from the Guardian 16/1.

‘Marks & Spencer is to spend £200m over five years on a wide-ranging “eco-plan” which sustainability campaigners yesterday welcomed as the most progressive project of its kind by a mainstream retailer in the UK.
The programme, to be announced today, promises to “change beyond recognition” the way M&S operates. Initiatives within the 100-point plan include transforming the 460-strong chain into a carbon neutral operation; banning group waste from landfill dumps; using unsold out-of-date food as a source of recyclable energy and making polyester clothing from recycled plastic bottles.’

This is probably just one of many coming attempts by supermarkets and other major retailers to face increasingly well-informed and ecologically conscious consumers. The problem of course rests with eh complexity of the task: how to make sure that every step in the long production chain leading from the Chilean farmer to the UK purchased ‘ecologic’ cherry-choclate-chip ice-cream complies to these new rigorous standards, and does not cancel out efforts made at other points in the chain? The solution is to create a public space that involves all stake-holders, form consumer through middle men to farm and transport workers in rating and reporting the compliance performance of the different steps in the chain. You guessed it- another Actics application!