Placing fairness at the heart of climate ambitions
People and Planet must come first
With COP26 now underway in Glasgow, it is time to talk about “respect for the Environment” – one of the ten fair trade principles which JTS adheres to as a WFTO Guaranteed Member and one which has clearly increased in importance as the extent of the climate emergency has become ever clearer.
In September, the fair trade movement published a position paper calling on the international community to ensure that ambitious climate aims go hand in hand with trade justice goals.
The report stressed that there can be no climate justice without fair trade, highlighting that smallholder farmers and workers are part of the solution to the climate crisis. The paper calls for us to rebuild our economic system in a way which is socially-just and planet-friendly.
At JTS we have reviewed our Environmental Policy this year and the latest version is available to download below. This is not simply a paper policy – it is genuinely something that is driving actions and some examples of actions we have taken this year are given below:
- we have replaced the lighting in our warehouse with new energy efficient lighting
- we have significantly increased our organic range conscious of the benefits this brings to the planet
- we have taken an active part in Veganuary, highlighting the benefits of introducing plant-based meals to your diet and increasing the range of vegan friendly recipes on our website
- we have supported our parent charity, the Balmore Trust, as they have raised funds for the Briquette Project – led by women farmers in Malawi this is seeking to reduce deforestation and waste by creating fuel briquettes from rice husks
- we have launched new resources within our 90kg Rice Challenge packs to enable schools to teach about climate change with a real life example
- having researched the options, we are working on a project to move our Kilombero Rice into bags made from recyclable plastic in 2022
- we have initiated a strategic review of our waste streams aiming to further increase the percentage that we recycle
Join us as we continue to focus on putting people and planet first, playing our part in building an economic system which is socially-just and planet-friendly.
