The awards were judged by more than 100 assessors over 12 months and M&S impressed them with its integration of a set of values into its business practices.

It is not the retailer’s first such recognition. The company has been ranked No 1 by Greenpeace on its use of non-genetically-modified foods, ranked as the top food retailer by Friends of the Earth on pesticide reduction, and No 1 by the Marine Conservation Society on fish sourcing and by Accountability/Insight Investment on labour standards. These ratings have contributed to M&S being named as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s most sustainable retailer in the world for the past two years.

Mark Goyder, director of Tomorrow's Company, said: “Corporate responsibility is one essential building block of enduring shareholder value. I hope M&S’s outstanding record as a responsible company will be properly valued as part of the overall decision shareholders now have to make about its future.”

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