5 Ways You Can Help Support Fair Trade Products

At The Body Shop, Community Trade is a value that has propelled us for over 20 years. As one of the first cosmetic companies to specialize in this kind of trade, we are still proud to remain unrivaled in our industry. The fair price we pay for our supplies helps communities invest in their futures as well as cover labor and production costs. We are dedicated to helping our customers get involved with Community Trade and fair trade, so we’d like to share with you a few ways you can do your part to support communities in need.

• Buy Fair Trade Coffee – Mmmmm coffee. There’s nothing better than a fresh cup of coffee in the morning to get you going and warm you up from the inside. But if you buy fair trade coffee, you’ll feel warm inside also because you know you are helping support communities that benefit from your purchase. Additionally, these are often organic blends, which make for some great tasting cups-o’-joe.  For more on where you can buy fair trade coffee, check out this article on BrandChannel.com: Coffee Brands – Wake Up and Smell the Morality

• Host or Attend Fair Trade Parties – Everyone likes parties, right? So why not have a party with a cause instead of a theme? (Well, you can still have a theme, but just make sure people know what the cause is, too.) By engaging members of your local community, you can help raise awareness about fair trade products and Community Trade in general. Maybe you can have a makeup sharing party with your gal pals or a tasting event with the neighbors. For more ideas on what you can do, check out TransFairUSA.org

• Wear Fair – Not just beauty and food products are fair trade products. There are plenty of other wearable products that come from free trade sources. If jewelry is your thing, check out the colorful beads over at BeadForLife.com. FairIndigo has earth-friendly and fair trade clothes for men and women. Also, Mercado Global has jewelry, clothes and other items all from fair trade sources.

• Give – While fair trade practices help communities earn the pay and resources they deserve, efforts can always use more funding to get the word out and supply workers with extra benefits. You can do your part by donating time or money to help raise awareness for fair trade and Community Trade practices. The Fair Trade Resource Network helps to raise consciousness about fair trade practices, and you can help by donating. If shelling out dollars isn’t your thing, then use some of your spare time to let your friends and family know how to look for fair trade and Community Trade products.

• Blog – I know we aren’t the only ones blogging out there, so if you have a blog (or read one), you can also help by writing your thoughts and sparking online conversations about fair trade. For a few good examples of what individuals are doing, check out these posts on Everyday Just Living, and on Triple Pundit

Fair trade and Community Trade are important to not only communities, but to the environment and the global market. We hope you’ll be able to use one or more of these 5 tips to help understand and create awareness for fair trade and Community Trade in your daily life.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 9:42 am and is filed under Corporate Ethics, The Body Shop Values & Campaigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.