Ethics and Sustainability in the Mass Market | Page 22

So does all of this really affect the way we buy?

Marks and Spencer is a brand that prides itself on
the promise to their customer with its ethics and
sustainability. The Ethical Consumer gave it the
award of UK’s most ethical high street clothing
retailer. Marks and Spencer show on their website
that they do a lot with concern to the planet and
their supply chain. They have launched Plan A,
which covers over 180 specific commitments
involving social and environmental issues. They
responsibly source their materials from over 2,000
suppliers and employ over 81,000 people (M&S,
n.d).
Marks and Spencer were unfortunately
mentioned in the microbeads scandal.
Campaigners in August 2016 urged Theresa May
to ban microbeads and to take action against the
use of plastic in shower gels, toothpastes and antiageing creams. Microbeads make there way into
our water systems where they threaten marine
life, attract toxins and can also make their way
back into our food chain, as many as 100,000 are
washed into the sea following a single shower
(Derbyshire and Poulter, 2016). Louis Edge
(2016) of Greenpeace signed the campaigners’
statement, he also stated “Even now that
companies are under the spotlight and seem to
acknowledge that microbeads are a bad idea, they
are still not making commitments that cover all
their products or all kinds of plastic.” (Derbyshire
and Poulter, 2016)

Marks and Spencer have openly said that
they used these microbeads in their cosmetic
products, which could really be a breach
of consumer trust and confidence with the
sustainable brand. On their website they have
sated that they are committed in removing plastic
M&S own brand personal care products. All of
their new and existing products manufactured
from 2016 onwards will be free from microbeads
(M&S, n.d). Is all this good marketing? Is this
being followed through within their products?

In a survey produced in December 2015 only
8 out of 953 females aged 16 or over, who had
purchased online in the last 12 months, said that
sustainable clothing was the most important
factor when choosing one brand over another.
This shows that sustainability of clothing is a low
consideration for female shoppers; the style of
clothes and a low price was of the highest priority
(Mintel, 2016).

Levi’s recently has encouraged
shoppers to recycle their old clothes. The retailer
will let you swap old clothing in exchange for 10%
off your next purchase. The initiative is called
‘Buy Better Recycle More’ (Hendriksz, 2016), and
is currently running in the US and should be fully
running in Europe by 2017 (Daily Mail, 2016).

Fast fashion is still such a high factor to
consumers. Fast fashion can be defined as the
ability to supply a quick turnover of merchandise
in your stores, and one of the main leaders of this
is mass market retailer Zara, who has 1,923 stores
in 88 countries (Loeb, 2015). Zara is owned by
Inditex which also owns many other mass market
retailers such as Bershka and Pull & Bear (Inditex,
n.d). In 2014 Zara had sales of $19.7 billion
(Loeb, 2015).

In 2007 Zara decided to start turning
their stores into “eco stores”, this means they cut
down on electricity and water in comparison to
normal stores. Chief Communications Officer,
Jesús Echevarría (2013), shared Zara’s brands
goal during the re-opening of the Zara store on
the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. This goal was to
make sure all existing stores are eco efficient by
the year 2020. The 1,300 eco-efficient stores across
the globe save on average 50% on water and 30%
on electricity (Hendriksz, 2013). This all really
stems back to the question, is this just a good
marketing strategy? Is their proof that there really
is reduced use of resources? Nether the less Zara
is still very much classed as a fast fashion brand.
To our immediate attention is the store and the
fashion, but what really does go on behind closed
doors?

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