M&S breaks even on 'Plan A' corporate responsibility

Marks & Spencer has hailed its ‘Plan A’ project as having turned
‘cost-positive’ ahead of its 2012 deadline, but has declined to reveal how much
of the £200m allocated budget it has spent on the corporate and social
responsibility exercise, or explain how much money has been saved.

In its latest CSR report ‘How We Do Business’, M&S says the project has
reduced some of its energy usage and landfill waste and that Plan A became
cost-positive at the end of its 2008/09 business year. But it is not clear how,
given the lack of financials to back up its claim.

In 2007, the group said it would spend £200m by 2012 on the initiative, but a
spokesperson for M&S could not say how much of this had been spent so far,
saying only that ‘for every £1 M&S invests in the plan, we effectively save
£1’ ­ making it cost-neutral at best.

So far, Plan A has achieved just 39 of its 100 initiatives across the
business. Meanwhile, 11 initiatives in areas including making business travel
carbon-neutral and achieving the globally used Building Research Establishments
Environmental Assessment Methodology (Breeam) ‘excellent’ rating on all new
stores and Breeam assessments on all existing stores, are behind schedule or on
hold.

The company says it has spent 2.1% of annually adjusted pre-tax profits on
‘community programmes’ ­ part of Plan A’s remit ­ which, by 2009’s figures,
would represent a spend of £12.6m. It reduced the number of plastic carrier bags
given to customers by 83%, but started charging five pence per bag on the 77
million still sold, which contributed to the £1.2m it reinvested in ‘groundwork
projects’.

M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose maintains the group is committed to its
existing plan and budget, despite recession and group pre-tax profits falling
40% in 2008/09.

While not as transparent as some might hope, Rose said in the company’s May
annual report that he put Plan A ‘at the heart of our business’ and CSR is one
of five key board initiatives, alongside international expansion and growing
core business.

Some of the initiatives where it has made headway include:

• More than eight million fair-trade clothing and housing products sold;
• More than three million garments sent to Oxfam instead of going to landfill
  sites;
• Group carbon emissions reduced by 18%; and
• Group energy usage reduced by 10% on its 2006/07 levels.