CSR - the devil's in the detail

Marks and Spencer - the iconic British retailer and pioneer of so many successful CSR initiatives, has come up with another thoughtful idea. They have announced a way of making their clothing labels more sustainable. From next year they will be made from recycled polyester.

It is this level of attention to detail which is so impressive in this initiative, as in many of M&S's CSR ideas.

Care labels on clothing may seem small and insignificant, but as M&S has pointed out, when you multiply one label by 300 million (the amount which will be produced from the new materials) its impact is obvious.

The labels (which represent around two-thirds of all those produced for M&S) will be produced from around 200 million recycled plastic drinks bottles. These will replace labels made of 'virgin' polyester, which requires oil for its production.

The fact that the new labels will mean less need for fossil fuel based plastics, gives this CSR practice credibility.

Making clothing out of recycled plastic (which has long been the case with fleece jackets and is coming into vogue for football shirts) is not always the most sustainable option. This is because it is always better to opt for 'closed-loop' recycling. That is, turning the used product back into the same thing - a plastic bottle back into a plastic bottle, for example. This uses far less energy and is consequently better for the environment. You can easily, for example, make a football shirt out of cotton. If it is organically grown and fairly traded then cotton is a sustainable material. There is actually no need to make a football shirt out of plastic bottles.

However, if you are substituting a recycled material for a 'virgin' one, then that is a different matter.

In addition to the environmentally beneficial element of the new labels, they will also support M&S's CSR support for international development charity Oxfam. Each label (apart from those on underwear) will carry the message 'Recycle with Oxfam'. The aim of this is to encourage shoppers to use the M&S/Oxfam Clothing Exchange. This scheme rewards customers who donate their old M&S clothing to Oxfam with a voucher for money off to spend at M&S stores.

The scheme, which was launched in 2008, has already seen 20 million garments reused, preventing 2,500 tonnes of clothing going to landfill, and has raised £3m for Oxfam through re-sale of the clothes in their charity shops.

Through its Plan A initiative, M&S has pledged to help its shoppers recycle 20 million items of M&S clothing a year via the Clothing Exchange.

It takes a business with vision to recognise how much difference replacing a 4cm by 2cm clothing care label with a sustainable alternative will make.

Photo credit: Wm Jas