Marks & Spencer is providing £1m of funding to innovations that will help it meet its ambition of becoming net zero by 2040.
Marks & Spencer said the money will go to projects designed to find new ways of reducing emissions from agriculture and accelerate efforts to reduce scope 3 emissions.
The retailer added that the biggest challenge in achieving its targets is in the supply chain, which accounts for 95% of emissions.
One trial underway, for instance, is to create “bigger, better British strawberries”, deploying AI technology and “precision pollination” by bumble bees. The project is being tried out on four farms.
M&S corporate affairs and ESG director Victoria McKenzie-Gould said: “M&S’ success as an own-brand retailer is borne from deep relationships with our supplier partners, which supports a long-term approach to investment in innovation and quality, and a shared belief in the value of doing the right thing. This same approach is helping us to become a net-zero business by 2040 through our annual £1m Plan A Accelerator Fund, with which we fund new and small-scale or untested solutions in collaboration with our supply base.”
Other projects include measuring the methane output of progeny Aberdeen Angus cows to understand genetic links and how breeding selection could reduce it, and growing net-zero wheat for potential use in animal feed and bakery products.
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