Aveda VP Earth and Community Care
Chuck Bennett
ucts,” says Kumani Executive Creative
Director Dianne Stasi who says that a
major part of their marketing initiative to
grow public awareness is through
proudly displaying their fair trade certified seal on all their products and
marketing materials.
Giving Hope
Another testament to this growing
awareness i s the increasing interest
among companies to partner with fair
trade organizations. Aveda, which featured Hope for Women fair trade Tagua
nut hair accessory for its 2010 Aveda
holiday gift sets, is among these socially
conscious companies who have jumped
in the fair trade wagon.
Aveda’s partnership with Hope for
Women has benefited women artisans
from Colombia, El Salvador and the
Indian Himalayas who have found their
self-worth in their family and community through fair trade employment.
“Aveda’s purchase of native Tagua
nuts is the largest fair trade, sustainably
harvested rainforest product export in
Colombia’s history,” claims Aveda Vice
President Earth and Community Care
Chuck Bennett who adds that, aside
from their gift set launch in U.S. Aveda
salons/spas and stores late last year,
Aveda headquarters in the U.K.,
Australia, Spain and Germany further
placed supplemental order of these fair
trade accessories for inclusion in
custom-made gift sets. This led to a
volume of 400,000 fair trade hair accessories distributed to 27 countries around
the globe.
“To date, Hope for Women’s partnership with Aveda has helped more
than 400 women and their families,
including the Awa Indians and AfroColombians in the coastal Pacific
rainforests who collect these tagua nuts,
2010 Global
Hunger Data
the processors in Bogota who dry, cut
and polish, and the local artisans who
handcraft the finished product,” says
Hope for Women President Evan
Goldsmith. “In addition, this partnership
has helped protect more than 400 acres
of the Colombian rainforest.”
Apart from its long-term plan to build
a sustainable relationship with Hope for
Women, Aveda has long aligned itself
with groups that champion equal labor
for women. “By sourcing Argan oil from
the collective group of Berber women
called the Targanine Cooperative in
Developed Countries 19
Near East and North Africa 37
Latin America and the
Caribbean 53
Sub-Saharan Africa 239
Asia and the Pacific 578
Total = 925 Million
Source: FAO
38 PULSE
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March/April 2011