Soul Economy

The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is in its 2nd year and has now grown into a nationwide festival. The vision of the founders of the event was to make human rights accessible.
The Sydney program will run from Thursday, 4 December - Sunday, 7 December 2008 and will include films, music, speakers and action [...]

Don’t miss out on the inaugural Fair Trade Christmas Market event this weekend organised by the Queensland Fair Trade Collective. Check out the wide range of ethical and fair trade products including clothing, homewares, jewellery, handicrafts, accessories as well as coffee, tea and chocolate - and pick up your Christmas gifts.
Many of Queensland’s fair trade [...]

The second Manly Fair Trade Markets in 2008 will be held on Saturday, 6 December - just in time for your Christmas shopping! A relaxing ferry ride across the harbour landed me in Manly at the markets in August this year. They were really well attended, and in a perfect position to capture many people [...]

Following on from our earlier post about the Benefits of Sustainability Reporting, Ulrike Schuermann from Momentum International Partnerships outlines the key issues surrounding sustainability reporting for Soul Economy. It would be great to hear your thoughts, ideas and experiences.
One, if not THE key issue is how we can achieve a balance between appropriate regulation and [...]

With increasing pressure on companies to prepare sustainability reports, Soul Economy asked Ulrike Schuermann from Momentum International Partnerships about the benefits of reporting. Ulrike’s response is as follows.
The benefits of sustainability reporting as a management tool - not just an accountability tool - for businesses can be significant and benefits include:

Improved financial performance [...]

Soul Economy spoke to Melissa from the FairWear recently to find out a little more about FairWear. This great organisation was established to ensure that clothing workers are not exploited and that they are at least receiving the conditions and rates of pay set out in the Industry Award. So make sure you look out [...]

Visit the Fair Trade Market in Manly on Sunday, 24 August and join the celebration of Manly Council’s Accreditation as the first Fair Trade Community in NSW, and only the second in Australia.
There will be a range of fair trade companies showcasing a wide range of products from food and beverages to sports gear, clothing, [...]

The useful life of footwear is relatively short, shorter still when one considers rapid market changes and consumer fashion trends. Footwear is also hugely in demand. From 1990 to 2004, worldwide footwear production has increased by 70 percent to around 17 billion pairs of shoes. By 2010 experts in the sector expect the global footwear [...]

It was a great pleasure for Soul Economy to have the opportunity to ask Tracey from ibuTrade some questions recently. ibuTrade is an online gift shop for fairtrade and eco-friendly products with the added bonus of free extra gift services such as postage, gift wrapping and even writing on the gift tags.
1/ What inspired you [...]

Fairtrade Town is defined in Wikipedia as “a status awarded by a recognised Fairtrade certification body describing an area which is committed to the promotion of Fairtrade certified goods. By extension, the organisations also award the statuses of Fairtrade City, Fairtrade Village, Fairtrade Zone, Fairtrade Borough, Fairtrade Island, Fairtrade County and Fairtrade University.”
The Fairtrade [...]