Marks & Spencer, Co-op - UK’s greenest supermarkets, as announced after a survey done on retailers to rate their performance with regards to ethical sourcing and its sustainability. While Marks & Spencer and Co-op won to become UK’s greenest supermarkets leaving behind the largest retailers Tesco and Asda followed by Netto. These top retailers of UK not only lost the titles for becoming UK’s greenest supermarkets but were also highlighted as the worst performing companies when it came to sustainable sourcing.

The survey looked into the performance of 19 UK retailers that included supermarkets as well as convenient stores, with respect to their ethical performance, corporate social responsibility and environmental responsibility. Marks & Spencer and Co-op came out as clear winners to claim the title of UK's Greenest Supermarkets.

Environmental Policy of a company is a set of policies that are applied to preserve the ecosystem, social life of humans and economic resources. Companies that adhere to the norms of environment policies are the one that do not have negative effect on environment during the process of production or sourcing of goods or services either directly or indirectly.

Co-op’s fish policy adheres to the guidelines laid by Marine Stewardship Council for sourcing fish that is sold in its supermarket. The retailers who do not follow guidelines are actually not preserving the environment in any way. Secondly, 98 % of energy used by Co-op at all its 5500 sites in UK is renewable; this is a great contribution towards preserving nature and environment in total.

Marks & Spencer’s palm oil policy was another distinguishing factor. As advised by WWF M&S uses palm oil of sustainable quality in most of its in-house brand goods. Another winning point for Marks & Spencer was its climate change policy, which is, using biofuels from non crop for all its vehicles.

UK’s greenest supermarket companies were highly appreciated for their efforts in preserving the environment. Hence, Ethical Consumer Magazine has requested shoppers to shop with retailers who follow green policies; this will help to bring down the environmental cost during festive seasons like Christmas and New. By shopping with UK’s greenest supermarkets you as a consumer actually contribute towards preserving environment.

Image Courtesy: co-operative.coop