{"id":369,"date":"2019-03-14T11:34:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T11:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/?p=369"},"modified":"2019-03-14T11:34:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T11:34:46","slug":"translating-science-into-meaningful-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/translating-science-into-meaningful-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Barry \u2013 Marks and Spencer\u2019s Plan A programme: translating science into meaningful action"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the food and clothing on offer in the aisles of Marks and Spencer give little indication of the company\u2019s sustainability strategy. But look closer and some clues are revealed: the name of the farmer can be seen on the chicken he has supplied; the forks available to eat a take away salad are now wood rather than plastic; more meals using plant-based meat alternatives are on the shelves. These developments have their origins in Plan A, the company\u2019s programme for creating long-term sustainable business value. And if you were wondering, there is no Plan B (as there is no Plan B for the one planet we\u2019ve got).<\/p>\n

The Director of Plan A and Sustainable Business at M&S is Mike Barry. He was on the team that in 2007 developed and delivered the original ground-breaking Plan A programme, then a five year plan addressing a wide range of environmental and social issues. The latest iteration (Plan A 2025) sets 100 bold new targets to tackle five big issues \u2013 climate change, waste, resources, fair partnerships, and health. Mike\u2019s presentation gives us a unique insight into how a commercial business can raise its operation to a more sustainable level within the constraints of a competitive retail environment. It also reveals Mike as a man of great determination and drive, conversant with environmental, social and technological trends and dedicated to bringing about positive change.<\/p>\n

Marks and Spencer is different from many other retailers as 98% of what it sells is on its own private label. This gives the company more control over its supply chains and the environmental and social profiles of the 3bn items it sells annually to its 32m customers. According to Mike Barry, changes implemented in the last ten years have made \u201cM&S a little less bad\u201d but he is under no illusions that this is enough. The scale and urgency of the climate crisis, generation of plastic wastes, loss of biodiversity and prevalence of forced labour show that the \u201ccurrent business model is bad for the planet\u201d and radical action is needed to change it.<\/p>\n

At times Mike\u2019s sense of frustration is almost palpable but so is his conviction that pursuing opportunities in collaboration with other organizations is key. Coordinated action across the Consumer Goods Forum, whose members have a total turnover of $3tn\/a, is the way to bring about meaningful change across the retail sector. Over the last twelve years, Mike Barry\u2019s ambitions for sustainability at M&S have only just begun to be realised. He summarises what he has learnt in the last two slides, entitled \u201cWhat we need to do differently as corporations\u201d and \u201cWhat we need to do differently as leaders\u201d. Together they represent a blueprint to facilitate sustainability in an organisation irrespective of its size, nature or aims. If you want to start a discussion about sustainability at your workplace, you could do a lot worse than handing out hardcopies of these slides at a staff meeting to begin your process of \u201ctranslating science into meaningful action\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s SEI talk can be viewed in the YouTube player below<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OpmzYK4DR8k]
\nYou can keep up to date with current developments at on the Marks and Spencer website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr John Maskall<\/strong>
\nVisiting Teaching Fellow in Environmental Science
\nUniversity of Plymouth<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the food and clothing on offer in the aisles of Marks and Spencer give little indication of the company\u2019s sustainability strategy. But look closer and some clues are revealed: the name of the farmer can be seen on the chicken he has supplied; the forks available to eat a take away salad are now wood rather than plastic; more meals using plant-based meat alternatives are on the shelves. These developments have their origins in Plan A, theRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}