“I was shocked to find out how much information all the business leaders and politicians are missing.” – why Fair Trade, organic clothing is not only sexy but can also save lives.

Safia Minney, Founder & President, People Tree, and Founder Global Village, Tokyo, Japan

Let us first quote Mr. Ghaysuddin, one of People Tree’s Bangladeshi producers: “People Tree is our biggest cus-tomer. Thanks to regular design support, product ideas and continuous marketing and technical support from People Tree, producers have been able to educate their children and some have even purchased land or built hou-ses. Without regular design input, good feedback and help with finance, none of this is possible.” Another producer from Kenya says: “Our artisans have been able to meet their basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, education, health services etc. Right now 50% of Kenyans face star-vation due to serious drought. People Tree orders are very much valued.”
These are just two examples that show Safia Minney, the founder of People Tree, that her hard work to create a Fair Trade company is worth all the efforts. Together with her passionate team of around 50 highly qualified pro-fessionals from the fa-shion and related indus-tries, Safia created a company that is a win-win situation for every-body. Customers can wear healthy, fair traded and very well designed clothes, producers can earn their livelihood - while producing in a way that is not destroying the envi-ronment, and employees get satisfaction contributing to a positive development while growing in their profession.

Enjoy reading about Safia’s life full of passion and energy and her thoughts in the selected quotations below. You may be able to read more in our book “MyImpact”.

Safia Minney’s selected quotations:
“When I was 22 I took off with a backpack and traveled through Asia. In many places, like Bali or Myanmar, I encountered people with extraordinary skills, great handi-craft and entrepreneurial experience. I was sur-prised at the largely inaccu-rate picture that we have in the UK of people in developing countries being unskilled and just sitting around wai-ting for a hand-out and doing nothing to improve their lives! Quite the oppo-site is true! ”

“When we came to Japan I was appaulled at the waste and low level of environmental awareness. There was little possibility to purchase organic foods and environmentally-friendly products. I was used to doing that at home. If I had the chance to shop, I wanted to support social and organic enterprises. It's better for you in the short term and long term too! I'm constantly learning new things and improving our fair trade business and it's im-pact too.”

“Non-organic cotton farming needs huge amounts of pes-ticides and each year more than 20.000 workers world-wide die due to being constantly exposed to these hazar-dous substances.”

“Today, we can make beautiful clothing that everybody would like to be seen in from organic cotton. There's no-thing ugly about Fair Trade fashion these days.”

“The so-called 'free-market' economic system is not really a free market. As far as I recall one of the conditions for a free market is perfect information about the impact and trading – only with this can consumers make informed choices. Today the informa-tion we get is mostly mani-pulated by clever and expensive ad-vertising and imagery – people are being duped. With real in-formation, consu-mers as well as producers can be empowered through Fair Tarde – as they know the impact of their spending.”

“As a Schwab Fellow I was invited to join the WEF in Da-vos. I was shocked to find out how much information all the business leaders and politicians are missing. They really seem to have little access to information.”

“Our main business is to sell our products. However, we spend a lot of time campaigning for Fair Trade and natural materials, like for example organic cotton.”

“I feel that what we are doing at People Tree/ Fair Trade Company is absolutely right. And the longer I do it, and the deeper I work with partner projects and see the im-pact Fair Trade has, the more convinced I become.”

“I am a successful business woman. However, doing business just for money would be really boring and feel empty.”

I would not be happier if I were richer. It has always been about principals and values for me and how trade can be a powerful tool for social and political empowerment and development.”

“My next goal is to help producers to increase their orga-nizational capacity, set up a Fair Trade design centre in London and develop the Fair Trade fashion concept store we just started in fashionable Harajuku, Tokyo as a franchise model.”

Some background on Safia Minney:
Safia Minney, a British citizen of Indian-Mauritian and Swiss origin, moved to Japan at the age of 25 with her husband James, a banker. Safia found Tokyo to be a high-tech city with low environmental awareness and no opportunity to buy organic products, as she was used from the UK. She de-cided that her first task would be to compile a directory of or-ganic and vegetarian food shops and recycling facilities. This “task” spawned Global Village, an NGO Safia founded in Japan in 1989. In 1995 she incorpo-rated The Fair Trade Company (FTCo) as a for-profit organization in Japan to take over the trading activities of Global Village.
Having left school at the age of 17, Safia gathered significant experience in the publishing and advertising industry in the UK, before dedicating her career to Fair Trade. During this time, she turned around a loss making magazine and later advised NGOs and publishers of trade and general interest maga-zines with her first own company that she started at 22.
She was frustrated to see so much creative talent in ad-vertising wasted on “promoting rubbish” and committed to using her skills to promote environmental, social justice, and Fair Trade.

Some background on People Tree & Global Village:
Founded in 1995 People Tree is a pioneering, Fair Trade, ecology fashion, and handicrafts company with operations in Japan and Britain. Its combined sales of over US$ 8 mil-lion grow by some 10% annually. People Tree is affiliated with the Japan-based NGO called Global Village that campaigns on environmental and social justice issues.
People Tree works with 70 Fair Trade producer partners in 20 developing countries giving design and technical assis-tance to help marginalized producers overcome the barriers of selling their products and earn a livelihood and develop their communities. People Tree pays its producers a fair price, gives 50% advance payment, provides technical assistance with product design and quality control and commits to ordering regularly. People Tree also funds social welfare and environmental projects around the world.
People Tree is an accredited member of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and undertakes regular Social Reviews to improve its operations to the benefit of all stakeholders.
People Tree sells its products via Mail Order Catalogue and through over 600 Fair Trade shops throughout Japan, Britain and Italy. People Tree has also a flagship store in Tokyo. The company employs 40 people in Tokyo and 8 in UK.

Some background on Fair Trade:
Fair Trade is an alternative approach to conventional international trade. It is a partnership between producers and traders, which aims at sustainable development for disadvantaged producers in developing countries. Fair Trade seeks to alleviate po-verty by changing the unfair structures of world trade to create livelihoods and a voice for the poor.
Fair Trade differs from Ethical Trade, which seeks to en-sure minimum labour standards for factory workers. Fair Trade goes beyond this as it seeks to create sustainable livelihoods in rural areas, prevent urban migration, using and promoting traditional skills and technologies to in-crease the value-added to each product and to produce them to high environmental standards. People Tree has pioneered many environmentally friendly production me-thods and the use of natural materials, as environmental sustainability drives People Tree’s product development program in the same way that Fair Trade does.

If you would like to engage with the work of Safia Minney or get to know more about People Tree please visit www.peopletree.co.uk,
or if you want to know more about Global Village please visit www.globalvillage.or.jp,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.