A Different Way to trade - Respecting Both People and Our World

A recent survey of 500 big businesses showed that only 10% of them regard global warming as a priority. Overall, it came 8th in their concerns, below increasing sales, reducing costs, developing new products, competing for talented staff, securing growth in new markets, innovation, and technology.

Businesses are waiting for governments to take a lead. Governments want business to address the problems voluntarily. Short-term profits and worries about the next election encourage both to take a narrow, short-term view, and progress is agonisingly slow.

According to James Martin in ‘The Meaning of the Twenty-first Century’, we are destroying 44 million acres of forest every year; losing 100 million acres of farmland and 24 billion tons of topsoil; creating 15 million acres of new desert; and using 160 billion tons more water than is being replenished by rain. It’s difficult to understand these figures and appreciate the impact they may have in 20 or 30 years time. But they are not just figures. Water, for example, is vital for growing crops, and with rising temperatures, crop yields are already reducing in many countries, especially in central Africa. Wars over water look increasingly likely. There are solutions to these problems, but we need to act now. If the problems of climate change are not dealt with, the consequences could be catastrophic, and any gains we achieve through Fair Trade may seem paltry and insignificant in comparison.

In their search for profit, conventional businesses are both exploiting people and rapidly using up the limited resources of the world. Our aim in Fair Trade is to provide an alternative. Sustainable trade is already a key principle for us, and we are increasingly concerned about recycling, reducing energy consumption and other environmental issues.

At Shared Earth, for instance, we import almost all of our products by sea, and send out our wholesale orders in recycled boxes, using biodegradable corn chips as packaging. We travel by train on short- and medium-length journeys; the overnight train from New Delhi to Kolkata (1,400km) is a fantastic experience!

We have also decided to offset the CO2 emissions caused by our travel by contributing to a tree-planting scheme. This will be run by a Fair Trade organisation which makes wooden handicrafts, probably in India. We will then be able to say not only that the products they supply are carved and manufactured fairly, but that the wood they are made from is managed and harvested fairly too.

Shared Earth has always been a leader in developing sustainable and recycled products. Handmade paper - made from weeds and pineapple leaves, cotton rags and elephant dung - is a speciality. Other items are made from tin cans in Madagascar, rice and cement sacks in India, and crisp packets in Bangladesh.

We also encourage our customers to buy sturdy jute bags from Kolkata with the slogan “Say No to Plastic Bags!” Other designs include “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle”, “Shop Local”, and a new favourite, “Use me ‘til my bottom wears out”.

We are heading for disaster if the problems of climate change are not dealt with. Unlike environmental campaigning organisations, fair traders are businesses. We have the opportunity to show the world a different kind of trade - which respects both people and the world in which we live.