A trip to visit some of the poorest parts of India has been planned to expose the truth behind Fair Trade between 5 - 18th January 08. Coconut Creatives Directors Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook will be accompanying Jeremy Piercy and a small team of his staff to New Delhi, India to see what impact Shared Earth’s Fair Trade work has had on developing areas.

On our return the full story will be featured in national, regional and green/ethical magazines.

Key Story Features include:
· True Stories; from children who were reduced to selling their bodies at train stations
· Fair Trade survey – what people in the UK understand about Fair Trade
· Facts & figures from the International Fair Trade Association
· Indian Artisan Interviews; life before Fair Trade and how it has changed them

Follow the India Trip Live!
To follow the India trip live visit the Shared Earth blog site through www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk. Gain access to daily interviews, images and quotes.

To receive a full report pre & post India trip please email sarah@coconutcreatives.co.uk or call 01963 31030 for further information.

Why is this trip so important?
Because we are reporting back on the positive impact Fair Trade has had on the lives of so many people world-wide. Examples of what we will be reporting on are:

1. Reducing Begging & Prostitution of Children
There is an orphanage for street children near New Delhi, where women from local villages come in to make bags and other products to fund the orphanage. Recently, 3 of those children, who had formerly just begged and sold their bodies on railway stations, had grown to the age of 18 and were confidently in charge of 3 of the craft workshops. “It was a real joy to see them looking so happy and fulfilling such responsible roles,” expresses Jeremy, Fair Trade campaigner and founder of national retail organisation Shared Earth.

2. Fair Trade Philosophy
Jeremy would like to see a change in our society away from its materialistic attitudes to life, “I’d like people, especially young people, to understand that it’s what you do and the way you work that matters, not just how much you earn. If people actually started to realise that caring about other people makes YOU more happy, as well as those other people, then attitudes might change and society could only be the better for it.”

Watch this space!

Last month Tidy Thames Refuse Services attended the Thames Gateway Business Awards 2007 as a finalist for the Environmental Business of the Year. Since the company began in 1983 Chris Livett has picked up numerous awards for innovation and achievement, including winning the prestigious Queen Mother’s Birthday Awards twice. 

The latest award was a result of the success of the ‘Recycling by Water’ initiative which not only reduces participating customer’s impact on the environment but also reduces their waste bills.

Chris commented “Following market research in 2005 a ‘Recycling by Water’ initiative was developed to offer customers an economically and environmentally positive solution to their waste disposal requirements. This has proved very effective and allowed us to reduce waste to landfill from our participating customers by approximately 50%.” 

There have been many other positive environmental, social and economic benefits as a result of the Recycling by Water service to both the river Thames and London:

• Reduced lorry traffic on London’s busy roads
• Reduced pollution by moving larger quantities of waste in each trip
• Reprocessing of materials previously sent to landfill
• Innovation as this is the first service of it’s kind in the UK
• Increased awareness of environmentally responsible business operation
• Reduced waste disposal bills 

The next stage is to develop the service further increasing the amount of waste that is recycled and reducing the amount that goes to landfill. Chris commented, “We are actually able to reduce our customer’s annual bills, against the ever increasing costs of fuel, tax and inflation. With landfill tax continuing to rise at such a huge rate we simply cannot continue to simply throw refuse away. All our customers need to recycle, those that are not are throwing money away!”