Marks and Spencer plans to cut 800 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year by distributing 300,000 products by train.

The retailer has announced it will use rail instead of road for clothing and home products on the 350-mile route between its distribution centres in Daventry and Falkirk.

The move is the latest strand of M&S’s Plan A sustainability initiative, which has seen the retailer scoop four energy awards in just the last two weeks, including being named Green Business of the Year.

M&S is working to reduce its carbon footprint on the road as well. The company’s ‘teardrop trailers’, which are 10% more fuel efficient and can carry 10% more stock, now number almost 400, accounting for more than half of its distribution fleet. By using these trailers M&S expects to cut its carbon footprint by 2,300 tonnes a year.