May 2, 2008 - Major British retailers including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and The Body Shop, have made a string of new commitments to reducing their climate impact.

The retailers pledged a multifaceted approach to climate management, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and vehicles, minimizing risk by planning for continuity of future product supply, and helping employees and customers minimize their own climate impact by offering more energy-efficient products. The retailers also pledged to "develop consistent carbon footprinting of products."

The announcement was made at a meeting of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) earlier this week.

Some retail businesses have already committed to targets that are more demanding than those being announced today, but for others it is an early step in an important field," BRC said in a statement. "The BRC believes that by making a collective statement the total gain will be greater and an important signal is being sent to other businesses, politicians and customers."

A number of British retailers have already made ambitious commitments to climate. U.K. supermarket chain Tesco, for example, is currently piloting a project to include carbon footprint labels on its products.