Companies Head For Gold Standard
25 October 2011
Scottish food and drink companies have gathered at Perth Racecourse to debate the sustainability agenda as part of Scotland Food & Drink and Marks & Spencer's innovative Going for Gold initiative.
Louise Nicholls, head of responsible sourcing and Carmel McQuaid, climate change manager at Marks & Spencer provided an update on the progress with Plan A and the frameworks which form a platform for companies to achieve. Other speakers included WRAP, Vion and Matthew Algie.
The Going for Gold initiative is a partnership between industry leadership organisation Scotland Food & Drink, Marks & Spencer, Scottish Enterprise, SAOS, Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, SAC, Zero Waste Scotland, Quality Meat Scotland, Prince's Mayday Network, Scottish Business in the Community and the Scottish Food and Drink Federation.
It provides co-ordinated support to M&S's Scottish suppliers, in line with the retailer's Plan A initiative which aims to establish M&S as the world's most sustainable retailer by 2015.
The project represents the first time that the various organisations which offer support in developing sustainable operations have collaborated in this way and the initial results will be presented at the Marks & Spencer supplier sustainability conference in 2012.
The company participants will have the opportunity to be coached through an accelerated supplier development process by dedicated contacts with a focus on ethical, environmental and lean objectives.
