Marks and Spencer

When Marks & Spencer announced its ambitious 100-point sustainability plan in 2007, it was widely lauded as the most progressive shift in business practices by a mainstream British retailer. Five years later, Marks & Spencer had achieved a majority of the goals listed in its strategy, called Plan A. In 2012, the company announced that in the U.K. and Ireland, it had become carbon-neutral (thanks in part to improved refrigeration efficiency) and that it was sending zero waste to landfills. (One tactic? Reducing the price of perishables as the shopping day wore on.) The progress hasn’t let up: Marks & Spencer has continued to set new sustainability goals and meet them. The thriftiness, in turn, has generated nearly $1 billion for the retailer since Plan A’s creation.