Marks and Spencer has finally opened their Sri Lanka factory which claims to be the first eco-friendly factory of its kind, using forty percent less energy and fifty percent less water than normal manufacturing. Two of their lingerie lines will be produced here in a “carbon-neutral” environment.

A year in construction, the public will see the results of the production first hand in July when the lingerie from this factory reaches the store racks by way of the M&S Autograph and Per Una labels. Company officials state that the prices will not be increased compared to existing lines despite the company’s sizeable investment in the plant. They also plan to phase in the Fairtrade cotton into the manufacturing over the course of the next year.

As the largest retailer of underwear in the UK, boasting a twenty-eight percent market share, M&S plans to open two more “green manufacturing” plants later in 2008 in Wales and Bangladesh to service other areas of their clothing lines.