Hello there Fans of Plans, our working well blog this fortnight is taking a look at Fairtrade Fortnight. Never heard of it? Well let me tell you a little more…

Fairtrade Fortnight this year takes place from 21 February to 6 March. It dedicates time to individuals, companies and groups to come together to share stories about people who provide us with everything from clothing to food to drinks who are often exploited. 

Fairtrade’s Fight for Living Incomes campaigns is campaigning for the right to a living income for farmers, both men and women. It covers price, premium, women’s empowerment and environment.

During the FairTrade Fortnight, let’s take an opportunity to hold a mirror up to our own businesses and see where our own supply chains come from. Do we ethically source within our supply chains, even when it comes to third party? We think we do, but how can we be sure? When it comes to certain products we can look out for recognisable logos, such as the Fairtrade logo. 

Ensuring and ethical supply chain:

• Trustworthy Suppliers – make sure your suppliers share the same ethical values as you. 
• Secure trading partner relationships – Build up relationships with your suppliers so that you know where they are sourcing their raw materials from. 
• Digitise your supply chain – this can help to prevent any falsifications that can come with manual documentation. 
• Keeping an eye on the provenance of your shipments – this links back to your relationship with your supplier and making sure they are not sourcing inferior or faulty products/raw materials. 
• Manage your supplier communities – ethical practices need to be continually monitored, especially if a supplier is changing leadership or is part of a merger or acquisition. These situations may need you to pay more attention to that supplier. 
• Keep up-to-date on ethical insights – keeping abreast of the latest development s in ethically sourced materials and services is everyone’s responsibility. Situations can change, whether that’s the economics of an entire country or an individual organisation. 

This might sound like a lot of work to keep working well is a healthy supply chain that provides ethical products to your organisation. But this is something we need to be doing to be trusted by our end users too. Organisations with strong ethical values are respected and are part of the solution to a fairer planet for all. 

You can find out more about how to get involved with Fairtrade Fortnight: https://schools.fairtrade.org.uk/take-action/fairtrade-fortnight-2022/