Businesses Around the World that Appear to Fit the Equality in Dignity Ideal
Global Links (local products sold globally)
Local Links (local products sold locally)
This is a list of outlets for socially and environmentally responsible Fair Trade products.
Whoever knows about more outlets, is warmly invited to let us know!
For gateways to more information please see, for example:
• Gateway to Sources of Global Information
• One World
• Earth Report
Global
Global
• Clean Clothes Campaign
The CCC is an international campaign, focused on improving working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries, and empower the workers in it. There is a Clean Clothes Campaign in 11 European countries. These are Austria, Belgium (North and South), France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Established Clean Clothes Campaigns are autonomous coalitions with NGOs (consumer, research, women's, fair trade and youth organisations, solidarity groups, churches, etc) and trade unions as members in European countries, each with a secretariat, and each sending a representative to the European Coordination Meeting. Countries (2008): Austria, Belgium - Flemish-speaking Belgium, Belgium - French and German-speaking Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.• Lush
In May of 1995, Lush’s fresh products were officially launched, but the company’s history stretches back far beyond that time. The present creative team has been working together for over twenty years... developing cosmetic products with natural ingredients.
Kenya
• Ecosandals
Ecosandals is a non-profit importer and reseller of sandals produced by Akala Designs Limited, a cooperative business based in Nairobi, Kenya. This astonishing international e-business, based in one of Nairobi’s most destitute neighborhoods, currently employs nearly 30 Kenyans in the designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling of really great sandals made with recycled tire treads.• The Leakey Collection
Based in central Kenya, East Africa, The Leakey Collection founders Philip and Katy Leakey, combine their talents in interior design and the arts with their love of nature to develop stunning handcrafted products for an international market. Using natural elements such as fallen wood, grass and ceramic, these renowned designers create unique products while protecting the environment and providing economic opportunity to the local communities.
Switzerland
• Rosenhof, Kuriositätenmarkt im Niederdorf, jeden Donnerstag und Samstag, Marktchefin Susanna Haltmeier, pro Laufmeter 21 SF, susannahaltmeier @ yahoo.com. Einer der Stände, zum Beispiel: Tibet Point GmbH, Karma Choekyi, choekyi @ swissonline.ch.
• Haus der Ideen, Max Ditting & Tucano.
Thailand
• Dignity Returns
"...in this place, there is no boss banging over or taking advantage of us. There is no threat and insult. Most importantly, here is our own factory..."
The Solidarity Factory Cooperative was created by former Bed and Bath factory workers. This followed a three-month struggle by workers for payment of money owed to them, following its unexpected closure in October 2002.
Germany
U.S.A.
• Matt Stinchcomb is Vice President of Values and Impact at Etsy, a marketplace where people around the world connect to buy and sell unique goods. The Company's mission, inspired by the work of E. F. Schumacher, is to re-imagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world. Matt has worked at Etsy since its earliest days with a focus on giving people the means and desire to minimize harm and maximize benefit for people and the planet. He firmly believes that business can be a powerful and positive force for personal, ecological, and cultural transformation.
• EDImports, New York.
• Chokey Livingston, Enchanted Peacock, Fine gold jewelry & handicrafts from Bhutan at Rubin Museum, New York, NY, chokeylivingston @ yahoo.com.
• Yasmine Rana, Kathmandu, Nepal, at Rubin Museum, New York, NY, yasmine @ mail.com.np.
• Zuzka Fashion Line, Zuzka is a Prague born designer, in the third generation, traveling the world, among others to Kashmir.
Local
Australia
• The Tribal Gallery was born with the ambition of bringing Australian Indigenous Artwork to the public and supporting and creating opportunities for the indigenous People and their Culture.
Belgia
• Theo Eyeware, Antwerp. "The quality and design, both of the products and the website, express, at least to me, not only the particular creativity of Flanders, it goes further. I, as somebody who is interested in extraordinary creativity, feel repulsed, when I am treated like a fool who needs to be manipulated into buying an object. Like, when I read "three reasons to buy this," I feel that my humanity is being humiliated, because I am treated as a mere target for business. All this is avoided, I feel, at the Theo Eyeware website." (Evelin Lindner, 4th April 2008)
Bhutan
• RENEW is the first organization of its kind in the Kingdom of Bhutan, dedicated to the relief and empowerment of disadvantaged women and adolescent girls.
RENEW stands for ‘Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women’. The organization was conceptualized in 2000 by Her Majesty Queen Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck, the Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and formally established in 2004. RENEW was founded in response to the needs of disadvantaged women Her Majesty encountered on her extensive travels in Bhutan.
Egypt
• Sekem
The SEKEM initiative was founded to realise the vision of sustainable human development. SEKEM aims to contribute to the comprehensive development of the individual, society and environment. A holistic concept encompassing integrated economic, social and cultural development forms the key SEKEM vision.
Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish founded SEKEM 1977 in Egypt and he received the RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD also known as the “ALTERNATIVE NOBEL PRIZE” for “establishing a business model for the 21st century in which commercial success is integrated with and promotes the social and cultural development of society through economics of love.”
Please see here Konstanze Abouleish, the manager of Conytex, where she produces clothes. These pictures were taken on Thursday, 18th January 2007.
Please click on the pictures to see them larger.
Germany
• Thüringer Porzellanstrasse: Wagner & Apel Porzellan
The family business „Wagner & Apel“ is now being run in the 4th and 5th generation by the descendants of the company’s co-founder Bernhard Wagner. It is with great dedication, patience and craftsmanship that they manufacture true-to-life animal and bird sculptures, lovely child figures, decorative Christmas items and gifts, modern vessels – just beautiful porcelain items both of traditional shapes and current designs.
Please click on the pictures to see more photos.
Or, see more pictures from Thurinia here.
Mexico
• The Mexico Solidarity Network
In the context of growing globalization, international grassroots alliances are critical in the struggle for democracy, sovereignty, and economic and political justice. The Mexico Solidarity Network is committed to developing these grassroots alliances on both sides of the US-Mexico border, and organizing to promote dialogue and collective action for social change.
Norway
Rwanda
• Artpoint Rwanda, Abraham Konga, Tel. +250 (0)785501626, artpointrwanda (at) gmail.com
Switzerland
• Flybaboo is a Swiss Geneva based airline company. "The quality and design of the website, express, at least to me, and to a certain extent, the particular innovativeness that I find in segments of Swiss society. I appreciate that, when I look at the website, I feel treated like a fellow human being, and not as a mere carrier of a portemonnaie, targeted with some slick "professional" business strategies." (Evelin Lindner, 4th April 2008)
• Schweizer Heimatwerk, The House of Craft, in Zurich, Basle, and Geneva
Zurich: Uraniastrasse 1, Tel. +41 44 222 19 55, Bahnhofstrasse 2, Tel. +41 44 221 08 37, Airport Zurich, Airside Center and Dock E.
Basle: +41 61 261 9178
Geneva: + 41 22 788 33 00.
U.K.
Innocent Drinks
BBC World Hardtalk with Richard Reed, Monday 1st January 2007, www.bbcworld.com/: "They've been called quirky and "annoyingly perky" - but London-based drinks company Innocent are laughing all the way to the bank. They have won customers over with their claims of running an environmentally-friendly business. After eight years the company - started by three college friends - is doubling its profits every year. Richard Reed is one of the founders of Innocent. Jenny Scott asks can his company continue to grow and maintain its green credentials?" (BBC Hardtalk, Monday 1st January 2007, www.bbcworld.com/).
Reed says in this interview that everybody knows all marketing tricks, and the best way forward, today, is not to use any, but to be authentic. In the case of Innocent Drinks, he explains, their mission is as simple as providing healthy fruit drinks instead of sugary flavored water.
U.S.A.
KC Signatures
We read on the website: "When Nina Chopra started the company in 2005, she had a vision she thought would make a difference in the retail world. Her intention was to mimic the melting pot principle of America in the jewelry industry. As such, our merchandise has its origins in many diverse nations such as Korea, China, India, Australia, El Salvador, and Nigeria. Honing the skillset and tradition of each distinct location, our comprehensive design and development team could produce a product that is both appealing and significantly distinct from the existing marketplace. Instead of simply re-locating the distinct styles, we took it a step further by creating a fusion of these unique collection in order to create an appealing product that had the right balance of both tradition and fashion."Southwest Airlines and David Edwards, Inc.
Don Klein explained (30/12/2006):
"Southwest Airlines has love as a major value, which it uses in its internal employee dealings, its work with customers, and in its dealings with suppliers. The organization that has profit as its bottom line and love as its top line is David Edwards, Inc., a remarkably successful office furniture manufacturer in Baltimore whose President Dr. Edward Pitts, a friend and former doctoral student, who earned his Ph.D. at The Union Institute and University. A major point for us, I think, is that there is ample evidence that a loving emphasis on human dignity and avoidance of humiliation in work settings is a major contributor to profitability. The remarkable thing to note is that somehow this relationship is not at all obvious to entrepreneurs who seek to be successful in their business activities. Love, Don"• PeaceKeeper
Jody Weiss has built a company, PeaceKeeper, that produces a line of cosmetic products for which all profits, after taxes, are used to support women's health advocacy.
2003 – present, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies