The innovation of the fair trade movement to foster sustainability

Much of the awareness in society towards sustainable development objectives hasbeen fostered by United Nations (UN) programmes, non-governmental organisationsand social movements they have inspired. Within the stream of social change occurredafter the second world war, fair trade initiative innovated as a social movement byoffering an international trade model to make difference in producers’ lives.Mainstream fair trade organisations carried social responsibility values of addressingtargets such as poverty alleviation; reducing market inequalities North-South;protecting environment; enabling fair work conditions; promoting responsibleconsumption and production; ensuring food security. Given these objectives, fair trademovement can be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by UNin 2015; and with the triple bottom line of sustainability. Those synergies can bedemonstrated across fair trade organisations’ social responsibility and sustainabilityreports. Materials and methods of this paper included a review of the corporate socialresponsibility and sustainability reports of the mainstream fair trade organisations from2000 to date. Findings show a consistency among terms common to the fair tradereported aims and the SDGs. A comparative analysis indicates the spectrum ofsustainability topics progressively addressed by the fair trade movement since at least2000. This review may contribute to guide government policies and socially focusedbusinesses to foster sustainability goals through innovations within food systems, toattain a sustainable agriculture and rural development