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There is a growing awareness among citizens about our way of consuming, and how the choice of the products and services we consume and the places where we acquire them, have consequences on the environment, the climate and the living conditions of the people involved in the processes of cultivation, production, distribution and marketing.
For more than 60 years at an international level and since the mid-80s in Spain, the Fair Trade movement has meant the construction of an alternative and solidarity economy system through international development cooperation, which has dignified the lives of thousands of people in impoverished communities in the South, and at the same time, has favored options for us to consume everyday products that respect the values of decent work, equality between women and men, fair payment for products, the eradication of child labor and cultivation and production practices that respect the natural environment and the global environment1.
The Sustainable Development Goals have to help us create transformation processes on a global scale, but also from the concrete reality of our lives, our university and our cities, and the option for Fair Trade and Responsible Consumption is intertwined in a large part of the SDGs that make up the 2030 Agenda, to favor the much-needed transformation of our reality from local to global action.
Being able to opt for Fair Trade is increasingly easy in our environment. In recent years, the variety of products in food (coffee, sugar, cocoa, tea …) textile, decoration, handicrafts, gift items, etc … has increased and Fair Trade organizations have expanded their sales points , as well as online stores for internet sales, making it easy for anyone or entity to access these quality solidarity products.
This guide aims to compile reflections and proposals to facilitate the necessary transition towards a conscious and responsible consumption that is consistent with respect for human rights and the defense of the planet, both from a personal and a university community perspective.
This initiative, which emerged from the Sustainability Commission of the University of Valencia, and more specifically from the Working Group on Fair Trade and Proximity, represents a new institutional and collective impulse to bring us closer to Fair Trade and responsible consumption, adding efforts to those that have already been carried out in recent years and especially since the declaration of “University for Fair Trade” granted at the University of Valencia by IDEAS in February 2013.
Many thanks to all the people and entities that have collaborated in the elaboration of this guide, especially the UVSostenibilitat team, which has made possible with its involvement and disinterested collaboration, the development of the guide and that will continue to be involved in its updating in the digital version, with the new possibilities that are generated both in the University itself and in its environment. We also appreciate the support of the Chair of Cooperation and Sustainable Development of the University of Valencia to integrate this publication in the development of the actions that are part of the agreement with the Ministry of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality of the Valencian Government.
We have a lot to go forward and improve, it is possible that opting for fair trade and responsible consumption criteria involves some small effort that alters our daily shopping habits. It is not about complicating our lives unnecessarily, if we think about it well it makes us aware of our consumption criteria and above all being able to contribute to the fight against inequalities and the defense of the planet from our individual shopping basket, integrating ethical, social and environmental criteria in the contracting processes in public administrations that involve an Ethical and Sustainable Public Procurement
Consuming Fair Trade and opting for Responsible Consumption, both inside and outside the University, we can all make our solidarity commitment to building a more just, egalitarian and environmentally sustainable world come true, integrating ethical, social and environmental criteria into the procurement processes in public administrations that involve an Ethical and Sustainable Public Procurement
Elena Martínez García, Vicerectora d'Igualtat, Diversitat i Sostenibilitat
Pilar Rueda Segado, Delegada de la Rectora per a la Sostenibilitat
Carles Xavier López Benedí, Grup de Treball de Comerç Just i Proximitat de la Comissió de Sostenibilitat.
Universitat de València, febrer de 2022
