Playing Fair

Consuming with conscience is the movement of the moment. From reusable shopping bags to organic personal care, renewable materials to reduced carbon footprints, ethical shopping has become a hot topic across the country. Two sets of concerns that were once separate — how manufacturers treat workers and stewardship of the environment — have merged to create a single aim: maximizing the good done by shopping dollars.

The Fair Trade movement emphasizes the principle of paying living wages to artisans (often those based overseas, without the protection of strong laws or unions). And while it's best known for its involvement with the coffee, tea and chocolate trades, gifts are a significant part of the movement too.

Make no mistake, buyer awareness of fair trade — among both retailers and consumers — is on the rise.

Indeed, everyone Gifts & Dec spoke to agreed that consumer awareness of Fair Trade is increasing. However, such awareness can be a mixed blessing, if the image portrayed is either negative or inaccurate. Ellen Dorsch of Creative Women, Grand Isle, VT, quoted one customer whose own customers perceived Fair Trade merchandise as cheap trinkets.

“The next step for the image of fair trade has to be a whole spectrum of products — inexpensive items, mid-range and well-designed expensive products,” says Dorsch. “Fair trade should have nothing to do with price point. It should have to do with respect for the individual and the environment.”

“Everything within the Fair Trade world is changing,” notes Kimberley Person, owner of Gecko Traders in Arlington, VA. Her company wholesales bags made of recycled materials by a cooperative of female polio victims. “There's much greater awareness of why [we should] buy Fair Trade. Everyone is more aware of the impact of their consumer dollars on the world. That's why you're seeing a greater combination of fair trade and eco,” adds Person.

Says Nancy Dunitz of Dunitz & Co., Hollywood, CA: “When I first started my business in 1990, nobody cared about how [her company's beaded jewelry] was made or where it came from, so I kind of tried to escape it — get away from 'ethnic.' But in the last few years there's much more interest.”

There are a number of organizations that certify Fair Trade goods around the world. Within the gift industry, the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) and the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT) have worked to assure that vendors are dealing fairly with their producers.

But certifying organizations can do more than verify that manufacturers uphold the principles of Fair Trade. They also provide a brand consumers can trust without having to research each purchase. Vendors we spoke to said that many customers find them through organizations such as the Fair Trade Federation; and some will only buy from certified vendors.

Marc Dreyfors, of sustainable accessories vendor Forests of the World, Durham, NC, says his membership in the Federation offers “camaraderie, shared marketing costs and leverage,” when bargaining with trade show management. Dreyfors also notes that the Federation, as a brand, “has value in the marketplace.”

Nonetheless, many vendors of Fair Trade product have not joined a formal organization. Reasons vary, but several mentioned that the process of getting certified is cumbersome. “We're applying to the Fair Trade Federation, but it's a really long application and we haven't had time to get it done yet,” explains Jonathan Marcoschamer, co-founder of Ecoist, in Miami.

However, because Ecoist (which makes accessories out of recycled materials) is working with the Coca-Cola Company, it has been audited by Intertech to ensure it offers fair wages and healthy working conditions, and does not use child labor.

Haba Na Haba (which means “little by little” in Swahili) is another company that is looking to join a Fair Trade organization. Owner and founder Beth Peterson explains that her company works to get women off the street in Tanzania by offering marketing, distribution and quality control services to manufacturers if they'll train these women, pay them fair wages and not exploit children. (The company also gives 10 percent of its profits to an AIDS orphanage.)

Peterson plans to join the local chapter of the Chicago Fair Trade organization. “It's one of those things on the list,” she says. But she hasn't had time yet, since Haba Na Haba is a side project to the marketing company that is her primary livelihood. Peterson is also a member of a Wisconsin nonprofit organization to benefit Tanzania. “They have a coffee project,” she notes, “But getting the [Fair Trade] sticker added too much to the cost of the coffee, so they ended up not doing it.”

In addition to procedural frustrations, some vendors object to the Fair Trade organizations' methods. Says Dunitz, “I choose not to join, even though I've been solicited to, because they say in their bylaws that they can audit my books, and I don't think that that's right.”

Still, to a certain type of consumer, membership is a definite selling point. “I have people come in because we are part of the Fair Trade Federation. It does give you exposure,” says Dorsch, who joined about six months to a year ago.

But it wasn't only new business that drove Dorsch to sign up. “It's important for us to work together to change the public's perception of Fair Trade,” she says. Because it isn't just inconvenience that holds vendors back. Some wholesalers “don't want the stereotype of Fair Trade to be what people think of first,” adds Dorsch.

For every certified Fair Trade company we found, there were two or three that pursue the principles informally, often through working relationships with a small number of artisans. While these arrangements are not checked by an independent organization — and are therefore subject to differences of opinion about what constitutes fair wages and working conditions — they are viable for a large number of small vendors. They also help create critical mass of vendors asking about the conditions the product is made in, something often obscured by layers of resellers between manufacturing hands and retail shelves.

Even Aid to Artisans, a member of the IFAT international fair trade organization, sometimes finds certification more a hindrance than a help. “Our mandate is to work with small artisan groups that aren't necessarily connected to a certified Fair Trade collective,” says Alden Smith, manager of wholesale operations for Aid to Artisans. “We get a grasp of the economic conditions in the country and what [the artisans] need to be paid, not just to be alive, but to have more opportunity for their children.

“If we have a buyer like Serve or Ten Thousand Villages, which is particularly concerned with certification, we'll bring the artisans we're working with into a cooperative that is certified. But there are 400,000 artisans in Haiti, for example, and the number of certified artisans is very small — maybe 3,000.”

It isn't just the big Fair Trade buyers that ask about certification. “The issue comes up over and over again with buyers,” Smith adds. “Ten years ago, it was a California phenomenon. Now it's all over the country, and rightly so.”

“Sustainability” aims to slow, prevent and, if possible, reverse the depletion of raw materials. This recently coined buzzword reflects an increased emphasis on renewable resources that goes beyond using post-consumer recycled materials to using new materials that can be quickly regrown. Resources such as bamboo and corn are more sustainable than fossil fuels, old growth forest and other materials that are slow, hard or impossible to replace. A company could pay fair wages without concern for ecological impact, or take care of the environment without caring for human resources. Combining the two is the goal of today's Fair Trade.

Marc Dreyfors' company, Forests of the World, actually evolved in the opposite direction from most Fair Trade vendors. “We came to [Fair Trade] backwards, through interest in preserving biodiversity and sustainable resources,” he says. In Dreyfor's view, Fair Trade is one component in creating an economic system that is sustainable, because it reinvests for the future.

Says Marcoschamer, “We're building sustainable employment opportunities: people are building skills, and eventually can move up the economic ladder. Sustainability goes hand-in-hand with fair trade. It's about fulfilling the needs for product and services in a sustainable way generation after generation.”

Marcoshamer explains that fair production policies and the use of renewable materials are fundamentally connected. And he believes that the current focus on eco-friendly products and lifestyles will lead, in the near future, to a greater awareness of sustainability and the principles of the Fair Trade movement. “Many people don't realize that they may buy a bag made from hemp, but if it's made by a 12-year-old in Indonesia it's not really eco-friendly. We try to be sustainable in everything we do, from our materials to our production methods to our office supplies,” Macroshamer adds.

Now more than ever, buyers insist on this double duty. Alden Smith says Aid to Artisans' customers — both retailers and importers — bring up questions of environmental impact as well as fair wages and working conditions. “We can't show a piece of wood or a dyed product nowadays without somebody questioning the provenance of the wood or the toxicity of the dyes,” says Smith. “We've just entered a new period where we're reexamining the work we do in terms of its environmental impact.”

Sounds Fair enough.