Last updated: 10/04/08
Unethical Union to lose Fairtrade status

University of Bristol Students’ Union (UBU) has lost its Fairtrade status due to a failure to meet key criteria.

Last month Epigram reported that the union is also to be stripped of its Sound Impact award, an environmental accreditation honour, partly due to its failure to provide Fairtrade tea and coffee. UBU was last year awarded a bronze Sound Impact award after meeting 20 essential criteria relating to reducing the union’s environmental impact.

The union found out that it would not qualify for an award this year on February 29, at the same time as events were taking place for their Fairtrade Fortnight.

UBU failed to meet essential Sound Impact criteria in three areas: labeling of banks of light switches in the union, availability of ONE Water - an ethical water brand - and the requirement that all tea and coffee served in the union is Fairtrade. UBU had aimed to achieve a silver award this year and hoped to gain gold status in 2009.

Hannah Isaacs, the UBU vice president, said that labelling light switches was something that they were working towards as part of UBU’s commitments to reducing its carbon footprint.

Currently the UBU Coffee Shop offers Fairtrade tea but does not serve Fairtrade coffee. The Epi Bar and Food offers neither Fairtrade tea nor coffee.

Rainforest Alliance coffee, derided as ‘Fairtrade Lite’ by its critics, is available in Epi Bar and Food, but this does not meet Sound Impact requirements.

These failings fundamentally conflict with UBU policy after a
commitment was made to Fairtrade at the AGM four years ago. Their ethics policy includes the statement that, “UBU, or any club or society recognised by it, will, wherever possible, purchase ethically; specifically looking for Fairtrade, local products.”

Fairtrade status needs to be reapplied for on a yearly basis and Hannah Isaacs, the UBU vicepresident, told Epigram that the union would not be reapplying until she was confident that all criteria were met.

Lesley Appleby, the Union’s Commercial Services Manager, put the failure to meet the criteria down to difficulties in sourcing Fairtrade coffee from suppliers, and hoped that Fairtrade coffee would be available soon. Ms Appleby also stated that she had contacted NUS Services, the awards’ organisers, about difficulties in finding suppliers of ONE Water.

UBU has played an important role in encouraging the University of Bristol to achieve its status as a Fairtrade university, a cause of discomfort to some in the union.

David Bowerman, union ethics officer, said: “It’s embarrassing that the university is pushing forward with Fairtrade whilst the union is being left behind... The intention is there but there’s a difficulty implementing it.”

Hannah Isaacs said: “So much hard work has gone into all our moves to make us more ethically and environmentally responsible.”

by Philip Nye