Mike Barry – Head of Sustainable Business at M&S
I buy most of my underwear from M&S. You won’t be surprised to hear that this winter I’ve bought some thermals!
Reading the pack I was surprised to see the following instructions – ‘It’s easy to look after too – just put it in the machine and then the tumble drier.’ My eco-radar went into over-drive! This didn’t tie in well with M&S’s ground-breaking Plan A initiative.
Tumble driers are pretty well top of the black list for energy wasting appliances. Even if you live in a small flat you should be able to find somewhere to dry your clothes – a rack in the bath or a pulley system near the ceiling, for example.
I’ve been working with M&S for years advising them on sustainability issues. So I wrote an email to Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business. He emailed me back, as follows: ‘Lingerie have agreed we will remove this ‘recommendation’ to tumble dry thermal for Autumn 2010, on the packaging.’ He went on to explain that there would still be a drier symbol on the sew-in label because that’s just to show that the items can be tumble dried.
I’m looking forward to warmer weather but in the mean-time I’m still wearing my thermals – and I won’t be putting them in the drier.
