Having personally been involved in sustainability for over 15 years and in the creation of Plan A (M&S’s sustainability strategy) under the leadership of Stuart Rose, I believe there are some valuable lessons that need to be considered for any retailer, at any stage of their sustainability journey.

Firstly, why are you looking at sustainability?

There are all sorts of reasons why businesses are looking at sustainability but at some point, you must decide on your positioning; Do you want to be leaders? Be in the middle? Or do the bare minimum? It sounds obvious but depending on you positioning your sustainability strategies would be completely different. There is no right or wrong answer here but there needs to be a common view; there’s no point in the CEO thinking they want to be leaders when the directors and middle-management want to do the minimum.

It’s such a massive area- which area of sustainability should I focus on?

I would suggest that you focus on the area’s most important to your brand and customers. If you sell tons of sportwear then maybe the sustainability of synthetic fibres is important, if you are a fast fashion brand then ways to recycle clothing maybe more important, or if you are a luxury brand then ethical trade might be the most important. We know that many customers say one thing and do another, but this is about customer attitudes over the next 10 years. Customer views can change very quickly and dramatically, just ask the American car industry which almost went bust as they ignored the rapid change in consumer behaviour to more fuel efficient compact cars made in Europe and Asia. Now there is another shift occurring to electric and hybrid cars taking place, driven in part by Tesla who have been able to show that electric cars can be sexy and fast.

Does sustainability cost more?

Like anything there are swings and roundabouts. My experience is that most people only talk about the negative impact of implementing sustainability and the things that cost more. There are lots of areas that save money like reducing packaging, recycling hangers, recycling other materials, more efficient factories, LED lights…. and many, many more! There are also many areas that are cost neutral but are surrounded with incorrect information and the supply chain will try and increase costs using smoke and mirror tactics. It’s important to keep abreast of the commercial business case of each initiative and continue to revisit as technology keeps advancing, the price of oil could make something feasible tomorrow that isn’t today,  changes in exchange rates or new tariffs and duties can have a significant impact. Non-tangible costs such as added complexity, additional lead times, availability constraints need to be considered but also have negative publicity and brand damage of not doing what your customers may expect today or in the future.

Trial, evaluate and roll out or stop

There will always be new innovations where you are not sure if they will work, not sure about the business case, not sure about the technical aspects or simply if the solution is more sustainable. The only way to truly find out is to pilot and test potential solutions and rigorously evaluate before rejecting or rolling out. Never jump in with both feet without testing first!

Do not sign up to things you can’t deliver

There is always pressure to keep up with other retailers or keep NGO’s on side. All businesses are different; for example, if you don’t sell silk and cashmere products it’s very easy to ban silk and cashmere but may not be as easy for another business. Many NGO’s are only looking at a single issue and in the real world most issues are very complex and interlinked. Stopping or banning one thing may lead to huge issues elsewhere like job losses or the disappearance of entire industries. I would never cut and run from an issue, I think you have to try and work up potential solutions and give reasonable time to implement changes. It’s very tempting to sign up and promise all sorts but these will come back to bite. Only do what is commercially deliverable for your business where you have the capability and resources to make the changes in an appropriate time line. Normally it’s the “time to make changes” that becomes the debate, NGO’s want change immediately and retailers need a bit of time to make changes to their supply chains- don’t be bullied and stick to your guns.

Get expert advice

I’m not trying to sell our services- honestly, but this is one area you need to know what you are doing. Having the wrong strategy or promising the world or getting things wrong in this space can be extremely expensive, very demotivating for the teams and career limiting for the technical leaders. This is an area that the commercial teams expect the technical teams to know their stuff and the commercial impact for the business surrounding each initiative.

So, in summary, making a business more sustainable has to be a good thing from both from a business and environmental perspective, if done in the right way, focussed on what’s important, done at a sensible pace and with the whole organisation being clear whether they want be leaders, laggards or somewhere in the middle!