Learning from the Fairtrade Towns movement

Fairtrade is a familiar concept, most people recognise the green and blue logo on tea and coffee and other products in our supermarkets and on campus.  After all, the University has been a proud supporter of Fair Trade for twenty years. Through the work of the Sustainability Service and the Sustainable Curriculum programme, we’ve been highlighting the links between Fair Trade and the Sustainable Development Goals. But what do people know of the movement and the part that we can play beyond promoting the Fairtrade label?  

The International Fair Trade Towns network is a key part of the social movement that is the lifeblood of Fair Trade. This year’s event was focussed on engaging young people in fair trade, something that we had workshops on at the International Fair Trade Symposium held here at Leeds in 2023, see here for journal article co-produced by staff and students and which has been further developed into a book chapter that will be out early next year. 

So taking advantage of the conference being in the UK this year (last year it was in South Africa…), I was keen to see what the University of Leeds as a Fairtrade university could learn from this network. 

The International Fair Trade Towns association meets annually in a different town to share lessons about campaigning, to be inspired by social entrepreneurs, activist, policy innovators about a range of sustainability issues. It brings together the campaigners from towns with representatives of Fair Trade producers and enterprises, Fair Trade suppliers and wholesalers, and labelling and trade justice advocacy organisations.  

The idea of recognising a Fair Trade Town originated in Garstang in Lancashire 25 years ago and now there are Fair Trade towns all over the world including in Korea, Ghana, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland recently renewed its status as a Fair Trade Nation. The idea is simple – to build on the campaigning, consuming and political power of people in a particular locality to support Fair Trade by bringing together schools, elected representatives together for a common purpose. Whilst Fair Trade Towns are of course about Fair Trade, they are connected to other sustainability and social justice concerns, including climate change, waste reduction, human rights, living wages. It’s not just about collaborating for Fair Trade, but using the Fair Trade town as a vehicle for all sorts of social change, embedded into the concerns of a community. 

First, with the event being in Edinburgh, hosted by Scottish Fair Trade, I discovered that there is an official Fair Trade tartan, as worn by the bagpipe player who opened the proceedings, and I tasted my first vegan haggis sausage roll (watch out Greggs!).   

Campaign inspiration highlights included Glasgow student, Laura Young’s successful campaign to ban single-use disposable vapes in the UK, tapping into Instagram trends to inspire new products and campaign ideas (meet Hodge Southwark cathedral’s adopted cat with his own Instagram and merch produced by a social enterprise in Peru) and the Fairtrade Germany’s KickT series of youth workshops during the 2024 Men’s European Football championships. We were also inspired by the stories of young people from rural areas of Africa who have benefited from being part of Fair Trade co-ops and are now social entrepreneurs and campaigners leading fair trade groups in new directions linked to scholarships for girls, employment creation and linking IT to farming. 

A representative from the YMCA spoke about the value of co-design approaches for inspiring action by and learning from young people: the need to provide a scaffold and resources, but then handing over the power. We also learned about tapping into Instagram and TikTok algorithms and using social media to excite and give hope, rather than overloading with depressing information – we already know the problems, let’s think of solutions! 

I was excited to learn how universities are a part of many Fair Trade Town networks, and I connected with others from universities to discuss how we might better make the many connections between Fair Trade and sustainability more obvious to our students.  After all we have been a Fairtrade University since 2005 and were reaccredited in 2024 to a new set of criteria. 

At the conference we explored how to engage students and young people by starting with their environmental concerns through repair cafes, tackle fast fashion through clothes swaps.  And then how we could use events and activities to make links for example between climate activism and Fair Trade’s support to farmers in tackling climate impacts on production, homes and livelihoods or between their efforts to repair faulty products with the circular economy ideas embedded in social enterprises.  

We also started discussion about how we can better link Fair Trade universities together to support collaboration in research and teaching. Our Student Sustainability Research Conference that brings together students from Yorkshire could be an inspiration for this. And we could learn from the network of Young Fair Trade Advocates who have been lobbying on trade justice issues across Europe. I’ll be following up with these ideas with the research and practitioner group Fair Trade International Symposium. 

The networking, enthusiasm and shared hope for a better world, now and into the future at the conference was a welcome reminder that Fair Trade is not just about products and labels, but about sustainability and a movement for change. And it’s a reminder to connect with the Fairtrade Leeds and Fairtrade Yorkshire, as well as our neighbouring universities. 

by Anne Tallontire 

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We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our work on Fairtrade is linked to the following SDGs: 

• Goal 4: Quality Education
• Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption
• Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.