Good news for people concerned about sustainability and the world around them, as the Ambiente Ethical Style committee received over 200 new submissions from 41 nations, with 87 making it into this section for the first time.
This means that more and more companies are trying to do their part for the environment and take better care of their manufacturing processes.
“To qualify as sustainable, a company needs to have a certain something,” says Kees Bronk from CBI, the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries.
Some basic parameters include resource-friendly production, the preservation of traditional manufacturing techniques and aspects of social care and fairness towards everyone involved in production.
Some of the companies exhibiting in the Ethical Style section include Dutch lighting brand It’s About Romi, fair trade company Fair Forward, German fair trade company El Puente from Lower Saxony and Little Sun by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.
“Little Sun brings light into regions where there’s no electric power,” says Mimi Sewalski, CEO of avocadostore.de.
“It gives people something we take for granted―reading, doing homework and working after dark.”
Christina Bocher, senior project manager for sustainability and regulatory compliance at Dekra adds that where appropriate you also need to weigh up the criteria for assessing manufacturers from industrialised and emerging countries.
Rudi Dalvai, president of the WOrld Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) adds,”Ambiente makes a great contribution to promoting sustainability, and increasingly presents an incentive for companies to be part of this”.
Bronk agrees. “It’s great to be part of one of the biggest trade fairs in the consumer goods industry that is actually pushing sustainability.”
Twelve companies of the Ethical Style area also took part in the popular speed dating event, where exhibitors get three minutes to present their products to journalists from all over the world. It was a great opportunity to spread the word about sustainability and ethical to a much wider audience.
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