ENEG20003: Sustainability Studio Report on Climate Change at M&S

This report examines the sustainability challenges faced by Marks & Spencer (M&S), focusing on the issue of climate change. The student identifies climate change as a significant sustainability concern, detailing its impact on the company's operations, supply chain, and product offerings. The report proposes mitigation strategies, including reducing carbon footprint, investing in carbon offsets, and adapting to extreme weather events. It also analyzes stakeholder engagement, identifying customers, employees, investors, suppliers, government, and wider society as key stakeholders. The report further outlines the requirements of each stakeholder group, such as fair treatment, product quality, and adherence to regulations. The analysis includes how the company engages with these stakeholders, the importance of their concerns, and the methods used for communication. Finally, the report provides a detailed discussion of stakeholder requirements and how they relate to M&S's business operations. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing climate change and the company's commitment to sustainability.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Part 1.....................................................................................................................................................2
Issue...................................................................................................................................................2
Way to mitigate issue........................................................................................................................2
Stakeholders and their engagement...................................................................................................3
Part 2.....................................................................................................................................................5
Stakeholder with examples................................................................................................................5
Requirements of previously identified stakeholders..........................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The sustainability is the ability to support process over the long term without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As per my view, sustainability
issues create a problem in meeting the needs of the present. I have experienced that these
sustainability issues create a problem in achieving the objective of the company. In this
paper, I have identified climate change issue as a sustainability issue faced by Marks and
Spencer (M &S). Marks and Spencer is a multinational retailer specialized in clothing, home,
and luxury food products. In this report, I have given a solution to mitigate climate change
issues. The stakeholders and their engagement of the company have been discussed. The
stakeholders of the company are described along with the examples. At last, the list of the
requirements of the identified stakeholders is discussed.
Part 1
Issue
There are sustainability issues which are faced by M & S. Being a part of the company; I
have experienced the climate change issues out of the sustainability issues. The effects of
climate change are becoming more evident day by day. I have experienced that climate
change is the result of earth warming due to greenhouse emission generated by humans
(Wiese, Zielke & Toporowski, 2015).
The company releases a huge amount of carbon in it’s supply chain from the production to
the consumer use phase. As per my view, the climate change not only affects the quality of
the products but raises economic issues as well. The adaption may also result from the change
in material, techniques and the production process. I experienced that the climate change also
raises various social, economic, ethical and political challenges. The company has to adjust
the way it operates because of the climate change and it is something the company deals daily
(Siwakoti, 2018). For instance, the warmer winters cause M & S to reconsider the kind of
clothes sold and when they sell them. The design of clothes is also reviewed by the company.
The lighter material is opted to produce clothes for the mild weather. M & S searches for the
smart materials which can be adjusted according to the modified temperatures.

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Way to mitigate the issue
The greenhouse gas emissions can be cut by avoiding the worst consequences of the climate
change. The issue of climate change can be mitigated by becoming more efficient, reducing
operational carbon footprint by 70% and making global operations carbon neutral to
accelerate climate action. The investment can also be made carbon offsets for global
operations in order to remain carbon neutral.
As per my outlook, the company is also taking action on the climate change across the whole
value chain. The carbon footprinting analysis focuses on the stores and logistics and reduces
emissions from the supply chain and the basic activities used by customers for products. The
company is making efforts to switch to lower carbon technologies (Otitoju & Enete, 2016).
The company is also trying to mitigate the climate change issue by coping up with the
extreme weather events. The planning made to minimize threats and maximize opportunities
evolves the climate impacts.
I believe that the company can resolve such issues and take actions on climate change by
working with other organizations. WRAP, The carbon trust, WWF and Forum for the future
are the organizations which help the company to define and measure carbon footprint. It
helps in improving product sustainability. M & S can use weather data and analytics to
predict what customers going to need and can execute against that. The inventory can be
planned on the basis of historical trends.
Stakeholders and their engagement
The company owes it’s success to the support provided by stakeholders. Our company builds
strength and engages with stakeholders when it comes to performance on the sustainability
issues. As per my opinion, the company engages successfully with stakeholders about the
transparency and accountability on the issues that concern them. It has created brand value
such as inspiration, innovation, integrity and in touch which provides clarity and need to
engage with stakeholders. The company engages with stakeholders in order to provide
opportunities for them. The company is transparent on the account of performance due to
changes in climate (Andriof, Waddock, Husted & Rahman, 2017). The company gets a
response not only on the present projects but get a solid base for the future challenges it may
face. The stakeholders are provided with sufficient knowledge by the company in order to
advocate the plans and sustainability issues. I strongly favor that these plans help in achieving
long-term goal of being a sustainable leader. The company is committed to it’s stakeholders

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by it’s policy of “transparency and traceability”. They help to improve the information
available to them. The company effectively listens to it’s stakeholders and reflects the
importance of their concerns (Cheung, et. al. 2015). The company engages with stakeholders
in three different ways:
Reactively: M & S responds to the information requests, questions and queries relevant to the
plans of the company and the specific sustainability issues.
Passively: The company provides information to make sure that the stakeholders are
informed in a better way about the programmes. The stakeholders can access the information
as per their interest.
Proactively: M & S facilitates engagement with stakeholders by actively involving them in
the plans of the company. It helps in finding innovative solutions to the sustainability
challenges and sharing of emergent and the best practices (Keshava, 2014). The more
engagement with stakeholders results in more success of the plans of the company.

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Part 2
Stakeholder with examples
The stakeholders are the persons who have an interest in the company and are affected by it’s
decisions. The stakeholders have an interest in the success and failure of the projects of the
company. As per my view, they can have a positive and negative impact on the project. The
stakeholders can be individuals, groups or organizations. The examples of stakeholders are:
Customers: The customers monitor the sales of the products. They have participated in the
plans and the activities of the company. The customers are engaged with the company
through retail customer services (Gardetti &Torres, 2017). The customers provide feedback
to the company through the use of social media and emails.
Employees: The employees have involvement in the business groups. The feedback is
generated through emails towards the implementation plans of the company. The employees
are engaged in the annual surveys and participation in the activities and campaigns (Wilson,
2015).
Investors: The investors express their interest in the annual general meeting. The institutional
investors are engaged with the company through meetings. The survey is made on the
institutional investors.
Suppliers: The suppliers exchange information with the company through website and
network. They attain a substantial proportion of revenue from the company. M & S make
stakeholder engagement with the suppliers by supplier conferences, visits, and meetings
(Jones, Comfort & Hillier, 2016).
Government and regulators: The company makes stakeholder engagement with the
government through meetings. The government provides a response to the company through
consultation on the important matters. There are also conferences arranged for the interaction
between the company and the government.
Wider society: The society is also the perfect example of stakeholders. They engage with the
M & S through participation in the benchmarking and surveys. They have the multi-
stakeholder initiative (Jones, Hillier & Comfort, 2014). The company also have joint projects
with them.

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Requirements of previously identified stakeholders
The identification of stakeholder requirements is an important part of the development of
requirements. According to my opinion, the requirements of the identified stakeholders
represent the business operations level that is employers, acquirers, customers and other
stakeholders as they have a role in finding the solution for a problem (Annan-Diab &
Molinari, 2017). The requirements for a solution provide the service required by the
stakeholders. The company addresses the requirements of the identified stakeholders in it’s
business policy. The list of the requirements of the previously identified stakeholders is given
below:
Employees: M & S has more than 10,000 employees worldwide. The employees of the
company belong to different background and intellect. They require fair treatment, secure
jobs, reimbursements and good pay from the company. They also seek for the security for the
human rights.
Customers: The customers are the persons who purchase goods and services from the
company. They are the end users of the company and can better guide to the company about
it’s products. The customers want high quality and variety of products at affordable prices.
The government: The government ensures that M & S is creating jobs for the citizens and
paying taxes on time. They also set the laws to govern trading (Fernandez-Feijoo, Romero &
Ruiz, 2014). The government makes sure that the company adheres to the laws like health
and safety regulations, revenue, customs and more.
Conclusion
The climate change is the top concern for the M & S. The issue of climate change is mainly
faced due to the greenhouse gas emissions generated by humans. This challenge is taken as
an effective action to address the sustainability issue. The company is making efforts to avoid
the worst consequences of climate change by taking all the possible steps. The company has
launched plans to tackle climate change and become efficient by reducing carbon footprint.

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References
Andriof, J., Waddock, S., Husted, B. and Rahman, S.S., 2017. Unfolding stakeholder
engagement. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp. 19-42). Routledge.
Annan-Diab, F. and Molinari, C., 2017. Interdisciplinarity: Practical approach to advancing
education for sustainability and for the Sustainable Development Goals. The International
Journal of Management Education, 15(2), pp.73-83.
Cheung, S.K., Yuen, K.S., Li, K.C., Tsang, E.Y. and Wong, A., 2015. Open textbooks:
engaging education stakeholders to share learning resources. International Journal of
Services and Standards, 10(4), pp.225-239.
Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Effect of stakeholders’ pressure on
transparency of sustainability reports within the GRI framework. Journal of business
ethics, 122(1), pp.53-63.
Gardetti, M.A. and Torres, A.L., 2017. Sustainability in fashion and textiles: values, design,
production and consumption. Routledge.
Jones, P., Comfort, D. and Hillier, D., 2016. Materiality in corporate sustainability reporting
within UK retailing. Journal of Public Affairs, 16(1), pp.81-90.
Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D., 2014. Assurance of the leading UK food retailers'
corporate social responsibility/sustainability reports. Corporate Governance, 14(1), pp.130-
138.
Keshava, S.R., 2014. Climate change, sustainable development and Indian
economy. International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences, 4(7), p.123.
Otitoju, M.A. and Enete, A.A., 2016. Climate change adaptation: Uncovering constraints to
the use of adaptation strategies among food crop farmers in South-west, Nigeria using
principal component analysis (PCA). Cogent Food & Agriculture, 2(1), p.1178692.
Siwakoti, D.T.K., 2018. Climate change and global warming: a critical analysis. International
Journal of Current Research in Life Sciences, 7(04), pp.1682-1684.
Wiese, A., Zielke, S. and Toporowski, W., 2015. Sustainability in retailing–research streams
and emerging trends. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(4/5).

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Wilson, J.P., 2015. The triple bottom line: Undertaking an economic, social, and
environmental retail sustainability strategy. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management, 43(4/5), pp.432-447.