BT

As part of the launch of the Fairtrade at Work Campaign BT announced that they will be switching all their coffee to Fairtrade.

BT have been buying Fairtrade products for around 8 years, but until now, coffee was always an option with other non-Fairtrade brands available. Rosemary Hough of BT said that “With the improvements in quality and consistency we considered it the right time to move all of our Coffee sold in BT Cafes to a Fairtrade bean. The change of coffee suppliers supports growing consumer interest in ensuring third world producers receive a fair price for their products”. She added: “BT has supported the Fairtrade philosophy by buying a range of Fairtrade products. Fairtrade producers receive a minimum price that covers the cost of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested in social or economic development projects”.

BT highlighted this commitment to Fairtrade by hosting a launch event as part of the Fairtrade at Work campaign. When asked, BT said the switch has been a positive move and that they had experienced a good deal of interest in the difference that the move to over 3 million cups of coffee annual now sold as Fairtrade would make. BT commented that they felt inspired by the difference buying Fairtrade makes to communities in the developing world.

The BT Trade Union, Connect has had played an important role in bringing about this change. Connect is a campaigning union representing 20,000 professionals in the communications industry. They supported the campaign to introduce Fairtrade into BT from very early on and passed a motion in the union branch. Brian Madican, of Connect explains - “I welcome the decision of BT to switch over its coffee to Fairtrade. The impetus for this was started a few years ago when a group of managers decided to raise a petition for Fairtrade products to be served in BT restaurants. This was signed by 700 employees and led to BT holding a Fairtrade pilot in 4 of its main restaurants. With the help of the union, Connect, the news was also spread among union members on a regular basis to support Fairtrade. It is excellent news that BT people have supported Fairtrade and that BT has extended its Fairtrade range to all over the country. The ethos of Fairtrade is that we can all individually make a difference to poor workers and producers on the other side of the world simply by what we buy, but acting collectively we can also achieve so much more. I would urge everyone in their workplace to try to change their restaurant or cafe or even your tea club over to using Fairtrade products”.

Watch a video interview with Adrian Hosford, Director of CSR at BT