Member Article

Giving ethical trading a Fair go

With Business Link

This weekend saw the international celebration of World Fair Trade Day (12th May), involving over 300 members of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) across 70 countries worldwide. Socially responsible policies can really benefit your business, as well as the environment and wider community, by helping to build sales, attract investment, maintain staff loyalty and enhance trust in your business.

So with Fair Trade in the spotlight, now is a good time to look at how far your business goes towards promoting and implementing socially responsible activities particularly – if you trade overseas - in terms of ethical trading. This means looking beyond economic objectives to consider the wider implications of your business decisions. A Guide to Ethical Trading on the Business Link North East website will help you identify areas in which your business can improve its social responsibility. These might include your business’ impact on the market, your workforce, the environment and human rights, which take into account your own business relationships and those of your suppliers.

Implementing small, simple and manageable changes can go a long way towards becoming socially responsible and towards reaping the benefits for your business. Looking at the environmental impact of your business, both here and abroad, could be one of the first steps to take. You might want to consider possible changes to your design processes as well as your business’ energy consumption levels and recycling policies. As well as examining your own business and employees, it is also good practice to consider the welfare of employees further back in the supply chain, particularly in relation to your overseas suppliers’ labour practices.

Questions you might want to ask your overseas suppliers are:

• Is employment freely chosen?
• Is child labour used?
• Are working conditions safe and working hours reasonable?
• Are fair wages paid?
• Is discrimination practiced?

Although there are few legal requirements for you to take responsibility for the behaviour of your suppliers, being aware of such issues can reflect well on your business. One way you can be certain that producers’ basic rights are being respected is by dealing in Fairtrade products if they are relevant to your business. Products which carry the Fairtrade mark conform to standards which improve the development of disadvantaged producers in developing countries which cover a range of basic rights and environmental standards, details of which are featured under the Dealing in fair trade section of the Business Link website.

Finally, supporting the communities where your goods and services are produced or where you operate could be a good PR tool, promoting your corporate social-responsibility credentials and attracting ethically motivated customers and investors and loyal employees.

For Business Link services in your local area, call 0845 600 9006 or visit the website www.businesslinknortheast.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .