What makes a product an environmentally friendly product?

Producers from Africa, Asia and Latin America share with us the characteristics of their environmentally friendly products and highlight the role these products play in protecting the environment.

Read some of their answers to the above question:

Support Organic Fair Trade Jute Agriculture in Bangladesh
> CORR the Jute Works (Bangladesh)

Finding Solutions to the World's Waste Problems:
> La Maison Afrique (Madagascar)

Protecting Kenya's Forests
> Center for International Market Access (Kenya)

Using Locally Abundant Materials
> Apikri Cooperative (Indonesia)
> Uganda Crafts 2000 Ltd (Uganda)
> Development Trading Ltd (Malawi)

Ensuring the Survival of the Santo Palo Tree
> Fundacion Silataj (Argentina)

Using a renewable material to sustain the rainforest
> A Greater Gift/SERRV International (Ecuador)

Fair Trade products are designed to last and are biodegradable or recyclable.

Fair Trade products are often the result of collaborations between Northern and Southern Fair Trade Organisations. When developing products Fair Trade producers consider, at every stage of production, the impact of the product on the local and global environment.

In the South Fair Trade producers are often based in remote rural areas, where resources and infrastructure (social, services, transportation,...) are scarce. These producers direct dependence on their local environment for basic necessities and income generation render them uniquely sensitive to practices that threaten the environment. Others are based in urban areas and witness the negative consequences of our heavily consumerist societies. Such as the deadly rubbish dumps of Kenya's urban centers.

Fair Trade products are therefore made of materials that are locally and abundantly available. They can be made from recycled post-consumer products such as Maison Afrique's Citroen cars [read more], or from natural and biodegradable materials such as Uganda Crafts' banana stem woven baskets [read more]. Furthermore producers are careful to grow and collect these materials in ways that won't negatively affect the environment. Materials are most commonly collected by hand and transported on foot, by bicycle or very occasionally by motorised vehicle to producers nearby homes or workshops.

Fair Trade products are produced by hand and often in producers' homes. Choosing hand production over mechanised production significantly reduces CO2 emissions. It also provides asset poor people living in remote areas with local income earning opportunities. What little energy is needed in the production process is often produced through alternative energy sources. Any waste produced during production is managed responsibly.

But wait there is more!
Products are also developed to respond to local environmental issues.
For example Maison Afrique, aware of the lack of the local recycling facilities, developed their Citroen cars to utilise post-consumer waste. The Citroen cars are not only providing much needed income generating opportunities for locally marginalised groups, they are also providing an environmentally friendly solution to a local waste issue [ read more]. At Fundacion Silataj in Argentina the responsible use of dead Santo Palo wood is providing a future for the Wichi Indians and the threatened Santo Palo trees [read more].