What’s Green About Global Goods Partners?

Go Green: Go Global

• Environmental standards must be met for a product to be considered Fair Trade. As a member of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF), GGP adheres to Fair Trade standards for all products
• GGP’s partner community organizations across Africa, Asia, and the Americas work to achieve economic sustainability and human rights for marginalized communities while sustaining the environment on which they depend for their livelihood
• Children and youth in the US learn to practice environmental stewardship through lessons on responsible consumption through GGP’s Global Classroom Program
• Access to the US market for community organizations creates sustainable alternatives to exploitative and environmentally destructive means of production and enables our partners to create economically sustainable development programs that promote public health, education, and sustainable resource use
• Made-by-hand production processes mean products have a low carbon footprint
• GGP provides product development training and support with an emphasis on sourcing sustainable and local raw materials; using recycled materials where possible; and producing products in an environmentally conscious manner. Many of the products available through GGP are made from easily renewable plant matter, use vegetable rather than chemical dyes, or are made from recycled materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Where this is not yet the case, GGP is working with its partners to improve processes

Collecting trash from the streets of Cambodia pays off for children and families— Products made by Friends-International (FI) in Cambodia are hand crafted from local, recyclable materials. FI favors production processes that minimize their environmental footprint, including the use of found and recycled materials (newspapers, comics, magazines, packaging, rice bags, tin, and sarong fabric), making each product unique while keeping garbage off the streets and out of overflowing landfills. The bags available for purchases from the GGP website are made from colorful newspaper comics collected from the French embassy in Cambodia and recycled sarongs.

Alternative trade for Burmese refugees advances environmental justice and women’s rights— In Burma, the long-standing conflict and massive human rights abuses are often linked to natural resource exploitation. The construction of large-scale damns; the pipelines of the oil and gas sector; the logging industry; and the mining of gold, gemstones, and copper have led not only to widespread environmental destruction, but also massive human rights abuses including forced labor, land confiscation, and the denial of the right to water and a healthy environment. By purchasing Fair Trade products made by refugee women from Kachin Women’s Association, Karen Women’s Organization, and Lau Women’s Organization along the Thailand-Burma border, you are supporting an alternative to industry that is destroying lives and ecosystems. The change purse featured here is made from recycled traditional Lau clothing.

Indigenous artisans and activists preserve Amazon Rainforest—Inhabiting nearly 400,000 square kilometers of Amazonian rainforest, the 900,000 indigenous people that inhabit the Loreto region remain poor and isolated, relying on the health and stability of the eco-system to ensure that the resources they depend on for survival (rice, cassava, wood, fruit trees, and rubber) are available long into the future. Nonprofit organization, Minga Peru, trains women to create jewelry and accessories from renewable, local resources. Beaded bracelets are made from plants and seeds that have fallen naturally to the rainforest’s floor and discarded coconut shells—an abundantly available renewable resource. Embroidered textiles are made with thread spun from fibers of the palm-like chambira plant and dyed with tree bark and other natural materials. This project counters deforestation by providing income to women that relies on the health of local ecosystems and by generating revenue for Minga’s other training programs in human rights and environmental stewardship.

Grass in African mountains sustains life— For centuries, the rural people of Swaziland have harvested tough lutindzi grass, which grows in rocky outcrops high in the country’s ancient granite mountains, to make rope and other practical items. Adding some contemporary elements to this age-old tradition, the craftswomen of Gone Rural, a social enterprise in Swaziland, have revived the Swazi crafts industry while utilizing a resource that is otherwise useless (even to grazing cattle). Women collect the grass after heavy rains, carefully leaving the roots in the soil to ensure its regrowth the following year. They use a specially designed fuel-efficient wood-burning tank boiler for the dyeing process to reduce the use of wood by more than 150 percent from the traditional method.

Tree sap provides an eco-friendly alternative to toxic lacquer— In the rural farming village of Etikoppaka in Southern India, artisans are reviving the age old lacquer tradition. But rather than the toxic lacquer we are accustomed to in the west, Etikoppaka artisans derive the dye they use from a variety of local trees and plants which they powder, boil into a thick lather, cool and mix with a lacquer derived from tree sap. The colored natural lacquer is then stretched, cooled, cut, and applied to products made from local ankudu wood, such as the bangles available from GGP. The entire process is plant-based: even the finishing is done by rubbing the surface with a mogali leaf to add gloss.