Website Green America Today platform for your search on Fair Trade information

The American website Green America Today encourages consumers to buy and consume green and offers solutions to companies to act green. On their website there is an interesting section about Fair Trade. Below you can see a copy of their initial page on Fair Trade. By clicking the links you get to their website and can find answers about what Fair Trade Means and what you can do.

Fair Trade is a people-powered solution to global economic injustice. It is a system of trade based on direct relationships and partnerships between buyers in the global north and producing communities in developing countries.

Fair Trade helps ensure that farmers and artisans throughout the developing world receive a fair price for their products, have direct involvement in the marketplace, and uphold environmental and labor rights standards. The system builds real and lasting relationships between producers in developing countries and businesses and consumers around the world.

Green America serves the Fair Trade community as public educators, encouraging people to support Fair Trade while providing them the means to do so. We encourage using your spending power to influence the market and help reshape the global economy to one that works for all people and the planet. Use this site to learn about Fair Trade, its products and producers, and what you can do to make a difference.

Discover ...

• What is Fair Trade?
• Products & Producer Profiles
• What You Can Do
• Get Involved: Green America's Fair Trade Alliance
• Resources
• Order the Guide to Fair Trade

http://www.greenamericatoday.org/programs/fairtrade/

Jos de Vries The Retail Company launches at LinkedIn the Group Innovative Retail Concepts

Jos de Vries The Retail Company started the group "Innovative Retail Concepts" at www.linkedin.com for retail professionals to share knowledge and follow the latest trends on innovative (green) retail concepts.

We invite you to join this group and follow the news and to have discussions with other retail professionals.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2120501

Regards,

Maurice van der Kooij

Dutch retail formula Organic “Food For You”

Dutch retail specialist Jos de Vries The Retail Company developed a new concept for a biological retail concept. The Organic concept is born out of the will to offer a cualitative assortment of (fresh) biological products. Organic wants to be a source of knowledge and inspiration for conscious consumers who are searching delicious and responsable (biological) eat and drinks products. Organic is the expert in biological products and wants to share this information with the consumers. The best biological components and meals have been selected to prepare your creative and healthy meal at home.

Unique and different biological retail concept
The challenge to translate this philosophy to an unique and different, modern store concept with an own brand, logo and identity was the starting point for Jos de Vries The Retail Company. Recognizability and attraction of the logo is very important for a store formula. The designed logo translated the characteristics of the retail concept, trendy, delicious and biological, this is supported by the olive colour and the form. This can also be seen at the packaging of their own private brand label.

Having fun doing biological shopping
The focus in the assortment is on fresh products. The best fresh assortment (varying per season), authentical, pure of origen and honoust prepared can be found in the Organic stores. The lay-out of the store is different than a traditional supermarket lay-out, the fresh departments are integrated in a dominating island, placed in the middle of the store.

Dominating instore product presentation
The choice of material translated the character of the formula, it is pure and authentic. The shop design elements are minimal to let the products play a dominating role in the store, combined with warm lighting.

ORGANIC (NL)

www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com

Trends and development in organic products, how to create extra turn-over in retail

In the article Once there was a hypermarket of Bob Damen, creative director at Jos de Vries The Retail Company we can see the following trends in organic products.

Organic products in the United States

People in the United States have never shunned luxury and the expression of affluence; however, here we see a development towards organic and socially sound products. Organic products are hot: customer satisfaction studies performed in 2008 showed that anything to do with organic products is highly appreciated. And this was the case even before Al Gore’s launched his film ‘An inconvenient truth’’.

Extra turnover in organic products

As developments in the US show us, organic products have the future. One could opt to include these products in the regular assortment, but why not let them be a department in their own right? This is how you will add value to this group of products as well as to the private label.

http://jdv-trc.blogspot.com/2008/12/once-upon-time-there-was-this.html to read the full article.

US green grocer PCC offers green, organic, local and sustainable products.

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The website Faircompanies.com made a report on one of the biggest green supermarkets of the United States, the retail chain PCC. This store sells for 95% organic products, locally produced and sustainable. The supermarket of the movie is located in Seatlle, you can see how their production selection works and how they communicate where the products are from and how they are made. They have an impressive assortment of all types of organic and fairtrade products.

www.faircompanies.com

GfK researches the green consumers with their Sustainable Consumer Monitor for Supermarkets

In cooperation with the non-profit organization Solidaridad GfK published the Sustainable Consumer Monitor. The Sustainable Consumer Monitor needs to become a guide for retailers how to apply sustainanable retailing.

The report shows that there are 3 different groups of sustainable consumers: open-minded, organics and demanding. The report states that in The Netherlands there are over 3,9 million households that belong to one of these groups (over 50% of the total number of households in The Netherlands).

The consumers that belong to the group openminded are interested in the animal welfare. Organic consumers think about the environment and the demanding consumers look at social equaility and honest retailing. This research is very interesting for the food retailers. When for example a supermarket attracts a lot of open-minded clients, the supermarket can offer a wide assortment of meat replacement products. A supermarket that has a lot of demanding visitors can offer more fairtrade-products.

The reason why these consumers purchase more and more green and fairtrade products is that they think they support the environment and the animal welfare.

www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com

Waitrose green policy with ethical fish gives good results

In the UK-Market many customers seek for ethical sources for fresh fish. The English Waitrose stepped into this market by offering only sustainable fish, this step resulted into a growth of 15% in fish sales compared to the last years. The policy also implied froozen fish, which grew with 21% compared last year.

Waitrose has been one of the big sponsors of the movie “The End of the Line” a movie around ethical fishing, afterwards a big press campaign and consumer interest resulted into an increased interest about sustainability.

It is shown that when consumers know more about the reality of the situation, they most want to buy sustainable fish. The retail company only wants to provide this type of fish, meaning that for example swordfish cannot be offered, the company did not find a sustainable source for this type of fish. The ethical fishing policy of Waitrose includes a ban on many species under threat, and on damaging fishing methods.