Safia Minney

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Safia Minney
Safia Minney.png
Born1964 (age 5960)
Occupation(s)Social entrepreneur, speaker, author.
Known forSocial business leadership, Environmental activism: Founder of Fashion Declares, REAL Sustainability, founder and former Global CEO of Global Village and People Tree.
Notable workAuthor of Regenerative Fashion, Slave to Fashion, Aesthetics Meets Ethics, Slow Fashion, By Hand.
AwardsMBE, FRSA

Safia Minney MBE FRSA (born 1964) is a British social entrepreneur and author. She was the founder of Global Village [1] which she set up in 1991, [2] and the founder and former Global CEO of 24 years of People Tree, [3] [4] a pioneering sustainable and Fair Trade fashion label. She is also a spokesperson and campaigner on Fair Trade and ethical fashion. [5] She initiated World Fair Trade Day in 1999, [6] which is endorsed by the World Fair Trade Organization and their members and celebrated on the second Saturday of May each year. Additionally, she wrote the books Naked Fashion:the New Sustainable Fashion Revolution, [7] Slow Fashion, [8] Aesthetics Meets Ethics [9] and Slave to Fashion. [10]

Contents

Career

Early career

Minney started her career in marketing and publishing. She worked for Creative Review magazine for four years [11] and created her own social marketing consultancy [12] working with New Statesman and Friends of the Earth.

In 1990, Minney moved to Tokyo with her husband where she learnt Japanese [13] before working for a publishing company, Amnesty International, [14] and the Body Shop. [15]

Global Village

In 1991, Minney founded Global Village, a non-governmental trading organization in Japan. [16] She began working with two students from Yokohama University, initially publishing a free leaflet that provided consumers with environmental and organic information and listings, and later also selling fair trade products. [17]

People Tree

In 1995 Fair Trade Company was formed as a limited company in Japan by transferring the fair trading activity of Global Village. A shop was opened in the Jiyugaoka district of Tokyo and in 1996 the business became a member of the World Fair Trade Organization. [18]

In 2000 People Tree was launched by Fair Trade Company in London to establish fair trade fashion in Europe. [19]

In 2014 People Tree became the first company to be awarded the World Fair Trade Organisation Fair Trade product label with an international sales turnover of £8m. WFTO labelling is intended to guarantees People Tree's compliance to the Principles of Fair Trade, covering fair wages, working conditions, transparency, capacity building, environmental best practice, gender equality and setting standards for conventional fashion companies to improve their supply chains. [20] People Tree launched the first clothing range[ when? ] to meet the Global Organic Textile Standard certified by the Soil Association in the developing world. In September 2023 People Tree went into liquidation with debts approaching £9 million. Fair Trade producer groups in the Global South and ethical lending organisations suffered significant losses. [21]

During her time at People Tree, Minney worked with many designers, celebrities and influencers, including Emma Watson, [22] Dame Zandra Rhodes, [23] and Bora Aksu. [24]

Recent work

Minney left People Tree as Global CEO at the end of 2015 after separating from her husband James Minney, who was Chief Financial Officer. [25] She remained a director until July 2023. [26]

Following her departure from People tree she spent some time as Managing Director of ethical Shoe brand Pozu. [27] In 2019 she started a Community Interest Company called Real Sustainability that "aims to support citizens and organisational leaders to transition to carbon zero and sustainability".

In 2022 she launched Fashion Declares, a grassroots campaign to encourage people at all levels within the fashion industry to tackle the current "climate, ecological and social emergency" associated with climate change.

Awards

Personal life

Minney was born in Britain in 1964 to a Swiss mother and Indo-Mauritian father. [28] [1] [29] [ better source needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair trade</span> Sustainable and equitable trade

Fair trade is a term for an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold.

Ethical consumerism is a type of consumer activism based on the concept of dollar voting. People practice it by buying ethically made products that support small-scale manufacturers or local artisans and protect animals and the environment, while boycotting products that exploit children as workers, are tested on animals, or damage the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ten Thousand Villages</span> Nonprofit fair trade organization

Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products made by disadvantaged artisans from more than 120 artisan groups in more than 35 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Fair Trade Organization</span>

The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is the global community and verifier of enterprises that fully practice Fair Trade. It is an association of SMEs, farmers or retailers that fully practice the 10 Principles of Fair Trade. They also advocate for fundamental change in our current economic system.

Traidcraft was a UK-based Fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. Its trading arm, Traidcraft plc, which sold fairly traded products, went into administration in January 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veja (brand)</span> French footwear and accessories brand

Veja is a French footwear and accessories brand founded in 2004. Veja's products are made with organic cotton and recycled plastic bottles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caryn Franklin</span>

Caryn Franklin MBE is a British fashion and identity commentator and visiting professor of diverse selfhood. She was former fashion editor and co-editor of i-D magazine in the 1980s and long-time presenter of BBC television's The Clothes Show from 1986 to 1998. She has been a commentator on fashion, image and identity politics for more than 40 years. She regularly blogs from her website.

Alex Nicholls is a Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, a Fellow of Harris Manchester College and a member of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. He was the first staff member of the Skoll Centre.

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The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable fashion</span> Part of design philosophy and trend of sustainability in fashion

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Paul Rice is the Founder & CEO of Fair Trade USA, the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in North America. Since launching Fair Trade USA in 1998, Rice has brought Fair Trade into the mainstream and built a movement to expand its impact. He has challenged and collaborated with hundreds of companies to rework their global supply chains to obtain high-quality products that support community development and environmental protection.

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Mauritian diaspora in the United Kingdom are British people with Mauritian descent, or who were born in Mauritius. The 2001 UK Census recorded 27,078 Mauritian-born people living in the UK. The 2011 UK Census recorded 40,890 Mauritian-born residents in England, 434 in Wales, 571 in Scotland, and 83 in Northern Ireland. The Office for National Statistics estimates that in 2014, 41,000 people born in Mauritius were resident in the UK.

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People Tree is a Fair Trade apparel company founded in 1991. The Company no longer has a London base after laying off most UK staff in 2023 amid financial trouble but maintains an office in Tokyo. People Tree Ltd, the UK business, went into liquidation in September 2023 with debts of £8.5m. People Tree was one of the early proponents of Fair Trade and Ethical Fashion and was the first fashion company to be awarded the World Fair Trade Organisation Fair Trade product label.

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References

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