What IT Suppliers could learn from Marks and Spencer and Oxfam

Quite a lot I reckon. Today comes news that UK retailer Marks and Spencer is introducing a 5p charge for plastic bags. That’s a good move - and the company already offers quite snazzy reusable bags at the check out. CEO Stuart Rose is the real thing - driving greenness into the brand by driving greenness into the company, rather than with some surface greenwash. He should be a knight already for saving the country’s favourite underwear shop, but now its got to be a shoe-in.

The BBC completely rips off yesterday’s Daily Mail with its facts on bags: “Campaigners say plastic bags damage the environment. Some 13bn are given free to UK shoppers every year, and they take an estimated 1,000 years to decay.”

Me as a defender of the Daily Mail??? Green is sure going to throw up some strange bedfellows… But back to M&S.

The bag thing is excellent, but I noticed something in my branch the other day that totally blew me away. If you take your old M&S clothes to Oxfam they will give you a 5 pound voucher to spend in M&S. Think about it. M&S evidently has. Reduce waste with very clear economic incentives. Cradle to Grave.

While major IT suppliers have introduced recycling schemes for their old kit, I haven’t seen them offer substantial rebates for doing do. Its about time they did. If you recycle you get a discount. That’s Goodness.

Check out M&S Plan A here.

The picture is Lily Cole, fair use I hope. Take some old clothes to Oxfam - buy one of those purple dresses. Surprised it goes so well with red hair, actually.

by-sa

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