Core business activities:

Mark and Spencer:

The mark and Spencer is British multinational company. The core business of the company is
the retail sector. In which the company provides the variety of products to the people united
Kingdom and to the people worldwide. The strategy of the business is to accelerate the
expansion in the overseas market while continuing to serve at the local market that is the
United Kingdom.

The company started their business at overseas where they have opened the first store at
Kabul Afghanistan in the year 1960. Then the company has started their business in Canada
in 1973 and they have opened around 47 stores all across the nation. The company later
opened the stores at France in 1975. The company has changed their strategy many times in
which they have moved to clothing and includes food products. The company is now
operating worldwide and providing their services in most of the major nation.

H&M

The H&M is the Swedish multinational company. The core business of the company is
retailing. The company is specific retailer which provides the cloth and its accessories. The
company has become one of the major retailers of fast fashion clothing for both men and
women. The company is now associated many companies all around the world. The business
activities of the H&M are to offer the collection which has the wide rage and provide the
verities of products. They mainly provide the inspiring fashion with unbeatable price which
make the company totally different from others.

The H&M has started to open their business in various locations around the world. The
company has been associated in 62 countries. The total number of stores is around 4500 and
it makes the second largest clothing retailer in the world. The company is also associated with
many online websites or the e-commerce and they provide their services in 33 countries
through online.
Sustainable development goals:

H&M:

For the fashion industries it is required to rethink about the future of the fashion. The
company knows that the clothing will be the everyday necessity which means the people will
need the cloths today as well as in the future. However, the fashion industry changes
according to the time. The company also knows that the current industries have been more
dependent on the non-renewable source of energy. Therefore the company is now pushing
theme self towards the development of the circular model. The company set up their plans for
the sustainable development which can be achieved by the following idea:

1. Innovations: the company has focused on various innovations which will help the
company to solve many of the issues which rose in front of the industries. However, it
is not based on one innovation. It should be based on many innovations in the current
world. Thus the company has made few new partners like Treetotextile which will
help the company to grow more in terms of innovation.
2. Responsible production and consumptions: the company is also focused on the
responsible production as the company has chosen many partner companies who
focused on the sustainable development. The company also focused on the energy
consumption which they want to use around 90% of the renewable source of energy.
Apart from that, the company has now started a few stores which is dedicated to full
recycled products.
3. Educations: the company also focused on the educating the people regarding the
nature and provide various charities which helps the people to provide more
knowledge regarding the environments and the usage of recycled products. moreover
the company is focused to provide charities for the betterment of the education.

M&S

The company has introduced the plan A 2025 which is an ambitious and customer focussed
sustainability plan. The plan which has been builds on the success of the first 10 years of plan
A and the company is supporting 1000 communities with around 10 million people live much
happier and healthier lives. The company has focused their suitability development target
which has been mentioned below:
 1. Economic Growth: the company focused to provide the complete programme which
will help the communities and the people who live in the communities. The company
will aim to secure the meaningful economic and social environment for the people all
around the M&S store.
2. Clean energy: the company also focused to use the clean energy which is the
renewable source of energy. And they will reduce the energy consumptions also.
3. Donations: the company has done many donations and raised many donations in the
United Kingdom for some of the people who are fighting with the breast cancer. The
company focused on the community and thus they help by raising the donations for
many social issues.

Quality reporting of social approach:

There are many companies who are publishing the environmental and social reports but the
main concerns is that to what extent to which these reports are genuine intention of the
particular businesses to make themselves accountable. According to Zadek et al (1997) who
have proposed the eight key standards which can be applied in the various organizations to
monitor the level of the social accounting procedure.

The dialogue with the stakeholder will lies at the heart of the corporate social responsibility
practice. With the help of the questionnaire surveys the large group of stakeholder can be
consulted. Both the companies have self report their responsibilities towards society.

Values of H&M and M&S:

For the M&S the company is committed to the core values of inspiration, innovation, and
integrity and to be in touch. The company is committed to customers and the communities.
The inspiration for the company is that they provide better economic growth to the people
suppliers and the colleagues who are associated with the company.

M&S has been doing the Charities and donating a huge amount of money to the social work.
There are some of the issues related to the society like breast cancer. These show that the
company values have been related to the report of the sustainability.
For the H&M the company has been committed to their core values which are the integrity
which means to become honest and keeping the promises, the company is having the strong
work ethic. The company mainly believe in the people and company is focused in constant
improvement. It appears that the company is engage with the activities of CSR more due to
the demands of the society.