Embracing Fair Trade

Most small businesses don’t have global supply chains, but they do consume products, and they are under pressures to compete effectively. As they grow up, some of them continue to grow with that same fire and competitiveness, forgetting that social responsibility is still important, and can exist alongside profits.

I saw the video above at TED, and it was amazing to me. There are human rights abuses all over the world, and it’s nothing new to many of us. Large companies have used sweatshops for years. What is amazing, is that President Clinton convened a summit with many large multi-national corporations when he was in office. They managed to get many companies to agree to write a code of conduct into their contracts with suppliers.

This results in many of these suppliers actually being able to enforce better human rights issues in the workplace than the local governments can. Private enterprise helps to enforce global rights; that's amazing to me. You can check on companies at Fairlabor.org.

I think this is something you should consider when you purchase products, and run your business. Embrace some social responsibility alongside your profit motive.