This time last year, the Fairmined mark was launched by the Fairtrade Foundation, and Fairtrade gold took a step towards the mainstream. One year on, the idea is slowly gaining ground. And slowly is the only way it can gain ground, because ethical mining is not an easy thing to certify. To earn that Fairmined [...]
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Let’s get serious about food speculation
Today, G20 agricultural ministers are meeting in Paris, and food speculation is on the agenda. Will this be the week we finally see some political action on commodities speculation? The hosts are serious about the issue. “Speculation, panic and lack of transparency have seen prices soaring,” said president Sarcozy recently. “Is that the world we [...]
Fairtrade gold shines a little brighter
The campaign for ethical gold finally pays off, as this week sees the public launch of Fairtrade and Fairmined gold.
High Street, your clothing workers called…
During the summer, Bangladesh raised the minimum wage for garment workers. It was a long time coming, and not big enough. Workers had asked for 5,000 taka a month, and they got 3,000, but it was a victory nonetheless. Wages were due to rise from £16 a month to £27 a month and come into [...]
Sportswear brands still failing on labour rights
Yesterday I walked past the new 2012 store in St Pancras Station, gearing up to sell Olympic branded gear two years ahead of the actual London games. There’s a lot of money to be made in sportswear, and a pile of it is being made right now at the CommonWealth Games. Last year Nike had [...]
Kuma Coffee – pioneering direct trade
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Rapa Nui clothing company and their innovative approach to traceability. The same week I learned about an equally radical scheme in coffee, from my friend Mark Barany. We were at school together in Kenya, and Mark now runs Kuma Coffee Roasters. Based in Seattle, Kuma produces [...]
What’s going on in the food markets?
In 2008 there was a food crisis, as you may remember. It was started by droughts and poor harvests in some major grain exporting countries, with prices pushed higher by the runaway price of oil. Demand for biofuels diverted more crops away from the priority of feeding people, and the whole crisis was exacerbated by [...]
The ironies of green consumerism
A rather fascinating psychological study emerged last week from the University of Toronto: Do green products make us better people? (pdf) In a series of experiments, the researchers discovered that exposure to green products made people act more altruistically, but buying them made them more mean-spirited and more likely to cheat. Participants in the study [...]
Good news on ethical fashion: the sustainable clothing action plan
London Fashion Week passed me by a few weeks back, but if I had been paying a bit more attention I’d have heard about the government’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan a little sooner. As we’ve mentioned before, fashion is a deeply wasteful and polluting industry. Fashion addicts are just as bad as their favourite brands, [...]
Chicza – the UK’s first biodegradable gum
A few months ago we reported on Chicza, the first biodegradable chewing gum to go on sale in the UK. It’s a great example of sustainable business, creating jobs in Mexico, stewarding the rainforests, and helping to solve the problem of urban staining here in the UK. Chicza went on sale this week. Louise has [...]
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