1. Welcome
FOOD NEWSLETTER
JULY 2015 ISSUE
Welcome to the summer edition of our Foods Plan A newsletter. The first quarter of the financial year
has been an exceptionally busy one with the Farming for the Future report, the launch of the new Plan
A Report & Global Community Programme Report, Open Farm Sunday, two agricultural shows, and
the Plan A and Ethical Trade Conferences in Spain. More than ever, we feel the sense of commitment
and excitement towards Plan A growing internally and across our food supply chain. The Foods
Conference in April 2015 was a landmark moment demonstrating just how far we’ve come, with
sustainability running throughout all sessions and underpinning M&S’ business growth model. It was
fantastic to see such interest in our first ever Environment Week, with 140 sites signing up to take part
in June to raise awareness for World Environment Day.
Some of the highlights of this edition include:
• Our Foods Plan A Briefing and 2015 Plan A Awards
which will take place on Friday 16th October in London
– we hope all of our food suppliers can attend.
• Awards and external recognition in honour of our
efforts on water management, our Farming for the
Future and our Agricultural Leadership Programmes.
• The launch of our new Human Rights policy and
Produce Ethical Code of Practice.
On top of this, there are many more articles which we
hope you find informative, practical and relevant. This
includes a Silver Factories and Attributes updates, the
launch of our Workplace Communications programme,
and the latest on M&S’ Global Community Programme
which we believe is leading the sector on social
innovation in global supply chains.
We are also pleased to welcome contributions from
our colleagues in the agricultural teams, Phil Gibson
and Andy Mitchell.
Your voices and experience are what will progress us as
a community towards our Plan A commitments, so we
welcome your thoughts on features or news that you’d
like to share in the next edition. Please feel free to get
in touch with the team with your ideas.
Wishing you all the best in these warm summer months,
Louise Nicholls FIFST,
Head of Responsible Sourcing, Packaging and Plan A
Please do keep in touch with us if you have any suggestions for improving this newsletter and its content or
if you would like to be featured as a case study. Email Foods.PlanA@marks-and-spencer.com

2. Contents
KEY DATES for your diary
Invitation to Foods Plan A Briefing 1
Kenya and South Africa Conferences 1
Foods Plan A 2015 Awards 1
Exciting Plan A news
New Plan A Report launched 2
M&S Foods Conference April 2015 2
Awards 3
M&S Farming For The Future shortlisted for prestigious award 3
Celebration of farming at the Balmoral Show 4
Silver & beyond
Silver Factories & Attributes 5
Ethical update
New Human Rights Policy for Supply Chain 6
Tackling Modern Slavery NEW “Stronger Together” Workshops 7
“Let’s Get Talking” 8
Ethical Governance: New Produce Ethical Code of Practice
and introducing Alexandra! 9
global updates
Plan A en España! 10
Living Wage in Malawi 10
Global Community Programme 10
other news
Wellbeing Week & Environment Week 11
Clean and Efficient Household Cooking Solutions 12
water and waste
Love Food Hate Waste Sustainable Cities – Manchester 13
Welcoming Simon on Water 13
AGRICULTURE
Select Grower, Field to Fork 14
Milk Pool Celebrations 14
Open Farm Sunday 15
WhatsApp Pilot 15

3. KEY DATES FOR YOuR DiARY
1
Launching KENYA
AND SOUTH AFRICA
Conferences
The Kenya Conference is scheduled
to take place in the last week of
October and the South Africa
Conference will take place in the first
week of November. We’ll share more
details soon on the dates and how
to secure a place.
FOODS
PLAN A
2015
AWARDS
Next month we are launching our
2015 Foods Plan A Awards in
recognition of the breakthrough
initiatives that have taken place
amongst our foods suppliers over
the past two years, showcasing
the best in sustainability leadership.
The categories are:
• Supplier of the year Award
• Environment Award
• People Award
• Innovation Award
• Partnership Award
• Lean Manufacturing Award
We will send you more information
about the Awards soon, so please
look out for this and start thinking
about your submissions! You will
be able to share your
submissions with the Foods Plan
A team from early August until
early September. The winners of
the Awards will be announced at
the Foods Plan A Briefing on Friday
16th October at the Crystal.
INVITATION TO FOODS
PLAN A BRIEFING,
Friday 16th October 2015
On Friday 16th October, we invite
you to join the Foods Plan A Briefing
where we will update food suppliers
on the Plan A journey and the
leadership we are looking for in the
coming years to reach ambitious
Plan A commitments. We will also
announce the winners of our 2015
Foods Plan A Awards. Leading the
event will be Director of Foods
Technology Paul Willgoss, Director
of Plan A Mike Barry, and the Foods
Plan A Team including Louise Nicholls.
We have chosen the Crystal in the
Docklands as the venue for the
Foods Plan A Briefing – one of the
world’s most sustainable venues.
There is limited capacity so we will
be hosting a morning session,
from 9.30-12.30am, and an afternoon
session, from 13.30-16.30pm.
Content and speakers will be
the same at both sessions so
guests are only required to attend
one session.
Please look out for an invitation from
Foods.PlanA@marksandspencer.com.
The Briefing is geared towards Senior
Managers with decision-making
responsibilities on sustainability.
Each site will be allocated a number
of tickets; there is the opportunity
to join a waiting list if you’d like
more. For group sites, the invitation
will be sent to Group Leads to
coordinate tickets across your sites.
The Crystal also has an on-site
exhibition which showcases global
trends and challenges, alongside
existing technological solutions to
build environmentally sustainable,
livable and prosperous cities. You
can also travel to and from the
Crystal by the Emirates Air Line,
London’s only cable car, which has
views that rival the London Eye and
we’d thoroughly recommend it!
More details will be included in the
invitation. We hope you can make it.
In June 2014, M&S set out on the third stage of our Plan A journey.
We launched Plan A 2020, which reflects our determination to
put Plan A at the heard of our brand and corporate strategy.
We’re delighted to announce
that we’ll be holding Foods
Plan A Conferences in Kenya
and South Africa later in
the year.

4. We published our 2015 Plan A report on the 4th June. This is
the first report that demonstrates progress with Plan A 2020.
Strong progress has been made on Plan A commitments (47 achieved) and our
Plan A priorities including rolling Plan A out across M&S’ international business
and driving Plan A attributes into our products. M&S remains the only major retailer
in the world to have carbon neutral operations.
Key Foods Highlights from this year’s Plan A report:
1. Work Placements. M&S Food Suppliers
have provided work placements to
over 1718 young people and 90%
of those who completed them went
on to find work;
2. Almost two thirds (64%) of M&S
products now have a Plan A attribute,
an eco or ethical quality over and
above the market norm, an increase
of seven per cent over 13/14;
3. 100% of the palm oil used in
M&S products is now covered by
Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil
certification; Foods made particularly
good progress this year with 93%
physical RSPO palm oil;
4. Energy efficiency in our uK and
Republic of ireland stores, offices
and warehouses has been improved
by 36% against a 2007 baseline;
5. £2.45m raised for health and wellbeing
charities, including £1.3m for MacMillan
Cancer Support and £700,000 for
Breakthrough Breast Cancer;
6. Constructed the uK’s largest single
roof mounted solar panel array on
top of our Castle Donington
distribution centre;
7. Cut the amount of packaging we
use for home deliveries by 60%
against a 2009 baseline;
8. 100% Of our wild fish is from
sources that are sustainable or are
working to be sustainable;
9. 32% Of M&S Food comes from
suppliers that meet the M&S Silver
Sustainable Factory Standard.
The theme of sustainability and using
sustainability to underpin profitable
growth ran throughout the conference
with all speakers mentioning Plan A in
some way or other. it was clear to see
from the event that those suppliers
achieving gold and silver are also those
achieving businesses success with Marks
& Spencer. Gold Supplier Greencore
Northampton achieved overall M&S
Supplier of the Year and Cucina Sana
were feted with a number of other awards.
Louise Nicholls spoke on some of the
key Foods Plan A achievements this year:
• 91% of our food volume covered by
the Gold Silver & Bronze programme.
39 sites have now been validated
=32% of food volume included in this
is now 4 suppliers leading the way at
Gold Level, representing 9% of volume.
• Suppliers have reduced water by
8.5 Mm3
and saved 257,787 tonnes
waste.
• 48% sites no waste to landfill, in last
12 months sites redistributing has
increased by 300%.
• increased labour productivity by 10%
to 35%.
• Silver and Gold sites are growing
twice as fast with M&S compared to
non-silver sites.
• in 14/15 food supply chain enabled 1,718
placements and 925 young unemployed
people to gain permanent work.
Louise set some key challenges to
Food Suppliers:
• Aim for 100% sites as silver by
2020 – can you get to gold?
• Keep Going on Youth Unemployment.
• Address your Supply Chain Risks.
Suppliers were awarded their gold and
silver certificates. The Silver suppliers
(top and middle right) are: Vision Park
Cake Bolton, 2 Sisters Food Group
Thetford, KP Snacks Tanfield, Avanti
Blue Panasonic, Worldwide Fruit
Spalding, Kims, Dairy Crest Severnside,
Fresca Manor Fresh, Wellness Foods
Orchard House Factory 3, Bakkavor
Desserts, Linden Foods, Tulip Bodmin.
The Gold suppliers (bottom right) are:
Greencore Northampton, Bakkavor
Tilmanstone Salads, Bakkavor
Cucina Sano.
To view the new Plan A Foods Film
click here. Thanks to stars from
Greencore Northampton, Cucina Sano,
Manor Fresh, Hovis, Matthew Algie.
ExCiTiNG PLAN A NEWS
M&S FOODS CONFERENCE
Steve Rowe hosted the M&S Foods Conference on 24th April 2015. This was an exciting event setting
the foods strategy for the next year and updating all suppliers on NPD and category plans.
NEW PLAN A
REPORT
2

5. ExCiTiNG PLAN A NEWS
AWARDS
We are very proud of the work that we do here in the Foods Plan A team and
like to recognise the excellent work you do as suppliers with our annual awards
scheme. We also enter our work into a number of awards to gain external
recognition. Since the last newsletter we’ve entered and been successful with
the following:
Guardian Sustainable Business
Winner Natural Capital Award –
For our work on water management
within the supply chain.
Runner Up Supply Chain Award –
Sustainability Framework and
Guardian Sustainable Business
Leader of the Year.
2degrees Champions Awards 2015
Finalist Degrees Awards –
Silver Framework
Finalist 2 Degrees Award –
Work with Matthew Algie & Twin
Trading on water stewardship in Peru.
(Both to be announced July 2015).
3
M&S FARMING FOR THE FUTURE
shortlisted for prestigious award
Our commitment to sustainable farming has recently been
recognised, with our Farming for the Future programme and
our Agricultural Leadership Programme having both been
shortlisted for this year’s Business in the Community Awards.
These awards have been running for
18 years, and were established to
highlight responsible business activity
and the role companies can play in
ensuring a more sustainable future.
The two M&S agricultural
programmes have been shortlisted
specifically for the ‘Samworth
Brothers Rural Action Award’, which
recognises the work undertaken by
businesses to maintain a sustainable
and prosperous rural economy.
As one of the 100 commitments
pledged in our Plan A 2020 eco and
ethical plan, the M&S Farming for the
Future programme certainly reflects
the ethos of the awards, having been
specifically established to help
producers meet current and future
sustainability challenges within the
agricultural sector.
The programme sees us working with
our farmers, growers and fishermen
across the globe to help them
identify best practice in terms of
efficiency, environmental performance,
ethical practice and education,
sharing learnings to improve the
security of supply and sustainability
of our raw materials sourcing.
This desire to ensure the long-term
sustainability of the agricultural
industry is also reflected in the
development of our bespoke
Agricultural Leadership programme.
Established in 2012, this programme
offers high potential young managers
working within the M&S fresh food
supply base the chance to attend
a customised, five day course at
Cranfield university School of
Management, aimed at advancing
their understanding of sustainability,
supply chain management and
helping them to develop their own
leadership approach.
So far 55 delegates have taken part
in the programme, helping to
strengthen relationships throughout
the M&S supply chain as well as
increasing knowledge and best
practice across our supply base.
it is an honour to be nominated for
the award and we are delighted that
the Farming for the Future programme
has been confirmed as a finalist –
we look forward to hearing the
results on July 7th!

6. ExCiTiNG PLAN A NEWS
4
Celebration of
farming at the
BALMORAL
SHOWWe were delighted to attend the 147th Balmoral show back in May and play our part in the annual,
three-day celebration of the agricultural community in Northern Ireland.
Over the course of the event, the M&S agriculture and
fisheries team was delighted to meet a large number of
producers on the M&S stand - taking time to discuss
various topics with visitors whilst they enjoyed the
hospitality of the farmer’s lounge. Our customer
experience area and chef demonstrations also proved
hugely popular with the general public, helping to spread
the message about our points of difference in the
retail market.
The first day of the show also provided the opportunity
to formally announce the winners of this year’s Farming
for the Future Awards for the island of ireland. This year
the awards were in three categories – outstanding
producer, innovation and young producer.
Now in their seventh year, the awards are a celebration
of the producers in the M&S supply chain, recognising
those who demonstrate industry-leading efficiency,
ethical practice, innovation, public engagement or
environmental work.
Beef farmer Noel Hooke from Hillsborough, County Down
was selected as the winner of the young producer category.
He was commended for his drive in implementing new
ideas obtained from overseas trips, his dedication to
producing high quality cattle and his desire to improve
his family business.
Geoff Taylor, New Product Development Project Manager
at Monaghan Mushrooms, won the innovation award for
his work in developing vitamin D mushrooms for M&S as
well as reducing packaging waste and his general
enthusiasm for product development.
The winner of the outstanding producer category was
arable and beef farmer Alan Mooney from County Kildare.
Judges were impressed by his use of clover to boost
nitrogen levels in soil, his focus on working with the
environment and his involvement within the wider
agricultural community.
As always, the Balmoral Show proved to be a fantastic
three days engaging with our farmers and growers in
ireland and we look forward to meeting more producers
when we attend the Royal Highland, Great Yorkshire and
Royal Welsh shows in the coming months.

7. 5
Silver Factories
& Attributes
Silver factories
We have had another good quarter on silver validation visits, with some of
our large sites achieving Silver and helping to increase our volume from
Silver & Gold sites to over 35%. Since the last newsletter we are pleased to
report that the following sites have now been validated as Silver:
• Princes Chichester
• 2 Sisters Food Group Carlisle
• Tangerine Liverpool
• G’s March
• 2 Sisters Food Group Rogerstone
We have a number of other sites in the diary for Silver validations over the
summer and plenty of opportunities for sites to add their names to the list
of visits before the end of the financial year, so if you believe you are ready
for a silver validation visit, please contact Joanne.Bowen@marksandspencer.com
and we will arrange to get some calls in the diary to begin the Silver process.
As a reminder, all the information you require to help you on your way to
Silver, and that you will need to prepare for a silver validation visit, can be
found on the Supplier Exchange website.
Silver factory cohorts
Despite the progress happening on Silver, not all of our sites are progressing
fast enough on the framework for us to meet our commitment of all sites
achieving Silver status by 2020. To help speed up this process, we are
investigating the option of running a number of cohorts within the supply
base, whereby sites at similar levels on the scorecards can share best
practice with other sites and help each other to progress to Silver. Cohorts
would meet regularly to share progress in the various frameworks and on
the process overall. The idea is that sites exchange their planning for reality
checks, help review each other’s gap analyses, share ideas for
implementation of the framework in specific projects etc.
More information will be shared soon, but the Plan A team may be in
contact with you to invite you to become a member of a cohort to help
both M&S and the supply base achieve their future silver & gold targets.
Attributes
The overall foods figure for the full year 2014/15 was 63%.
This is 7% up on last year and 13% ahead of our 2015 target,
so well done to everybody who has helped us achieve that figure.
However, we still have a long way to go, especially in some categories, and
need to really drive product attributes and hotspots harder and faster this
year. Through the silver process, we are identifying the sites that will help us
make the biggest improvements in attribute numbers by category, as well
as identifying the specific hotspots that will drive numbers forwards by
targeting sustainable raw materials, packaging and reduced waste. The
Attribute Guidelines document has recently been updated to Version 7.
This has updated attributes, names, rules & M&S owners and can be
accessed on Connect & Supplier Exchange.
in addition, any proposed new attributes should be discussed the quarterly
food attribute board meeting (the next one is 13th July) so if any sites
have any new attributes that the feel should qualify, please contact
Joanne.Bowen@marksandspencer.com as well as your category team,
and we will discuss the next steps.
SiLVER & BEYOND
When 2 Sisters Carlisle were validated silver,
they celebrated in style! All colleagues were
invited to the market stalls used on the
validation day where they received a recyclable
jute bag containing the silver mug with the
C&G and Plan A logos on, along with a
celebration cake. There was also some
information outlining what they have achieved
through silver validation and why it’s important.
Everyone had the opportunity to enter a prize
draw to win 1 of 50 electrical items ranging
from a flat screen TV to kettles and toasters
and everything in between and 50 1 day extra
holidays. 100 Prizes in total. This happy worker
won the kindle!

8. In 2011, the UN published the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This made clear
businesses responsibility to uphold human rights in their operations and supply chains. It set out
how businesses should seek to identify their most material human rights impacts, and set out an
action plan to address these impacts.
We believe that human rights
represent a ‘widening of the lens’ for
our ethical trade activity – thinking
beyond the first tier of the supply
chain and beyond the immediate
workplace. it also requires us to have
in place a stronger approach to
grievances.
As such, we have announced that
we will be launching a new Human
Rights policy for the supply chain,
which will be posted online shortly.
The policy should be read alongside
our Global Sourcing Principles, which
were updated in December 2014.
The policy emphasises:
• The importance of the Global
Sourcing Principles
• The importance of external
collaborations
• Commitment to extra due
diligence in order to address
human rights impacts
• Ensuring effective remedy for
grievances in our supply chains
What is effective remedy?
Remedy refers to the ability of
people whose rights have been
compromised, to seek a solution
to address and improve that
impact. What do we think effective
remedy looks like for a supplier?
• Building awareness of
employees and knowledge of
employee on their human rights
and labour rights
• Encourage employees to speak
up, without retribution, about
any concerns they may have,
including through grievance
channels
• increasing the capacity of
management to effectively
identify and respond to concerns
• Promote the provision of both
informal and formal grievance
mechanisms
M&S signs up to the UN Women’s
Empowerment Principles
We are delighted to announce that
M&S has signed up to the Women’s
Empowerment Principles. As such
we are stating our commitment to
empowering women to participate
fully in economic life across all
sectors – this is essential to build
stronger economies, achieve
internationally agreed goals for
development and sustainability, and
improve the quality of life for women,
men, families and communities.
M&S have a strong employee
diversity programme in place –
including targets on the proportion
of women on the Board and in
senior roles; an inspiring Women
Network; and a number of gender
diversity initiatives, including
mentoring young women at local
schools. We recognise that by
stating our commitment publically
to the Women’s Empowerment
Principles we can further reinforce
this strength, and demonstrate our
leadership externally.
So what are The Women’s
Empowerment Principles?
in short they offer practical
guidance to business and the private
sector on how to empower women
in the workplace, marketplace and
community. The Principles are
designed to support companies
in reviewing existing policies and
practices – or establishing new ones
– to realise women’s empowerment.
The Principles are:
1. Establish high-level corporate
leadership for gender equality
2. Treat all women and men fairly at
work – respect and support human
rights and nondiscrimination
3. Ensure the health, safety and
well-being of all women and
men workers
4. Promote education, training and
professional development for
women
5. implement enterprise
development, supply chain and
marketing practices that
empower women
6. Promote equality through
community initiatives and advocacy
7. Measure and publicly report on
progress to achieve gender equality
You can find out more online at
http://weprinciples.org/
NEW HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY
for Supply Chain
ETHiCAL uPDATE
6

9. ETHiCAL uPDATE
7
The new Modern Slavery Act requires all big businesses in the UK to make a public annual
statement of the steps taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its
business or supply chain.
M&S is a sponsor of the “Stronger
Together” initiative to equip
businesses with the knowledge
and resources to prevent and tackle
modern slavery at their sites and in
their supply chain.
We strongly encourage all our
supplier sites to book onto a
workshop below (with worker
representatives if you so wish).
Please also ask your labour provider
to attend a workshop if they have
yet to do so.
For further details and
to book a place on the
workshops, please visit
www.stronger2gether.org/events
if you have already attended a
workshop please demonstrate that
you have implemented the good
practice by becoming a Stronger
Together Business Partner – go to
http://stronger2gether.org/
business-partners/ and follow the
instructions to upload your
evidence. You may then download
and use the Stronger Together
Business Partner logo.
“Stronger Together” workshops coming up
Tackling Modern Slavery
NEW “Stronger Together”
Workshops
For more information:
Please email info@stronger2gether.org or call 01276 919090.
3 July 2015 Sainsburys, 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT
16th September 2015
Sainsburys, unit 1 Draken Drive, Ansty Park,
Coventry, CV7 9RD
29th September 2015
Morrisons, Haldens Parkway, Thrapston, Kettering,
Northamptonshire, NN14 4QS
21st October 2015
Bakkavor Ltd, West Marsh Road, Spalding,
Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB

10. One of the challenges sites often speak to the Foods Plan A Team about is how to achieve successful
communication channels between Managers and Workers. In response to this, we have launched
a new Workplace Communication Programme (WPC) to support better communication and
representation at sites. We are asking all sites to introduce Workplace Communication including
having either an effective Trade Union or Worker Committee in place in the next 3-6 months.
The WPC programme is not an
alternative to union representation,
but a programme to introduce
internal mechanisms to give your
workers a voice in a number of ways
– this could include setting up a
Worker Committee, especially if a
Trade union isn’t in place.
We have pulled together existing
good practice from sites with both
Worker Committees and Trade unions
and consulted with additional experts
to develop a flagship WPC Resource
Pack which will provide you with
everything you need to champion
improved WPC at your site.
The WPC Programme is especially
geared towards sites who don’t
currently have a Trade union or
Worker Committee in place yet; but
the resources will be of value to all
sites committed to improving WPC.
Why focus on Workplace
Communication?
There is clear independent evidence
that links WPC and effective worker
representation to business
performance, productivity and
profitability.
By giving your employees a voice
and regarding them as part of the
solution to the challenges you face,
management will arrive at better
decisions that improve day-to-day
operations. You will be better able
to respect worker rights and meet
the needs of the workforce. if your
employees are listened to, they also
likely to protect the quality of your
food and to stay with you for longer.
We expect all sites supplying M&S to
have workplace representation in
place, at least at a basic level. A
Trade union or an effective Worker
Committee is also key requirement
for Silver validation with M&S – a
compulsory standard for all our food
suppliers by March 2020. Gold sites
must provide evidence of collective
bargaining (on pay and conditions)
and mature industrial relations.
What support is on offer?
You can download the WPC
Resource Pack on Dropbox or the
Supplier Exchange.
The WPC Resource Pack includes:
1. WPC Training guides to WPC for
a Project Manager, Manager
and Worker
2. WPC PowerPoint presentations
to help you to promote WPC
across your business
3. +20 templates for you to
customise and download
4. WPC posters for you to promote
WPC at your site.
The Foods Plan A Team is also planning
to hold online WPC workshops as
an opportunity for you to ask
questions and to discuss ideas with
other sites. if you’re interested in
taking part in these, please email
foods.plana@marksandspencer.com
Don’t forget we have developed a toolkit which demonstrates how HR teams
can be getting more involved with the accelerating progress on lean. The HR
functions has a vital and critical role in driving lean, so make sure your teams
are reading the toolkit to understand more. You will be able to access the
Toolkit on the Supplier Exchange.
“Let’s Get Talking”
LEAN FOR HR TOOLKIT
ETHiCAL uPDATE
8

11. ETHiCAL uPDATE
ETHICAL
GOVERNANCE:
New Produce Ethical
Code of Practice and
introducing Alexandra!
9
In our last newsletter we updated suppliers on important changes to the Ethical Code of Practice
and ethical audit requirements. We are now well underway with on-boarding our A list onto Sedex,
and ensuring ethical audits are in place.
if you haven’t already, make sure you
are familiar with these changes to
the Ethical COP, which is available
on Connect. Remember:
• All audits must be semi-announced
and with M&S approved auditors
• You must inform us of your audit
date in advance via sedex@
marksandspencer.com – we will
contact you 6 months from your
due date
• Audits must be visible to M&S
on Sedex within 5-10 working days
of the audit taking place – you
must manage your audit body
to achieve this.
in addition, we have now launched
a new Produce Ethical Code of
Practice, which applies to basic
produce suppliers. This makes really
clear the expectations of our direct
produce suppliers to be managing
ethical standards within their
international grower and packer
supply base. We strongly encourage
all produce suppliers to access this
new Code of Practice as soon as
possible, via Connect.
We are pleased to introduce
Alexandra Kiseleva (also known
as Sasha), who has been with
us for six months, on secondment
from Sedex. Sasha works three
days a week (Monday, Wednesday,
Thursday) in the M&S Plan A
team, particularly helping
suppliers with Sedex and ethical
audit. When she is not at M&S
Sasha works on the Sedex
helpdesk, so she is a great
point of call for any of your
Sedex queries. She is fluent in
English and Russian, and has
just started learning Chinese!
We have published M&S
guidance on zero hours, working
hours and overtime premiums
on Connect. This guidance was
developed in conjunction with
suppliers in the M&S Ethical
Exchange group, and sets out
guidance for suppliers in
managing these complex areas.
if you would like to discuss
any elements of the guidance,
please get in touch with
helen.mctaggart@
marksandspencer.com

12. GLOBAL uPDATES
10
In early June, members of the M&S Plan A team and
Produce category travelled to Spain to update suppliers
on our Plan A activity. The update, held in Murcia, was
attended by over 80 suppliers, across products including
salads, stone fruit, soft fruit, veg and wine.
One of the new key Plan A commitments in 2014 was to
launch a Global Community Programme to benefit people
in the key regions of the world where M&S products are
sourced by 2020.
increasing the scale of existing activities and launching new social and
environmental initiatives to strengthen the resilience of communities
and security of supply by 2020. We’ve done lots of work on this in the
last year and because there has been so much progress and so many
great stories we’ve produced a separate
guide to the Global Community
Programme. The Guide contains
13 different Case Studies of Key
programmes such as Emerging Leaders,
the Farmers Education Prorgamme &
Work on Fishing in the uK and also
much more detail on the thinking
behind the Global Community
Programme Strategy.
The report can be downloaded here.
The team also took the opportunity to visit Spanish sites in three
different regions, to understand how our suppliers are implementing
best practice across ethical and environment.
M&S also came together with Sainsburys, Tesco, Co-op and Waitrose to
host to multi-retailer ethical trade forums in Seville and Murcia. These
events were attended by approximately 200 delegates and aimed to
raise awareness on ethical trade, and create supplier-owned forums.
M&S is pleased to announce that
we have joined a coalition of 20
businesses in the tea industry on
a project addressing living wages
and living incomes for tea workers
and smallholders in the Malawi
tea industry.
The programme – called ‘Malawi
Tea 2020 Revitalization Programme’
– has members representing
producers, buyers, retailers,
certification bodies, NGOs and
others and aims to look holistically
at measures to improve incomes.
PLAN A
en España!
GLOBAL
COMMUNITY
PROGRAMME
LIVING
WAGE
in Malawi

13. OTHER NEWS
11
WELLBEING WEEK &
ENVIRONMENT WEEK
In February 2015, M&S launched the Wellbeing Week Toolkit and campaign. We are pleased that
90% of surveyed sites said that Well-being Week had a positive impact on its staff. Building on this
success, we recently launched our first Environment Week in June.
M&S ran a Wellbeing Week Campaign
to create awareness of the new
Toolkit and to encourage suppliers
to run Wellbeing Week in March and
throughout the year. 25 different
businesses across 61 sites signed up
to run Wellbeing Week representing
a more than 40% increase in the
number of sites who ran Healthy
and/or Money Week in 2014. More
than 25,000 workers are employed
across the 60 sites that have run or
are running Wellbeing Week and on
average half of the employee
engaged in the week.
Almost 80% of the sites surveyed
featured activities around Nutrition
and Hydration and Physical Health
and Fitness. A large proportion of
sites also focused on Mental Health
and Mindfulness (71%). As with the
previous campaign, suppliers found
it easier to engage employees in
physical and nutrition related topics
rather than financial topics but
encouragingly, half of all suppliers
did focus on the topic of Savings,
Pensions and Financial Management.
9 in10suppliers surveyed
said that Wellbeing Week has
had a positive impact on their
employees’ confidence to make
decisions about their wellbeing.
All suppliers believed that
the initiative also had a positive
impact on their employees’
knowledge of wellbeing issues.
Encouragingly, 100% of
suppliers surveyed also
believed that Wellbeing Week
gave their employees the skills
to take action to improve their
health and wellbeing. 42% of
these believed that the skills
employees gained during the
Week would have a medium to
long-term impact on their ability
to take action on health topics.
Building on our successes,
Foods Plan A decided to trial an
Environment Week in June – an easy
to deliver campaign to help workers
think about the choices they make
in relation to the environment,
including waste, consumption, and
water and energy use. We developed
a set of new Toolkits to give sites
everything needed to deliver a fun,
engaging and impactful Environment
Week. They are still available on the
Supplier Exchange website.
Almost 140 sites signed up in total
demonstrating unprecedented
levels of interest. Some sites
delivered their Environment Weeks
starting on 5th June, in line with
World Environment Day, but a
number of sites are still going. A
whole range of activities have been
delivered reflecting sites’ creativity
and enthusiasm for doing
Environment Week in a way that is
useful to them. This includes free
energy checks in the home, a 10,000
Step Challenge, Meat Free Monday,
shared car rides to work, Cycle to
Work club, a pedal powered smoothie
maker - to name just a few! We look
forward to sharing more details at
the Environment Exchange including
the winners of our competition!
if you haven’t yet run an Environment
Week and you’d like to, please email
Foods.PlanA@marks-and-spencer.com
During their Environment Week, Fletcher’s
Bakery were visited by South Yorkshire Energy
Centre who provided lots of information on
how to beat fuel poverty.

14. 12
OTHER NEWS
Clean and efficient
household cooking
solutions
The use of open fires and traditional cookstoves and fuels is one of the world’s most pressing health
and environmental problems. Globally, three billion people rely on solid fuels to cook, causing
serious environmental and health impacts that disproportionally affect women and children.
According to the World Health Organization,
unsafe cooking conditions are the fourth
greatest threat to health in developing
countries, claiming twice as many lives each
year as malaria. Over 4 million people die
prematurely from illness attributable to the
household air pollution from cooking with
solid fuels and more than 50% of premature
deaths among children under 5 are due to
pneumonia caused by particulate matter
(soot) inhaled from household air pollution.
Yet, safe, affordable, and accessible clean
cooking solutions exist that can dramatically
reduce fuel consumption and exposure to
harmful cookstove smoke, while providing
economic opportunities in communities
around the world.
Clean cooking and energy access is critical
to sustainable development, gender equality
and the environment. We estimate 500,000
women working in the M&S supply chain alone
could have their lives enhanced through
access to cleaner cookstoves which would
also rapidly reduce carbon emissions. Marks
and Spencer has been working with The Carbon
Neutral Company and uNiCEF to deliver
clean cook stoves to 40,000 households in
Bangladesh, a significant country within our
clothing supply chain. This will enable 200,000
individuals to benefit from improved indoor
air quality and a reduction in health related
issues as well as generating carbon reduction
benefits. We believe clean cookstoves are
one of the very few interventions that can be
adopted at scale and address multiple issues,
delivering co-benefits for women and
children, health and climate change.
Following the success in Bangladesh, we
want to better understand how workers in
our food supply chain currently use cookstoves
in their everyday lives and would like to
assess the potential opportunity around
using cleaner cookstoves in improving the
health of workers. Countries with high
potential that have been identified include
Kenya, Ghana, uganda and Ethiopia.
We have created a short survey and we would
appreciate it if you could complete the
survey by the end of July or us better
understand the current position in your
supply chain. Please click here.
For a beginners guide explaining what
cookstoves are, the problem and the solution,
please click here for a 3 minute video.

15. WATER AND WASTE
13
LOVE FOOD HATE WASTE
SUSTAINABLE CITIES –
MANCHESTER
Simon Reid joined the team as Sustainability Manager in May to provide a focus
for our activities on water over the next 12 months. Simon’s key role will be to
identify key water-related risks and hotspots in our food supply chain and then
work with others to do something about it!
Please get in touch: simon.reid@marksandspencer.com
WELCOMING
SIMON ON WATER
Call out to Manchester
Suppliers/Organisations
• Come along and see us on 22nd
August
• Run a little lunch on site or encourage
employees to run their own
• Promote LFHW messaging
• Donate surplus products for our
salad and smoothie making
We want to use surplus product
where we can or product that is
not at its premium. if as suppliers
you may have fruit and veg
(for smoothies/salads) please
get in touch to discuss.
Anyone who wants more information
or is based in Manchester and wants to
get involved please contact Charlotte –
charlotte.jackson@marks-and-
spencer.com

16. 14
AGRiCuLTuRE
SELECT GROWER
Field to Fork
The new version of Field to Fork, now called
Select Grower, from Field to Fork, was released
in January. There were many changes to the
format from Version 4, a slimming down, and
focus on the question matter was one.
We moved from a general audit
covering many areas to an audit that
focussed in on the food safety of
product while still covering the
ethical, sustainability and
environmental areas but using our
Codes of practice and standards.
This new standard has been well
received and the changes to the
reporting system on the Muddy
boots platform means you can do
the audit on a tablet at that time
and attach photos during the audit.
One of the big changes is the
inclusion of the supplier approval
system, this is a key step-change for
us and our suppliers as this is where
we map the supply chains of our
produce going in to our many
products, it is a simple but effective
way to go from the grower to M&S,
while also managing all your due
diligence needs of the supplier. i feel
and hope that this system will be
a key tool for our suppliers in the
future to help understand and
manage the supply chain. it has
already proved a very effective tool
as the issue in Spanish labour meant
we had to quickly search our supply
base for exposure to this issue and
the information was found in a very
short time, which gave us the ability
to understand our risk.
Since this we have asked all our in
scope suppliers to build their supply
chains on the Supplier approval
system by the end of Quarter 1
which is the end of June. i would ask
that any suppliers in scope that feel
that they cannot reach this key
target to discuss with their
Technologist. This is a real key tool to
manage and understand the risk and
the supply chain and means that we
can all focus on our potential exposure.
Andy Mitchell, Agronomist
The Farming for
the Future Report
was launched in
April 2015.
Click here
MILK POOL
CELEBRATIONS
To celebrate this milestone, a special
lunch was held in Copthorne, West
Sussex on 4th June to celebrate the
achievements of the pool, which
sees 35 specially selected and audited
farms provide all the fresh, café and
flavoured milk for M&S stores.
Established in the summer of 2000,
the milk pool has evolved since then
to include a transparent, cost of
production-based pricing approach,
ensuring that our farmers get a fair
price for their milk, which gives them
the confidence to invest for the future.
The pool has also developed unique
health and welfare and farm standards,
ensuring that our milk comes from the
very best farms, which in turn have the
healthiest and most comfortable cows.
What’s more, in 2011 we launched
‘better for you’ milk, which was
developed collaboratively with our
farmers and which delivers reduced
saturated fat content in the milk.
Commenting on the anniversary, milk
pool farmer chairman, Mark Robins,
said: “Working alongside M&S and
fellow producers for the last 15 years,
the milk pool has lead the industry
in health, welfare and farm standards.
Through the hard work of everyone
involved we have developed an
approach based on trust and mutual
respect, helping establish a strong
relationship between retailer and
producers and security for all parties.
it is something that we really treasure.”
The M&S milk pool is widely recognised as being
industry-leading and 2015 marks the fifteenth
anniversary of the establishment of a dedicated
producer group for M&S fresh liquid milk.

17. AGRiCuLTuRE
WhatsApp pilot
Foods Plan A and Farming for the Future team
decided to trial a WhatsApp pilot for Open Farm
Sunday to see if mobile technology can improve
communications with farmers.
The Farming for the Future Team
has until now communicated with
farmers and growers mostly by email.
This is time-consuming and there’s
often a low response rates as farmers
are not based desk-based and are too
busy to respond to email. However, the
Farming for the Future Team and
farmers do use their mobiles a lot.
in the run-up to Open Farm Sunday,
we decided to test whether we could
use WhatsApp to:
• Provide Growers with practical
information to get them ready for
the event
• Create stronger connections
between M&S and its farmers
• Foster a stronger community spirit
amongst the farmers
How we went about it
We set up an Open Farm Sunday
WhatsApp group and invited all the
Farmers taking part in Open Farm
Sunday to join. Some of the Farmers were
new to WhatsApp which meant they had
to download the app onto their mobiles,
which is very easy to do. Once 100% of
the farmers had joined the group, the
Farming for Future Team started to
use the WhatsApp as the main
communication channel with farmers.
Results
The pilot was a great success. in the
week preceding Open Farm Sunday
around 80 messages were shared
between M&S Farming for the Future
team and the farmers. Since people
have their mobiles with them at all
times, the live communication helped
M&S to trouble-shoot problems quickly
and to ensure farmers had everything
they needed to run a successful Open
Farm Sunday. Farmers also shared
photos of activities happening at their
sites and encouraging messages to
each other.
We were so pleased with how the pilot
went that we are now looking to
roll-out the use of WhatsApp to our
wider growing community and across
parts of the supply base.
if you’d like to request an infosheet on
the pilot or to discuss how WhatsApp
could help you, please contact
rebecca.dove@marksandspencer.com
15
OPEN FARM
SUNDAY
The tenth anniversary of the largest free event in the farming industry
took place in June and enjoyed a record-breaking turnout and
sunshine! M&S is very proud of the 14 farmers and growers we
supported to take part.
On Sunday 7th June, Open Farm Sunday
enjoyed a record-breaking day with a
quarter of a million visitors to almost
400 sunny farms. Open Farm Sunday is
an event that gets our farmers and
growers to open up their gates so the
general public can come in and see
what goes on in this very important
part our supply base. it was first
conceived by LEAF a charity that is very
active in the support of the environment
and farming and from its humble
beginnings in 2005 to what it is now.
Annabel Shackleton, Open Farm Sunday
manager at LEAF said: “Our tenth Open
Farm Sunday has been a resounding
success and a fantastic celebration of
British farming and food. From the
feedback received so far, it’s clear that
Open Farm Sunday has enabled
hundreds of thousands of people to
have an amazing day in the countryside,
learning about farming and the story
behind their food.”
M&S have been a principal sponsor of
this event for this ten years, and we
have been very active in our support
this year working with 14 key farmers
and growers to help support the event
by sponsoring there refreshment stalls,
giving them articles to auction for charity,
and many items to show our strong
connections with our farming base.
Open Farm Sunday is a farming event
to really show how amazing the industry
is; it is the chance for the public to take
a glimpse of this robust and resilient
industry and the positive impacts that
our growers have on the local communities,
environment and the work they do to
ensure that the countryside is
managed for all future generations.
Open Farm Sunday 2016 will be on
Sunday 5th June so please put the
date in your diary now!