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There isn't a retail company out there that hasn't rolled out an environmentally friendly packaging strategy in recent years, but, asks Des King, can any of them match the standard that M&S has set?

With the planet straining to sustain the pursuit of too little by too many, conserving resources by extending their usage or seeking carbon footprint reduced alternatives should be second nature. The present generation of consumers, however, is still struggling to adjust its mindset from greed to green; from long having had it so good, to the grim prospect of perhaps not having it at all.

As the messenger of consumption, packaging is right up there in the firing line; whether that's targeting the elimination of plastic bags at the check-out, or the cartonboard, film and foil trappings of a chocolate egg. The bandwagon is rolling, and retailers are climbing over one another to get on board. Leading the charge towards greater sustainability is Marks & Spencer with its £200m Plan A: a compendium of 100 different eco-friendly tick-boxes ranging across climate change, waste, material usage, trading ethics and healthier eating habits, including the reduction of its non-glass packaging by 25% prior to the London Olympics in 2012.

Eco-centric
Not only has its logo always been the right colour, but it's now pasted on the side of the new eco-friendly Waterside headquarters in Paddington. Best of all, the tag-line to Plan A – because there is no Plan B – has become a generic moral imperative regularly trotted out to label anything from the latest initiative to resolve the global financial meltdown to the revamped line-up of the local football team.

M&S certainly appears to have covered all the angles, and captured the prevailing zeitgeist to boot, at least as far as the 15m shoppers who pass through its 600-plus UK outlets each week are concerned. It must be making the competition green with envy.

But with the chill wind of economic climate change grabbing the headlines away from its ecological counterpart, and a spate of reduced retailer sales returns suggesting that shoppers are more inclined to place cash before conscience (M&S like-for-like food sales were down 4.5% during Q2), is there really an appetite for sustaining sustainability or is M&S merely preaching to a captive in-store audience of the already converted?

As one of the principal architects of Plan A, M&S head of packaging Helene Roberts is in no doubt. "M&S is different from other retailers because of its brand values. OK, everyone says that of course, but because we have an independent line into technology we never make a decision that implicates or puts at risk any technical decision for commercial reasons. That's quite fundamental to our business.

"But there have to be commercial efficiencies. If it's not economically sustainable you never drive change. Being environmental doesn't have to make something more expensive. We cannot add costs to the consumer in this current economic climate anyway; it would be wrong to do that. Finding those ways in which we can take out unnecessary cost as well as driving environmental benefit has got to be the right way."

There's certainly no doubting the level of commitment. Although Roberts is adamant that packaging is "absolutely aligned with marketing; we operate in category teams within which technology, buying, product development and marketing all work together to deliver what product we feel is the best", it's a fair bet who's the queen bee in this hive of industry.

Green initiative
While other retailers may have positively signed up to packaging weight reduction and a more responsible use of resources et al within the Courtauld Commitment, M&S has always been mindful of environmental issues, argues Roberts.

"In reality, although Plan A was only wheeled out 18 months ago, it was the pulling together of many of the things we've already been doing, and that are the DNA of this business.

"We've always had an internal packaging team. Currently, it's 30 people strong. That's easily the largest team of any retailer, and includes specialists in artwork provision, print and design – all of whom have a tremendous understanding of our brand. We've not gone through the cycle that you see with other retailers: getting rid of their packaging teams towards the end of the 1990s, and then suddenly realising that there was an environmental agenda and that packaging people were needed in the business again to avoid pushing it back on to the supply base."

Bag blitz
As evidence of earlier initiatives through which M&S has gained a material advantage, Roberts cites the move into returnable transit packaging for chilled ready-meals in the 1960s that clipped 27,000 tonnes off its usage of board; and the revolutionary substitution of FSC-accredited board and PLA film for the plastic sandwich skillet in 2002.

Latterly, there has been the decision to scale down on plastic bags by charging a levy at the check-out, an initiative that has reduced consumption by 80% and generated more than £500,000 for local community action groups in less than six months.

While some discount groups have long been charging, M&S's higher profile has directly caused a growing number of other upper-end retail groups to follow suit.

"Nobody's pretending that getting rid of carrier bags makes a huge difference to the amount of plastic that we produce from crude oil," admits Roberts. "However, it is quite iconic in terms of making people think and driving a change of behaviour. In just doing that one small thing, it shows what a difference you can make within the community; it's something that people can intrinsically relate to."

Lest plastic bag manufacturers feel that they're being unfairly victimised in order to serve the greater good, Roberts is quick to point out that M&S "doesn't use paper bags either; from a carbon position they're no better".

The plastics drive
Arguably, the most significant environmental remedy to be prescribed by Roberts will be the greater adoption of recycled PET. A prime mover behind the inception of Closed Loop's 35,000-tonne recycling facility at Dagenham, and its single biggest customer, Roberts says that she moved from PVC to PET in 2002 specifically to drive recycled content in M&S food packaging. Indeed, rPET now accounts for 60% of content.

"I want to drive this to 100%. We had to create the end-market. That's the role we can play as a retailer; to create the drive. Having a recycling facility in the UK is key. We're taking a third of their production. I don't think it's right that we take more, but when the next factory comes on stream in Deeside we'll take some of that as well.

"There's enough capacity or requirement in the UK to have 10 plants like Dagenham right now; that's without any additional growth." Less certain is M&S's position on bio-plastics. "Our biggest plastic use now across the business is rPET. I had to start somewhere, so I started with that," says Roberts. "I then moved to rHDPE for the milk bottles, and that's now our second biggest material. I'd next like to develop rPP.

"Currently, less than 1% of our packaging is made from bio-polymers. We have been working with companies such as NatureWorks – and it is important to support those firms and understand how they can be used going forwards – but there's a lot more development we need to do in terms breadth of product, and in terms of disposability. That's true
generally of recycling in the UK; it's already quite complex from a customer perspective."

Helene Roberts CV
Helene Roberts, 38, joined M&S in 1997 as a materials engineer, and three years later assumed responsibility for all technical aspects of packaging, including driving standards and rationalising how the retailer worked with its approved suppliers. This was extended to include everything from design to delivery, when the post of head of packaging was created for her in 2005.

She previously worked with Procter & Gamble and ICI, who sponsored her doctorate in polymers engineering and for whom she developed a proprietary acrylic material still being used for automotive parts by a number of leading marques.

Plan A in action
With 50% of its revenue accounted for by food and beverages (approximately 5,500 categories) – around 4% of the overall UK food market – packaging reduction and utilisation is a key component of Plan A.

In aiming to reduce its annual usage of 70,000 tonnes of packaging by 25% by 2012, M&S is the only retailer to have excluded glass (approximately 20,000 tonnes) from its calculation -and along with Asda has committed to the highest target.

Working closely with Wrap and other pro-environmental NGOs and partners, M&S's recent achievements include:
* Developing the first recycling information label, now displayed on 90% of all categories

* Reducing food packaging by 1,400 tonnes in the year up to June 2008

* Substituting flexible film for rigid plastic to reduce fresh produce packaging by 92%

* Initiating mixed plastic recycling of office waste in support of Closed Loop in six cities

* Encouraging M&S shoppers to lower clothes washing temperatures below 30°C