Fair Trade is really for sustainability

“Greetings from Salay Handmade Paper Industries Inc. (SHAPII), the Fair Trader in Mindanao, Philippines.

Congratulations for another year of WFTD celebration!

We think that the theme "Environment and Climate Change" is very timely! These days when it is getting hotter and hotter, we become aware that we must do everything we are able to, to somehow help towards reducing anything that may increase global warming.

Living in a rural area, we don't know that we can do much to influence this, but in our small ways , we feel responsible of our impact on our environment and climate change.

We are so impressed by Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and have shown it in Sept-Dec 2007 to all our workers (250 people more or less)in groups of '30's during office hours so they can better understand it.

Hopefully we hope we can work together, for small things like solid waste management as in better implementation of segregation of solid waste in our community, some efforts to lessen use of plastic and especially in making sure we have environmentally friendly waste water process of our handmade paper manufacturing effluent . We not only do a lot of recycling and use natural raw materials (no trees are cut for it) as base of our products is made from the recycled cuttings of our handmade paper!

We all feel that being a Fair Trader involves loving and taking care of our environment. .. after all, if the earth is damaged or we are unfavorably affected by an increase in global temperatures then all that we are doing now in Fair Trade, in business and community involvement will amount to nothing. Fair Trade is really for sustainability.”