For Britain’s largest clothier, Marks & Spencer, the factory is part of its five-year drive to become carbon-neutral by 2012. MAS, contributed $400,000 toward the cost of the factory’s deisgn and solar panels, which provide 10 percent of its energy needs. MAS expects the factory’s 25-percent higher construction costs — about $7 million — to have paid for themselves in less than five years.

“The MAS factory is a truly exciting development in clothing production,” Sir Stuart Rose, chief executive of M&S said at the opening. “It really has been a partnership of two like-minded companies, M&S and MAS, and will trial a completely new approach to manufacturing and set standards for others to follow. Not only has it been designed to be carbon neutral, use less electricity and less water than a similar scale clothing factory, it will also produce great quality lingerie products – what our customers would expect from M&S – whilst ensuring its workers are treated well through its leading standards in employee welfare.”