M&S Backs AI-Powered Pollination and Low-Methane Beef to Slash Supply Chain Emissions

Marks & Spencer is stepping up its sustainability game. The British retailer has committed £1 million in funding to support breakthrough projects that could help reduce its carbon footprint, particularly concerning Scope 3 emissions. This type arises from the wider supply chain. The initiative is part of the company’s Plan A Accelerator Fund, which aims to drive real change on the path to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.

In 2025, the fund will zero in on agriculture. Why agriculture? Because it plays a huge role in the retailer's emissions profile and holds massive potential for transformation. Among the innovations receiving support this year is a project that utilizes artificial intelligence to enhance pollination. By optimizing the way pollinators move and work, the project aims to increase the volume and quality of fruit and berries, while also improving biodiversity.

Another pilot focuses on wheat. Specifically, M&S will fund trials exploring how to produce wheat with a smaller environmental footprint. There's also a spotlight on livestock. Some of the proposals in the pipeline include researching cattle breeding methods that reduce methane emissions and enhancing feed management to further mitigate methane emissions.

It’s not the first time M&S has backed cutting-edge ideas. In earlier rounds, the fund supported innovations that made refrigeration systems more energy-efficient and helped launch clothing repair services. It has also continued to invest in ways to reduce energy use across its stores.

Addressing Scope 3

Supply chains are notoriously carbon-intensive. M&S accounts for a staggering 94% of the company’s total emissions. That’s why this latest push focuses heavily on Scope 3, where the most significant opportunities and challenges lie.

Other retailers are also getting serious about funding climate action. Waitrose, for example, recently set aside £500,000 to support farmers trialling new environmental practices, including fertiliser alternatives made from recycled chicken waste.

M&S’s corporate affairs and ESG director Victoria McKenzie-Gould said: “M&S’s success as an own-brand retailer is borne from deep relationships with our supplier partners, which supports a long-term approach to investment in innovation and quality, and a shared belief in the value of doing the right thing.

“This same approach is helping us to become a net-zero business by 2040, through our annual £1m Plan A Accelerator Fund, with which we fund new and small-scale or untested solutions in collaboration with our supply base.”

Marks & Spencer’s broader goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, and the roadmap to achieve this is anchored in targets verified by the Science-Based Targets initiative. By 2030, M&S aims for a 55% reduction in direct emissions—those resulting from its operations- and a 42% decrease in Scope 3 emissions, both measured against 2017 levels.

The company’s ultimate goal? A 90% absolute emissions reduction across all areas by 2040, except for supply chain-related emissions from forestry, land, and agriculture, where the target is a 72% reduction. These ambitions align with the SBTi’s Net Zero Standard and reflect the company’s ongoing commitment to meaningful, science-based climate action.