High-end fashion and grocery retailer Marks & Spencers (M&S), rewards food and drink suppliers with its lean and green manufacturing and ethical trading standards. As a result, these suppliers are now benefitting from more business from the retailer.

The programme, called the Plan A initiative, is M&S's aim to help the environment and work with its suppliers to deliver a sustainability programme, reports Food Manufacture.

As such, the retailer labels the products it receives with a bronze, silver and gold system in order to encourage a higher standard of manufacturing.

Louise Nicholls, M&S's head of responsible sourcing, spoke saying that 91 per cent of the company's suppliers are now actively engaged in reducing the amount of waste they produce.

The retailer has now awarded more than 45 per cent of its suppliers' sites with a silver level of sustainable manufacture and a further eight per cent are gold standard.

Ms Nicholls added that she and the company are aiming for all of their suppliers to have reached at least silver level in four years' time.