M&S doubles energy sourced from indie green suppliers
Greenwise Staff
28th March 2011
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has doubled the amount of green energy it is purchasing from small-scale independent suppliers over the last 12 months.
M&S announced today that it was buying on average five gigawatt hours (GWh) of
green energy per month from
small-scale suppliers, such as farmers and landowners, through its
Plan A sustainability initiative. This is double the amount it was sourcing from this sector a year ago and equals the amount of electricity used by 100 M&S Simply Food stores.
The growth is down to M&S’ contract with SmartestEnergy, the UK’s leading supplier of independently generated
renewable energy. SmartestEnergy announced last month that it had seen a 50 per cent surge in the amount of electricity it is
purchasing from indie producers, 25 of which are now supplying M&S.
Hammars Hill EnergyOne of those suppliers is Hammars Hill Energy, a wind farm located on the north of mainland Orkney. Since January this year, M&S has procured an average of 1.4GWh per month from the five wind turbines at the Orkney site.
"Growing the amount of directly bought renewable energy from small scale suppliers, such as Hammars Hill, reduces our impact on the environment and helps us reduce the risk within our own energy portfolio," said Mervyn Bowden, head of Energy Management at M&S.
Plan A
As part of its Plan A, M&S is committed to procuring 100 per cent green electricity by 2012 and improving the percentage of small scale energy sources that it uses.
As well as its contract with SmartestEnergy, M&S also sources some independently generated renewable energy through major power company npower. This, a spokesperson told GreenWise, meant the retailer could "continue with its pioneering drive to encourage the development of renewable electricity".
M&S has over 700 stores located throughout the UK and Ireland.
