David Hordle, Head of Plan A Delivery, Marks & Spencer talks to the Independent about the success of integrating the companies strategy ‘Plan A’ to reduce its carbon footprint.

April 2007, we put a Plan A Champion in every store – that’s 650 altogether. In addition to their day jobs, they help to spread the message across the store teams. One commitment is to make our offices carbon neutral by 2012. In terms of energy efficiency, one of the key drives is a 25 per cent reduction per square foot in store. So for two years we’ve run an energy-saving competition for the stores, as well as volunteer awards recognising people who go the extra mile.

A travel share scheme was launched last year, too, encouraging car pooling, using the train or walking to work. We also encouraged employees to reduce their carbon footprint by putting Plan A on their home page and linking up to a Carbon Calculator. Store teams can see how much energy they’ve used on an hourly basis.

We’ve opened three eco stores this year and are sharing that learning across the business, with employee engagement. Saving energy ticks the box for the environment, and it also ticks the box for finance too. We initially thought Plan A would cost money, but it’s cost neutral.

Source: The Independent  

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