Sustainability Issues and Engagement Techniques of M&S - Case Study Example

Corporate governance and accountability Introduction The report is based on the critical evaluation of the usefulness of different engagement techniques used by a British multinational retailer, Mark and Spencer, in releasing their social and environmental accountability to the society. It has also emphasises on the assurance of the sustainability program of the organisation. Mark and Spencer (M&S) is a retail organisation founded by Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks in the year of 1884. This organisation is headquartered in London and they possess near about 1,253 stores across the globe (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Sustainability issues and engagement techniques of M&S Organisational sustainability can be defined as their ability to achieve their financial targets and increase their stakeholder relationship by integrating environmental, social and economical opportunity in their strategies (Manetti and Becatti, 2009). The organisation has highlighted a number of key issues during their journey towards a sustainable business. These key issues include focusing on corporate social responsibility, building a solid business case, integrating different operations, attracting and engaging more customers and introducing new business model. Currently the organisation is focused on engaging with near about 86,000 employees, millions of new and existing customers and a number of other businesses (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). There are four different engagement techniques, such as inspiration, integrity, being in touch and innovation, which the organisation is following to increase their accountability in different social and environmental aspects (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). Inspiration The inspiration technique involves inspiring their customer with their desirable and sustainable services and products. This technique is aimed to influence the customers to participate in different activities which will enable them to live a healthier and rewarding life. It will also lead other businesses in the similar sector to develop more sustainable approach (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). To inspire their customers, the organisation has introduced the Shwopping Cloths scheme in collaboration with the UK Government and Oxfam in the beginning of 2014. This scheme is a blend of swapping and shopping where customers can exchange their used clothes over the internet. This scheme is inviting all their customers together to experience a new shopping procedure. They are also inspiring their customers to involve in various social events such as Macmillan Cancer Support’s and Breakthrough Breast cancer (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). The organisation is also developing mechanism which will help their consumers to find out their desired products through the online purchase procedure. Since 2011, they successfully engaged near about 800,000 consumers through their online channels and online schemes. The organisation has started different campaign on the customer health program. To inspire other businesses, they have launched Community Sieff Award to give recognition to the young talents in the business sector (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). Intouch This technique ensures that the organisation is creating strong connection with their employees, suppliers and customers. The organisation is launching a Global Community Programme which will strengthen the value chain of the organisation. Their intouch technique involves the commitments to break the work barriers, improve employee skills, increase diversity and focusing on employee wellbeing. The organisation has started Mark& Start program which is inviting a number of young and unemployed people to be a part of the organisation. In the year of 2014 near about 1,450 candidates are offered placement in the organisation. To improve the skill set of their employees the organisation has started a number of training procedures such as “Green” Marketing training. This training program will provide knowledge to the managers about the sustainability and green claim (M & S, 2014). The organisation has positioned few employees in each store of M&S as “Plan A Champion” who will be responsible for encouraging the employees to perform their jobs efficiently. These champions will also be responsible for less electricity consumption and reduced paper usage. The organisation is focusing on increasing the gender diversity in all their operations. As per the record of 2014, near about 40% senior managers of the organisation are women. M&S has established reports and measurements about the wellness of the employees of the organisation. The organisation has introduced a survey known as ‘You Say’ which will help the organisation to understand the current health condition of the employees (Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014). Integrity The integrity technique of M&S ensures that the organisation is focusing on the sustainability of products, raw materials and manufacturing procedures. The organisation is supporting the Public Health Responsibility Deal of the UK Government in terms of their production procedure. They have also signed up a deal to support few aspects of package labelling, communication and extension of the range of guilt free snacks. Since 2014, the organisation is participating in different sustainable diet programmes and they have introduced several diet supplements in their product category (Your M&S, 2015). The organisation is strictly avoiding animal by-products as a raw material for their manufacturing procedure. This year the organisation has procured 20% of cotton and 96% of wood based raw material from sustainable sources. M&S has launched innovative water-free packaging procedure for their online flower bouquets delivery. The organisation has ensured that all their products will follow effective reporting procedure and will have transparency in their value chain (Your M&S, 2015). Innovation The organisation has confirmed that they will redefine their retail operations by investing in different innovative ventures. Through this innovative approach they are certain to create sustainable operations and stores. This year they have initiated to control the food wastage in their stores. In this process they are regularly calculating the unsold products and ensuring the best possible use of those items by donating them to charities. The organisation is reinvesting the profit of each year for the innovative ventures of next years. M&S is introducing new technologies to its store operations for the adaptation of climate changes in their 50 stores in the UK. The organisation is also focusing on their multichannel retail initiatives from the end of this year (Your M&S, 2015). Sustainability assurance statement of M&S The assurance of sustainability can be explained as the use of different external and independent reviews which are intended to increase the accuracy, trustworthiness and robustness of the final disclosure of the sustainability report (O’Dwyer and Owen, 2005). Addressee The assurance report of Marks and Spencer contains the information about their environmental and social performances. The assurance statement of the organisation is mainly focused towards their external audiences such as their customers, investors and shareholders. The report also contains different formats of information for their employees (Your M&S, 2015). Assurance provider The sustainability assurance of the Marks and Spencer Group Plc has been provided by the management of the organisation. Their Plan A Report has been designed in a different manner to increase the effectiveness of their communication with their employees, consumers and other stakeholders (Your M&S, 2015). Assurance scope This scope of assurance of Marks and Spencer’s sustainability report is their highest profit making business units. The business units within UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) are their main focus. The report provides a detailed knowledge about all the products and services provided by the organisation. They have also included information regarding their overseas joint-ventures (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Independence of assurance provider For the last ten years Marks and Spencer is considering the assistance of Ernst and Young LLP to provide independent assurance service. The responsibilities of Ernst and Young to provide the assurance service have been instructed by the management of Marks and Spencer. Their major responsibility is to collect and present limited levels of assurance engagement information of the organisation (Your M&S, 2015). Assurance work undertaken The assurance work of the organisation has been planned and executed in accordance with ISAE30001 assurance standard (Your M&S, 2015). This assurance standard provides guidance for systematic and consistence approach for assurance engagement (Your M&S, 2015). The assurance work has been undertaken through few major steps such as: The team has reviewed the performance of the organisation to assess their progress to fulfil the commitments towards stakeholders. They have interviewed different level of managers to measure the progress for their major commitments such as training for proper customer assistance, efficient packaging, recycling the wasted food and nutritional labelling (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). To review the stakeholder’s engagement, the organisation has been initiated various discussion programs about employee satisfaction, efficient packaging, sustainable farming and living wage (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). They have also reviewed different documents of the organisation to understand the stakeholder’s engagement. These documents involve the third party report, guidance documents, meeting minutes and status report (Your M&S, 2015). To analyse the coverage of material issues, the organisation has analysed external media reports, sustainability report and the output of different activities of stakeholder’s engagement (Your M&S, 2015). Stakeholder participation Stakeholders’ participation has been measured as per their responses and reactions against the organisational activities. The team has collected the responses of different stakeholders such as customers, employees, government regulators, shareholders and suppliers (Your M&S, 2015). A huge number of consumers have participated in all of the events and campaigns. Various new customers have also joined the ventures. They conveyed that they are expecting more transparency from the organisation in the future (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). The employees have welcomed these moves toward local fundraising. The employees also have made important suggestion to reduce waste of food materials (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Government and policy makers are becoming more focus towards the supply chain management of the organisation (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). The shareholders of the organisation are involved in various activities of national capital accounting and integrated reporting (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Their activities have influenced the suppliers to continue the relationship with the organisation. The suppliers are also getting involved in the newly launched Global Community Programme (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Conclusion To conclude the assurance statement, the organisation has followed the principles of materiality, inclusivity and responsiveness (Your M&S, 2015). The organisation has followed the inclusivity principle by engaging all of their stakeholders in their activities. The organisation has collected the feedback of these stakeholders for proper implementation of all their plans (Your M&S, 2015). Marks and Spencer has followed the responsiveness principle by effectively responding to all the queries of their stakeholders. Their new version of sustainability plan includes a number of new commitments in addition to all the pending old commitments which will help the organisation to fulfil all the requirement of their stakeholders (Your M&S, 2015). In response to the materiality principle the organisation has ensured that Marks and Spencer has provided balanced performances against the material issues mentioned in Plan A Report (Your M&S, 2015). From the discussion of this report it can be concluded that the assurance statement of the organisation has successfully served their purposes. They have successfully positioned employees as Plan A Champions in all of their stores worldwide that ensures the proper use of the utilities such as power and water. Reviews of different relevant documents such as status report, meeting minutes, guidance document and third party reports have ensured that the organisation is maintaining the consistency of their performance according to their claims. These reports have suggested that 57% of the products of M&S is maintaining sustainable standard. They have also conveyed that 85 clothing suppliers of the organisation have introduced energy efficient practices. The organisation and its joint ventures have recorded zero carbon emission and zero waste to landfill in their global operations. They have also recorded 68% reduction in the refrigeration and air-condition emission against the year of 2007 (Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a). Reference List Cooper S. M. and Owen, D. L., 2007. Corporate social reporting and stakeholder accountability: The missing link. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 32, pp.649-667. M & S, 2014. M&S greenhouse emissions and climate change performance 2013/14. M & S. Available at [Accessed 9 January 2015]. Manetti, G. and Becatti, L., 2009. Assurance services for Sustainability Reports: Standards and Empirical Evidence. Journal of Business Ethics, 87, pp. 289-298. Marks and Spencer Group plc, 2014. Plan A report. [pdf] Marks and Spencer. Available at [Accessed 9 January 2015]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2014a. M&S today. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 January 2015]. O’Dwyer, B. and Owen, D. L., 2005. Assurance statement practice in environmental, social and sustainability reporting: a critical evaluation. The British Accounting Review, 37, pp.205-229. Your M&S, 2015. Introducing Plan A 2020. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 January 2015]. Bibliography Elijido-Ten, E., Kloot, L. and Clarkson, P., 2010. Extending the application of stakeholder influence strategies to environmental disclosure: An exploratory study from a developing country. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 23(8), pp. 1032-1059. Greenwood, M., 2007. Stakeholder Engagement: beyond the myth of corporate responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4), pp. 315-327. O’Dwyer, B., Owen, D. L. and Unerman, J., 2011. 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