Carbon Trust reveals that, while consumers see business as the key to economic recovery, they do not yet see it as key to fixing our environmental problems, with over two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents unable to name a company taking the issue of environmental sustainability seriously.Respondents who could name companies they thought were walking the sustainability talk were quick to mention retailer Marks & Spencer (the most popular answer), followed in order by the Co-operative Group, Tesco, BP and Sainsbury’s.
M&S Establishing Link to Workers Throughout Its South Asian Supply Chain
9 years ago - Marks & Spencer (M&S) has signed a one-year deal to work with social enterprise technology provider Good World Solutions to facilitate direct communications with workers in its clothing supply chain via mobile technology.M&S will use Labor Link, technology that returns anonymous, quantitative survey results to M&S direct from supply chain workers. Workers listen to questions on their mobile phones in Hindi, Sinhalese, or another local language, and respond using their touch-tone keypad.
Sustainability Innovations Could Generate $156 Billion for UK Firms
9 years ago - UK businesses could secure £100 billion pounds (nearly $156 billion USD) in annual productivity gains generated by innovations designed to address environmental and social challenges, according to a new report by Accenture, Business in the Community and Marks & Spencer.Fortune Favors the Brave argues that companies must go beyond conventional corporate and social responsibility programs and place sustainability at the heart of business strategies and operations to unlock the full commercial potential and sustainability benefits.