The Twentieth Century Society has launched a petition calling on Marks & Spencer to abandon the controversial demolition of its store on London's Oxford Street or risk "betraying its own carbon targets".
Launched on 2 December and already supported by more than 1,400 signatures, the petition asks the high-street retailer to retrofit its art deco flagship rather than tearing it down to make space for a new building designed by UK studio Pilbrow & Partners.
The redevelopment would waste the embodied carbon of the existing building, generate 39,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions and counteract M&S's recent commitment to becoming net-zero by 2045, according to The C20 Society director Catherine Croft.
"As recently as September 2021, M&S made admirable commitments to carbon reduction across its business and to achieve net-zero within the coming years," she argued in an open letter to the retailer. "No matter how it's spun, this proposal is simply incompatible with those commitments."
Listings application turned down
The C20 Society previously filed a listing application for the 1930s Orchard House and its two extensions, which have been home to M&S for the last 90 years, in a bid to preserve its cultural heritage and embodied carbon.
But Westminster City Council turned down the application as it deemed the shop neither "innovative nor of sufficient architectural quality", particularly in light of the various expansions and ame...