In the oxford street branch, you can only buy fairtrade bananas if you want them pre-packaged and wrapped in plastic. In a supposedly upscale supermarket, it's astonishing that basics like bananas aren't all fairtrade.

I know its being pedantic but being organic doesnt mean something is sustainable....sure its better than overuse of fertilsiers and chemicals... much better ..but many organic production methods are completely unsustainable in a myriad of ways.. just like there conventional cousins

Does this now mean the end's in sight for over-wrapped foods and the inevitable "not currently recyclable" message on packaging? No, thought not.

"you can only buy fairtrade bananas if you want them pre-packaged and wrapped in plastic"

That sort of thing annoys me. Faced with the choice of fairtrade bananas wrapped in plastic or non-fairtrade bananas not wrapped in plastic I will buy the non-fairtrade bananas every time.

The fairtrade bananas have a fairtrade sticker on them, they don't need to be put in plastic. The fairtrade foundation should consider the linkages between the issues.

An increasing range of food packaging is recyclable, for example some triangular plastic sandwich boxes are now marked with the type of plastic. It doesn't help if the council does not take windowed envelopes though as that stops windowed cardboard boxes being recycled.

More important is not to have materials to recycle in the first place. I avoid pre-packaged food wherever possible, in favour of making my own or buying things which come in loose.

A light hearted examination of offsetting.

Three things about the Sheffield Ecclesall Rd Branch you neglect to mention....

1. It has directly resulted in the closure of several local businesses directly across the road
2. It is less than 400 yds from a Waitrose and a Tesco..and a recently opened Sainsbury local has completed the collection of national chains bringing huge lorries into the locality on a daily basis. This has been the vanguard for further destruction of a thriving local shopping environment - now Pizza Express has moved in (within 50yds of two independent pizza restaurants) and a Nando is onthe way
3. Check out the car park - it is not meeting a local need - it is bringing in the Landrover users of Dore by the traffic jam load.

So enough already. The shop has been a disaster both environmentally and economically.

Good on M&S.

with all those oped fridges and freezers ?

M&S has become the first major UK retailer to become fully 'carbon neutral', the company said on Thursday

They have made some effort to cut waste on their tiny link in the whole supply chain. And offset the rest. Not really what the headline claims is it?

Is that why they such a rip off and give workers a pittance of a bonus. Capitalistic thugs. Their cotton comes from work houses with people from the country moving to the cities to get better employment opportunities.

Despite the negative comments above (many of which I agree with) I will now visit M&S a little more. Let's face it, at least it's trying; it has not been forced to make these changes.

One poster above mentioned the car park; I also live close to this store and it's true. If M&S wanted to be truly sustainable, they would have made a tiny car park, perhaps for disability vehicles only. They could also put on a free bus to bring customers in.

Ecclesall road (Sheffield) is horrific for traffic - people shopping, mums doing the school runs etc. M&S would do right working with the council to try to reduce traffic in the area.

God forbid that anyone put anything positive about this! Talk about glass half empty.

From what I see, almost all their packaging is recyclable now - it's the local authorities who need to catch up with M&S on taking the stuff and actually recycling it.
They also seem to be making a whole load more effort than Tesco's et al.

Perhaps if the general public appreciated the efforts put in and recognised the progress that has been made, more retailers would follow?

1. It has directly resulted in the closure of several local businesses directly across the road

That sort of thing is easy to say but difficult to prove. And surely it's the consumers deserting these 'local businesses' that meant they were unsustainable, right? So evidently they weren't doing their thing as well as you'd like to think they were.

I'd complain to your MP and council then about all this investment going into Sheffield.
Disgraceful, just think of all those poor people now having to work there catering for the needs of the 'Landrover users of Dore' [is that a eupheamism?]

Local retailers tend to offer a narrower range of goods at higher prices than the big national chains. If the shoppers in a community decide that they're willing to put up with this for the sake of localism and having prettier looking shops, then any national retailer who tries to move in will find their stores empty, they will lose money and move out again. If no one wants them they will go.

The fact that this so rarely happens suggests that actually hard-pressed consumers in the middle of a recession welcome both the lower prices and the employment opportunities that some of the national chains bring. It's the middle classes who can afford to pay over the odds for their food that whinge about supermarkets, but it's the people who have a lot less money, who benefit.

And whether or not you believe all of M&S's hype about their environmental achievements, at least they've made an effort in that direction. Depressing that it has been met with such scorn - hardly an encouragement for any of the other big retailers to follow is it?

"From what I see, almost all their packaging is recyclable now - it's the local authorities who need to catch up with M&S on taking the stuff and actually recycling it."

Too much emphasis on recycling.

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Recycle is at the end for a reason. It takes effort to recycle packaging. Ok for essential packaging but far better not to have the packaging in the first place or to use it for something.

Finally I thought, a positive story from the retail world on sustainability deserving of (cautious) applause and optimism.

Then I read the barrage of negative comments below the line and wanted to go and suffocate myself with some non-recyclable clingfilm.

Funny enough, I was in a high street M&S last weekend, and I remember looking at their little tiny deserts (e.g. bakewell tart rounds) and thinking... these are so highly packaged... Wasn't M&S supposed to be getting greener?

I therefore, dispute this assertion by M&S

It's a bit more complicated than 'more packaging = less environmentally responsible', of course.

An easy analogy to explain how offsetting works is to imagine that every time you or I go to the Ivy for Foie Gras and caviare we ask for 10p to be added to the bill, to sponsor an Ethiopian to go on a diet.
In brief, it's bogus and it stinks.

Saving energy saves money: this has to be a good thing. Doing more with less is what any business will aspire to do. Most actions that save money equate to more efficient resource use, which is good for the planet. I try and persuade my many Green friends that their best argument to the unconverted is that protecting the environment will on balance save them money; but they have a cultural bias towards moral exhortation that I would contend actually puts people off.
I don't doubt M+S's good intentions, but as a long-suffering holder of their stagnant shares I would suggest they focus more on why they are in business. If they do that efficiently, they will probably be better environmental guardians than their competitors.

'it's the local authorities who need to catch up with M&S ..'

Councils do what they're mandated to do. My local Council, which I'm very happy to berate on many fronts, has domestic waste well covered, at least in theory. However, they have no directives to recycle business waste, so it doesn't happen. At the end of the day at the street market, their machine crunches up fruit, veg, pallets, cardboard and mixed packaging all together: no targets, you see.

Since when have bananas been basics? In northern Europe you can get all the potassium you need from fennel, kale, mustard greens, Brussel sprouts, broccoli or strawberries .... all of which could be sourced a hell of a lot closer to the stores then bananas.

It is the Guardian CIF; negative, depressing comments are the order of the day. Along with lack of alternative ideas or suggestions, apart from the ones that come from some fantasy land or alternative reality.

Yes of course, and the UK economy is very healthy, we are not in bankrupcy - how many fake stories we have to listen to ?

Although good that M&S recycles most of its waste, the point is to reduce the packaging and improve the quality of the food. Irradiated bagged salad is not an appetising prospect. Why is M&S so keen to employ food production techniques as advocated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission? Why can't M&S instead back the efforts of the 'Slow Food' movement and stop needlessly flying in mange tout from Kenya on a daily basis?

Sorry - I don't believe them.
Is this the same M and S that sells apples wrapped in card and cellophane ? And the same M and S that throws away / 'composts' perfectly good fruit 'cause it's past it's short shelf life ?
Get thee to the local green grocer, and support your local community

This is great news and it shows that business is not the bad guy that so many here seem determined to make it out to be.

Congratulations to M&S for this significant environmental achievement and let's hope that more of our shops join you in matching this.

"Finally I thought, a positive story from the retail world on sustainability deserving of (cautious) applause and optimism."

I counted several comments with some praise for the retailer, though it is difficult to link to them while posting a comment.

So, the cautious applause you called for is there.

There are also plenty of suggestions of how they could do better. The retailer is I imagine reading these comments and if it has any sense it will think seriously about them. There has been little negative criticism, most of it has been pointing out where they could do better. The Guardian isn't some US multi-national where everything is always perfect.

The British have a soft spot for this company, rightly so in my view, but a true friend is someone who is not afraid to point out flaws. A fairweather friend does not point out flaws.

Offsetting is NOT carbon neutral, it's passing on the bucket!!! Get your literature right!

Well done M&S, but surely 'major UK retailer' and 'sustainability' is a contradiction in terms? I can't see how containerisation and air freight is sustainable.

Can ordinary folks be saved from the people trying to save us? Imagine the land change use disaster and environmental damage that would occur if organic farming was used to feed the whole world.

Myth one: Organic farming is good for the environment

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-great-organic-myths-why-organic-foods-are-an-indulgence-the-world-cant-afford-818585.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-great-organic-myths-why-organic-foods-are-an-indulgence-the-world-cant-afford-818585.html

This has to be one of the most biased and dreadful articles I've ever read. Talk about dis-information! It concludes, "Rob Johnston is a doctor and science writer". My arse! Doctor of what? Twatology?

my local greengrocer is great and recognises the fact that fruit are considerate enough to come in their own packaging, it's called the peel/skin...well done fruit....

Try looking at the wastage of loosely packed fruit at the wholesaler your greengrocer uses though. It is enormous, particularly in the case of soft fruit.
The reason M&S packs a lot of fruit at source is to reduce wastage, including the cost (£ and enviromental) of transorting damaged fruit which the great British consumer won't buy .

M&S have a very good PR team.

Offseting carbon emissions is much more than recycling and packaging.

The biggest carbon emitters are industrial factory farms - do you know how much effluence comes from 1 pig - now multiply that by 10,000 for one factory farm. Where does all that waste go?

And chickens, the average factory farm shed has the capacity (and they fill every square inch of it!) for 30,000 chickens - where does all that shit go?

Then you have the massive amounts of electricity for the heat needed to keep the animals overly warm because it keeps them docile and in the case of layer chickens fools them into thinking its summer all year round and therefore laying plentiful eggs for the rest of their pityful lifes.

Then you have the carbon cost of transporting them to the slaughterhouse and then when they are dead to the supermarkets.

And lets not forget the carbon cost of growing grains to feed the 60 billion factory farmed animals worldwide every year!

Well done to M&S and I for one will be shopping there a lot more but lets hear more about your animal welfare issues please.

Myth one: Organic farming is good for the environment

Myth two: Industrial factory farming is even better for the environment (and the anmials and your health!)

Well done to M&S - given their blue rinse, daily mail purchasing demographic I see in their stores this really was not something they needed to keep up. Credit to them for doing so.

i love it, you folk all worry about farmers halfway across the planet but all seem oblivious that 90% of milk drunk in the UK is forced from farmers hands for lower than the price it costs them to produce. If you cant sort out 'fairtrade' at home you ant sort it out worldwide.

As for M&S, i know the eccy road store & it is a nice addition to the area. The living facade pictured is nice in real life.

So M&S publish a report detailing 180 metrics and their progress against a baseline, but you dispute it and its conclusions on the basis of your observations of their bakewell tart packaging.

And then 10 other CIF people recommend your comment. Is it any wonder - oh FFS what's the point....

now Pizza Express has moved in (within 50yds of two independent pizza restaurants)

Yeah but Pizza Hut has closed, so the result is pizza neutral.

As far as I can see they have reduced energy usage and the waste sent to landfill and called it carbon neutral, I presume to preempt green terrorist attacks on the ground and in the press. On that basis I agree that it makes good business sense, saves buying more insurance cover and gets a bit of free publicity in.

But "M&S becomes 'carbon neutered'" would possibly be more accurate headline.

Ethical my arse.

I was in M and S this week. A worker was scooping about a hundred pastries into a waste bag-i asked if i could buy some at half price.

She showed me the purple dye which she'd stained her hands with, and said she had to throw them in the bin, then denature them with dye to prevent anyone eating them.

Perfectly good food deliberately wasted.

Carbon neutral, - by offsetting. Sounds like meaningless bullshit to me.

The company also now recycles 100% of its waste

The sewage from their toilets?

The diesel fumes from their lorries?

Oh, they didn't mean all of their waste, just the easy bits.

You can't blame M&S for trying but for the Guardian to blindly regurgitate their PR claims is worrying. M&S, according to their own report, emitted 575,000 tons of CO2 last year. As far as I can tell they sequestered none. The basis for their claim is that they paid for 'carbon offsets' which in most cases amount to getting someone else (in the 'developing' world) to emit less carbon dioxide. This, in itself, is not a bad thing but it is not the same as carbon neutrality.

Humanity needs to reduce their CO2 emissions to between 10% to 30% of existing levels in order to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and thereby avoid ever-increasing global average temperatures. Viewed in this context simply paying someone else to reduce their CO2 emissions is no solution at all. The worrying thing is that people may read this article and think that business as usual (or something close to) will solve the problem of global warming, rather than embarking on the thorough examination of the way we are living.

Come on Graham. Ecclesall Road is the most expensive s,hopping street in Sheffield and is full of yummy mummy's and students. It is not Heeley or Walkley - that is with independent spirit. The expensive, and rather good delis, are still open on Hunter's Bar and the traffic problems are more likely to be caused by parents dropping their kids off at the oversubscribed schools.

The revolution will not start on Eccy Road!

@ Ixy001

I think you'll find several people have made suggestions - ie no packaging, or at least minimal packaging which can be composted or at worst recycled. Hardly fantasy world, is it?

Every been to Germany? The way this country recycles is unbelievable... you can return and get a refund for a bottle of coke, juice, etc. Also, when you go to a place like KFC, they actually use glass plates that they wash and re-use in order to minimize waste. This is the sort of thing that businesses, including M&S need to do in order to convince me that they are serious about going green.