M&S announces Plan A partnership funding

M&S on Tuesday announced a raft of new investments in collaborative, pioneering projects, funded through its Plan A Accelerator Fund as it continues to target its Net Zero by 2040 goals.

Plan A was first launched as far back as 2007 and in 2024 the company is doubling down on its efforts to tackle climate change and the businesses that work with it will be a big part of this.

M&S said its “strength in supplier partnerships and innovation position it well to drive big changes through collaboration with suppliers and partners – recognising that no-one can deliver net zero on their own”.

As well as food-specific initiatives, it has launched a £1 million Plan A Accelerator Fund and is now working in partnership with “long-standing and new suppliers to take rapid action towards net zero through a series of innovation projects”.

The Food, Clothing & Home and Retail teams at the retailer “have worked closely with suppliers and business partners to identify innovative opportunities across some of the most challenging emissions areas, including agriculture, livestock and textiles”.

One of the first projects supported by the fund is a first-of-its-kind trial asking customers to donate their unwearable clothes to Oxfam, alongside wearable clothing. These unwearable items will be cleaned and used to support fibre-to-fibre recycling, where fibres are re-used and turned into new material, preventing them going to landfill.

Elsewhere in the business, a new trial will use AI data to predict a store’s optimal heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls to reduce energy consumption. When rolled out across the M&S estate, this could save an estimated 2,000 tonnes of carbon and around £3m annually.

Further projects will be announced in the coming months, but some of the initiatives will look at subjects like recycling. It will be introducing polytag technology to better understand how much, when and where its branded single-use plastic is recycled in UK recycling centres, and piloting the viability of shoe recycling.

It has already made big strides in plastic recycling. In M&S’s latest Goodmove activewear collection, over 80% of the polyester was recycled from plastic bottle waste, avoiding the unnecessary extraction of new raw materials.

CEO Stuart Machin said: “I talk a lot about the ‘magic of M&S’ – and a key part of this is our commitment to innovation. It’s in our DNA and, along with our unique model of own brand, long-term supplier partnerships, it’s how we deliver the quality and trust our customers expect from us.

“By turning our obsession with innovation towards climate change and tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of our suppliers we can turbo charge our drive to be a Net Zero business across all our operations and entire supply chain by 2040. I’m excited by the big difference these small changes could make to some of the toughest climate challenges we face.”