Fair trade is based on the concept that “everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity”.
Organization into cooperatives, constructing partnership and the prospect of long-term contracts are also characteristics of fair trade. This type of economic relationship implies a price, which, in addition to production costs, also covers the cost of a decent standard of living for workers, and provides a profit for investments in collective goods and for personal savings. In addition, the management of work in cooperatives must be democratic. The fundamental agreements of the International Labor Organization) must be applied at every step of the production chain of fair trade products.
Fair trade is much more than simple material exchange. Its reason for being goes beyond the desire for enrichment. It strives to create conditions for the well-being of the poorest workers on the planet through solidarity, which is more often than not intercontinental.
4.3.2 Environment
Given the extensive exploitation of mining and forest resources, the increase in the standard of living and the access to more and more consumption goods and services by portion of mankind, the pressure exerted by the human race on the environment has become unsustainable. The industrial era has led to a historically unprecedented level of destruction. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the situation is catastrophic. It directly affects the basic principles of fair trade.
Fair trade and environmental protection share one concern: To improve or preserve the living conditions of the stakeholders of a business. But it is the business that is causing harm to the environment and it is its duty to look after it and try to bring positive change in the society being harmed by its activities.
Taking the environment into account will transform fair trade. The situation is sufficiently urgent to demand that everyone re-evaluate their commitments. Some products may no longer have a place after re-evaluation. Neither may some practices. It doesn’t matter. The environment does not threaten fair trade. It reinvents it.