It may not be anything to do with global warming, but the normally urbane and smart Stuart Rose, boss of Marks & Spencer, seems to be getting a little hot under the collar.

“This is not a one-off trick or a bit of greenwash. It is not what we are going to do for 2007 and the M&S team will come up with a different idea for 2008. This is now part of the new M&S.”

Mr Rose is getting heated because there is scepticism in the air – can the man who loves to drive a Bentley and who counts flying as one of his favourite hobbies genuinely be driving a green revolution at Britain’s favourite clothing store? He insists that he is completely serious about Plan A, his strategy to make M&S into Britain’s most ethical retailer.

Since he was parachuted into M&S in 2004 to rescue the business from an attempted takeover by Sir Philip Green, the owner of Bhs, Mr Rose has brought about a complete rejuvenation of the high street giant. A brand that was being written off as in terminal decline is back on the expansion trail – online, on the high street and even overseas, with plans to open stores in Europe, China and India.

BACKGROUND

• M&S bows to pressure over top bonuses

• Marks & Spencer chief reaps bonus benefit

• How the M&S boss turned green

• Marks & Spencer ousts retail director in broad reshuffle

• Rose’s turnaround plan is paying off for M&S

M&S comment: Quite an achievement

Stuart Rose has achieved the biggest high street turnaround in years

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Mr Rose appears to have proved his detractors wrong and shown them that he knows how to make a retail business hum, but the inevitable question is: can he take it to the next level? “I have always said that 2007-08 would be the most important year for M&S. We have had top-line growth for seven or eight quarters and been improving market share to nearly historic highs. We have to prove we can keep that momentum going,” Mr Rose says.

He argues that Plan A will play a major part in the next phase of growth, helping M&S to differentiate itself from the more price-led part of the market driven by the supermarkets.

“If this is going to be a business with the right credentials to survive in the 21st century, then we have to adapt. Using Al Gore’s idea – responsible business can be profitable business. The consumer is increasingly aware of the issues and the fact there is a need to do something. M&S is well placed to take a lead in that.”

Plan A is a list of 100 commitments, including no more sending waste to landfill and becoming carbon neutral by 2012, and vaguer targets such as “sourcing as much food as possible from the UK and Republic of Ireland”.

Mr Rose says that the plan was born out of the Look Behind the Label campaign, which highlighted M&S’s commitment to eco-friendly dyes, Fairtrade and low-salt ready meals. A research note, issued by Citigroup last year, described Look Behind The Label as “the most positive campaign the business has ever run”, giving it “at least a six-month lead” over its main rivals.

“Whenever I went around the buying departments, I found people going to great lengths to do this or that. What they were doing was absolutely ground-breaking and I felt that if that was the case, why not tell customers,” Mr Rose says. “Staff loved it, customers loved it and we got a lot of approving nods from pressure groups and investors.”

Mr Rose says that his determination to make real changes can be seen in M&S’s publication of a revamped report that lists its 100 commitments in detail. He says that the company will be audited on the commitments, has set up a team of 400 shopfloor staff to push through change in each store and will link progress on Plan A to staff bonuses from this year.

Some promises seem to be ambitious. Can M&S really develop Britain’s first anaerobic digestion systems – machines that generate electricity from food and other organic waste?

Mr Rose admits that achieving the plan’s goals will not be easy. There are tricky questions. Is it more important to cut down on flying-in goods or to support farmers in developing countries? Which uses less carbon: growing vegetables in British greenhouses or transporting them in from warm countries many miles away?

“You often find if you push on this point of the balloon it comes out at another part,” Mr Rose says. “We may find we go down a few blind alleys, but it is now bound up in the leadership of the business. This is run by the top team, not by a separate area of the business.”

He insists that a lot has happened already. M&S has launched plastic bags made from 100 per cent recycled material, introduced clothing made from recycled plastic bottles, switched to green sources of electricity and the first anaerobic digestion units will begin trials on farms supplying M&S before the end of the year.

“I think it will go on exponentially – a huge amount of change. We have moved from talk to action,” Mr Rose says. M&S is committed to spending £200 million on new technologies and systems to drive Plan A over the next five years. Mr Rose admits that the programme is unlikely to have the instant impact that was achieved by cutting prices and improving the fashion range.

The Government is concerned about climate change and M&S’s plan could prove a canny defensive measure against future legislation to limit business’s impact on the environment. Already, there has been talk of people being allocated carbon points and an increase in green taxes.

Yet, regardless of government pressure, Mr Rose says that business – particularly retailers, because of their close contact with consumers – will have an important role to play in delivering a more eco-friendly future. He argues that people’s approach to climate change has parallels to what happens in a failing business.

“Business people often want to ignore why a business is not doing well – they don’t want to know. If a relationship is not going well, sometimes it’s the same. You have to face up to it. You have got to deal with it. I think we would be absolutely failing in our duty, almost criminally irresponsible if we didn’t do something.

“It is not going to happen in my lifetime, but it is going to affect people having children today. They might say: ‘Daddy, why did you drive a big Bentley?’ And that is what I’ve got to think about.”

Mr Rose has sold one of his Bentleys and now drives a BMW to work. He is test driving a hydrogen-powered one. But he admits that M&S still uses its private aircraft for transporting him and his staff around the country to visit stores – something that he deems to be essential for an efficient business, and that it is not likely to change overnight.

Indeed, he thinks that nobody is going to change overnight, but insists: “This is one for the bold. Doing nothing is not an option. It is easy to stand and be a sceptic, easy to say: ‘I’ll do it tomorrow and think about it.’ And hard to galvanise a business and say: ‘This is what we are going to do.’ ”

M&S believes that it has a position of trust with shoppers and Mr Rose says that shoppers expect it to deliver on the Plan A commitments.

“We are definitely delivering,” he says. “In the words of my former chairman, we are not perfect, but we are sincere in our intentions.”

C.V.

Born: March 17, 1949

Education: St Joseph’s convent, Dar es Salaam; Bootham school, York

Career: Joined Marks & Spencer in 1972 as a management trainee, rising to commercial director. Joined Burton group in 1989 with management roles at Debenhams, Evans and Dorothy Perkins. Joined Argos in 1997, then became chief executive of Booker. Appointed chief executive of Arcadia in 2000 but left in 2002 after its acquisition by Philip Green. Rejoined M&S in May 2004.

Family: Married with a son and a daughter

Hobbies: Flying, wine

The leader questioned

If you could change one thing in the financial and commercial environment, what would it be? Cut back on red tape, which is getting increasingly onerous for business. The Government has said time and time again it will simplify things and time and time again it has failed.

Who is or was your mentor? I have great admiration for the founding fathers of this business. I think they had a very good model and I have tried to go back to the principles they engendered. It is what I was brought up with – I’ve been in and out of the business for 35 years.

Which is more important: what you know or who you know? What you know. Life is about learning from experience and putting that into practice. I’m a doer, not a talker.

Does money motivate you? It is not irrelevant. I live comfortably, but I could have earned a lot more money from doing something else. A part of the drive and reward is that I am proud to work in this business. This company is a British institution and I think it is right and proper that it is owned by shareholders and it would have been wholly wrong if it was owned by one individual, whoever that might be. I can see the benefits of businesses going through huge transition, going off the market for a while, but we have managed huge transition in this business in the public eye. It is possibly more testing, but it can be done.

What is the most important business event, good or bad, to happen during your working life? Getting this job. First it was getting a job at M&S when I was uncertain about what to do when I was 23. I was a failed medical student bumming around and I wrote to 20 companies. M&S was the first company that came back to me and gave me three interviews. M&S put trust in me and hired me when I was pretty unemployable. Then in 2004 the company trusted me again. I hope I have repaid that trust.

What gadget can’t you do without? I am not a gadget man. The fewer gadgets, the better. I can get round my pocket Economist diary quicker than anyone with an electronic planner going beep, beep, beep.

How do you relax? I find that I am quite good at relaxing. I can switch off from work and I do have a couple of hobbies. I do a bit of running, and – I know it’s not very consumer-friendly – but I do my flying.

What does leadership mean to you? I think probably leading by example. I don’t always get it right, but I try.

Which businessman or woman do you most admire? I don’t want to sound arrogant, but most of the people that I admire have died. I’m not going to admire someone younger – I am that arrogant, OK? Well, here’s one – I admire people who create change and tilt at windmills, such as Charles Dunstone at Carphone Warehouse. It is David and Goliath – he has taken on the big boys and is finding that he can do it.

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