Fair Trade Forum India Summit on Sustainable Consumption and Social Responsibility 23rd June 2011

I was invited to give a small presentation on Green the Gap at the Fair Trade Forum India summit on Sustainable Consumption and Social Responsibility yesterday - as usual the sample products (including wallets and pencil cases of juice cartons and milk packaging) went down well and many participants were interested to connect with the GtG initiative.

Highlights of the day included:

• the screening of a video by Mr. I. Mallikarjuna, Executive Director of Fair Trade Forum India, to introduce the context of the day's sessions. The video was called "The Story of Stuff" and summed up the problem of our consumption-focussed world well:

• a speech by Ms. Jaya Jaitly, Founder of Dastkari Haat - an association that brings together craftspeople from all over India with the aim of expanding the market for handcrafted products. Ms. Jaitly spoke about the need for crafts organisations to work together, source locally, and sell locally rather than trying to modify their products to meet international norms. She also gave an example of grassroots collaborations - a women's group in Ethiopia who had bought traditional lathes from Indian craftspeople and paid them to train them in carving to improve their own traditional craft
• Mr. Prabhjot Sondhi, National Coordinator of GEF UNDP SGP, CEE spoke about sustainable consumption at a personal level and offered a Hindi or English book and CD on changes people can make in their everyday lives
• Dr. Poonam Pandey from GIZ introduced the audience to India's "Shopping Guide" (which was actually worked on by Swechha at the end of 2010) to explain to Indian audiences how they can consider the impacts of their consumption habits on people and planet.
• Ms. Kartika Singh from AAICA described her association's work and the CRAFTMARK certification label for authentic Indian crafts

After lunch, a session on various social enterprise models took place, which included:

• Mr. S. S.Maiti, Senoir Manager at TRIFED (government Tribal cooperative marketing development federation of India)
• Jackie Bonny, Founder of MESH Fair Trade Organisation who market craft products made by people with disabilities and leprosy
• Anita Ahuja, Founder of Conserve, Fair Trade Organsiation who recycle plastic bags into new, high quality products
• And me talking about Green the Gap...

We finished the day with networking sessions so that people can create links and discuss how they can work together or assist each other in future.