THE LIVING ROOMS

Eco Echo column January 2010

LET’S GET TOGETHER

Jill Roberson, partner in Norfolk’s largest ethical trader, The Living Rooms in Poringland, announces a new network for fair and ethical traders in Norfolk.

At the end of next month, the most important and effective campaign to encourage consumers to choose the ethical and fair trade option is with us once again - Fair Trade Fortnight.  It has grown into a highly visible national campaign, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Fairtrade Foundation.

It has also been taken up enthusiastically locally.  Many businesses in Norfolk - ourselves included - have worked individually to tie into the Fortnight, achieving valuable media coverage and running promotions for their customers.

However, there has never been that much local co-ordination of all those efforts to achieve what management-speak fans would call ‘synergy’ - where the sum is greater than the parts.  Unfortunately, even the one body that did exist to try to pull together a broad coalition of all those with an interest in fair trade - Fairtrade In Norfolk, or FIN - folded earlier in the year.

This is a shame.  To my mind, businesses which are trading in this way should work together to help create a culture amongst shoppers which would benefit us all, and more importantly, those producers in the developing world whose future lies in this way of doing business.

That is the reason why my New Year’s resolution for 2010 is to create a Fair Trade Network for Norfolk, made up of businesses and traders.  The aim is to create a PR campaign, backed up by a network of consumers reached via social media, which will really put fair and ethical trading at the forefront of the public’s mind - not just during campaigns like Fair Trade Fortnight, but throughout the year.

What I’m proposing is emphatically not a talking shop for those whose interest is in setting policy.  It is rather a more pragmatic network with a commercial emphasis (the clue is in the ‘Trade’ bit of Fair Trade!).

So in today’s Eco Echo, I am appealing for any business which is committed to ethical or fair trading to contact me and join the Norfolk Ethical network.  I propose that we aim to get together to agree a set of real objectives towards which we can work, so that we can launch the Network in time for Fair Trade Fortnight (22th February - 7th March).

Don’t hold back - e-mail me now at info@the-living-rooms.co.uk.

Article published in Eco Echo January 2010