Green Window Dressing

It looks like M&S is working to reduce its carbon footprint, which is a good thing. However, their marketing surrounding the introduction of sustainable technologies exaggerates the effect it will have.

The chain’s first wind turbine, in Aberdeenshire, will provide renewable energy to the branches, which bosses say will lead to a drop of 55% in their energy use. This, the company says, will also contribute to the shops producing 95% less carbon dioxide.

[source: Guardian Unlimited]
It all depends on how you define a shop I suppose. If, like M&S seem to, you limit your measurements to the building itself, then you will achieve a huge reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. However a shop is not just a building. It needs to be stocked, and M&S’s goods are still made all over the world and travel many thousands of miles before they reach the shops. The food sold in their shops is often highly processed and overly packaged single-serving meals. Surely carbon dioxide generated by the manufacture, packing and shipping of goods needs to be taken into account when calculating a shop’s carbon footprint. Seen in these terms the reduction in carbon footprint is far smaller. Taking a wild guess, I’d imagine it’s closer to ten or twelve percent.

Now they’re starting to address environmental concerns in the part of the business that is most obvious to the customer, will they extend that thinking into the most polluting parts of their business? Does this news herald a deep-rooted change in their business plan or is their environmental commitment just window dressing?