Fairtrade Foundation welcomes PricewaterhouseCoopers Sustainability Report
The Fairtrade Foundation welcomes the findings of the report launched today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sustainability: Are consumers buying it? It shows that consumers want to buy sustainably and increasingly expect sustainable attributes to be an inherent part of the products and services they buy.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) findings chime with the Fairtrade Foundation’s own research and with the growing body of evidence that the public want to do the right thing by supporting their fellow citizens in developing countries and protecting the environment. Consumers unfailingly say that they would buy more Fairtrade and sustainable goods if only companies would make them more widely available.
The PWC report predicts that sustainability is an issue which will change the world and warns that retail and consumer goods companies need to prepare now.
“Those organisations moving first and fastest, are building sustainable solutions that create value. These leaders are starting to change the rules of the game. The risks of being left behind are becoming too great to ignore,” says the report.
The Fairtrade Foundation believes that the big consumer goods companies who are failing to engage with their consumers on Fairtrade and sustainability more generally may be suffering from old fashioned and blinkered attitudes. And if they don’t get their act together, they will be outpaced, because the smart money will be on those companies who are ahead of the game in offering the public the Fairtrade and environmentally friendly goods they want now.
“Why wouldn’t any company want to do its part?” says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. “It’s good for poor farmers and workers, their consumers are crying out for Fairtrade products, and so it will be good for the company too.”