Keren Long

First week of Fairtrade Fortnight is about to end. Let’s have a look of what has happened so far.

Last Monday and today the sustainability team was at the DMU Campus Centre with a stall raising awareness about Fairtrade, whose meaning is straightforward: it is about fair trading. By choosing Fairtrade branded products at supermarket, bars, shops you are making possible for the producers, that are mainly small company in developing countries, to have fair price, fair terms of trade, decent working conditions and local sustainability. The best known products are, of course, chocolate and coffee, but there are a lot more, for example sugar, teas, fruit, biscuits, wine, beer, honey, jam, nuts, rice, beauty products, cotton clothes, jewellery made by Fairtrade gold and so on.

You might be surprised at how Fairtrade stuff there is in the UK and all over the World. Indeed, at our stall this morning there was the possibility to enter a draw competition and win a lovely box of Fairtrade chocolates by answer to two simple questions. One of them was: “How many different Fairtrade branded product are there in the UK?” and the possible answers were: a) 40, b) 400, c) 4500+. What do you choose?! Well, surprisingly the correct answer is more than 4500! Did you get it right?! The other question was about how long DMU has been a Fairtrade University and the answer is five years. The good news is that most of the people who entered the quiz, made the right guess for both questions. In fact, De Montfort University is committed to be a Fairtrade University since long time and Leicester as well was one of the first places which was registered as a Fairtrade City in 2002. All year round, both at DMU and around the city centre, you could easily find and buy Fairtrade products.

As part of the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight, the sustainability team have organised a lunch talk with Keren Long on Wednesday 4^th March at at 1pm in Hugh Aston, room 2.06. Keren used to work at George, Asda, as a Director of Brand Development exploring the challanges of ethical fashion supply chains. Keren currently works for a new start-up company in America, Piece and Co, which is committed to sustainable approaches to employment that will lift women out of povertyKeren currently works for a new start-up company in America, Piece and Co, which is committed to sustainable approaches to employment that will lift women out of poverty. Keren currently works for a new start-up company in America, Piece and Co, which is committed to sustainable approaches to employment that will lift women out of poverty.

Also, tomorrow, Saturday 28th you can go to the pop-up shop in St. Martin Square, Leicester City Centre, between 11am to 3pm to learn more about Fairtrade.