Since Marks & Spencer launched its “Plan A” in 2007, the brand has been committed to implementing a range of different environmental projects.

At the beginning of the plan, M&S selected its top-100 garment mills to participate in its "C-100 Energy Conservation Project.” Nearly 80% of these suppliers are located in China. Working with technical and industry experts, M&S found that the plants could reduce energy use at least 10% by improving three key areas in the factories: lighting, separation measures and temperature control.

Since the performance of the plants was better than expected, in 2011, M&S launched an advanced “ECO Factory Program” to more comprehensively promote improvement in different areas at the plants, focusing on the four areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, water and waste management. 34 factories have achieved at least 20% energy savings from the program.

From 2014 through 2017, there were 13 factories in total awarded the “ECO factory” label, ultimately saving 575,555 tons of water and 11,890,106 kWh of electricity annually. 

In July 2017, Marks & Spencer successfully pushed an intimates apparel factory in Guangdong Province become an “ECO Factory” through three years of training and engagements, starting with the management team and going all the way down to the front line of workers.

This factory successfully reduced its electricity consumption by approximately 45,000 kWh and reduced its water consumption by around 21,900 tons, totaling 27% energy reduction at the factory. The factory exhibited a number of achievements across different production areas, including the use of energy-saving motors, LED lighting systems, high-performance air compressors, a green air conditioning system, a steam recycle system, and strengthening the machinery maintenance inside the plant. These actions all helped to improve the factory budget by significantly reducing production and operating costs. As a result, the plant is very eager to move forward in this direction by setting up energy-saving targets for the next five years, including a further reduction of 10% in electricity consumption, 10% of water consumption, 10% of production waste and 50% of kitchen waste.

Last year, over 40% of all products M&S sold were made in M&S-approved eco- factories. These are factories that have demonstrated significant savings in their energy, water and waste footprints.In the future, Marks & Spencer will continue to drive more plants to join its efforts to develop a green supply chain. 

 (The above content was provided to IPE by the brand, who is responsible for the accuracy of the data.)