people tree
is a japanese and uk based fair trade clothing network.
it was started in 1995 in tokyo and now has offices
in tokyo and london and 70 different producer groups
and co-ops in 20 developing countries.

chris haughton
people tree’s graphic designer and freelance
illustrator is a designboom reader.
we wanted to know more about his work.

how did you get involved with fair trade ?
‘I first learned about people tree when I moved
to london and by chance shared a flat with misato,
one of the people tree's designers.
I was very interested in fair trade and didn’t even
realise at the time that there was companies producing
fair trade clothes or products besides tea and coffee.
misato introduced me to safia, first to work on the
childrens tees and then we produced some adult tees
and stationery.

I had spent the previous two years travelling around
asia mainly in india and china, teaching english to earn
money and backpacking around.
naomi klein's 'no logo' came out just after I came back
from india and I think I read it twice in a week.
at the time it was the best book I’d ever read and it got
me reading all sorts of other books about globalisation.
some of the things I saw in india and nepal and particularly
in cambodia were really eye-opening and when I returned
home to dublin and then london I was amazed at how
little most people knew anything about the situation.
I was working on some large advertising jobs in london
and dublin but I was very disillusioned with design at the
time.’

how is people tree organized ?
’they have a network of very small cooperatives and
projects set up all over the world, about 70 or 80
fairly small sized producer groups ranging from 10 to 150
full or part-time workers in 20 different countries.
they work in the least developed areas of the poorest
countries mainly setting up projects based on the locally
handicrafts, they make handmade paper notepads and
cards in nepal, hand-knitted alpaca wool products in
peru, t-shirts made from local subsistence cotton farmer's
cotton in india. all of these small groups are then able to
sell their products worldwide through people tree on the
people tree site. it's such a simple idea and the network
cuts out the middle-man and helps the really poorest
areas build a way out of poverty.
many of the producer groups and projects are set up to
employ either women who may have been divorced through
domestic abuse or disabled individuals who would not be
able to earn money outside of their family.
without recourse to social security and under extreme
poverty these people are sometimes viewed as a burden
by their families, so these projects not only inject extra
income into the poorest communities but also increase
self-esteem and independence amongst the people who
work at the projects.
the producer groups in return highly value the design input
and advice on quality, product feedback market trends and
pricing given by the people tree support team.
in addition to this people tree places a strong emphasis on
ecological production methods by supporting organic cotton
projects, controlling the dyes and using natural materials
and appropriate technology in its products.’

how can big companies become more involved ?
‘people tree has until recently been mainly been centred
around activism and raising consumer awareness but it now
has many very talented product designers who are moving
the company on to a much more design-led base that can
bring fair trade clothing to a much wider audience.
birkenstock has recently agreed to have a collection
of its uppers hand woven in beautiful ethnic designs by a
people tree project in india and we are now being sold in the
topshop flagship store in london.
we are currently redesigning the site and brand so
it's set to be a really exciting time for people tree right now.

I think it's important to understand that most of the high street
garment manufacturers are lured to countries by desperate
governments trying to raise employment by lowering
corporate tax and minimum wages.
the manufacturing plants are set up in special 'export zones'
so that they can generate their own power and not have to
rely on the often very poor national grid.
young workers are sucked out of the small villages often
split up from their wives and children and then just as
soon as the manufacturing plant came it's gone.
they are free to skip to the next least developed country as
soon as there is mention of a raise in corporate tax or corporate
responsibility.’

new laws for trade justice ?
‘the sad fact is that companies who do take sustainable
development seriously actually suffer a competitive disadvantage.
companies should be made by law to take responsibility for their
environmental, social and economic impact.
corporations account for the majority of international trade,
but WTO agreements apply to government policies and actions
rather than companies. the original thinking behind GATT was to
liberalise markets and reduce the trade tariffs to create more of
a market economy,but it was actually originally conceived to benefit
the working people.this was based in a world in which governments
had enormous, power, enormously more than corporations.
now the situation has changed, but these rules continue to benefit
corporations against governments.
friends of the earth launched a very good campaign to change
the company law reform bill in 2005.
the situation is slowly changing but it really seems to be a total
mess at the moment.’

fair trade though is growing very quickly ?
’the commodities, coffee, tea, bananas and oranges have
been growing at a staggering 40% each year for the past five
years in the uk. fair trade coffee now represents 17% of all
coffee sold in britain.
the real issue though is with clothing and textiles, they are
by far the most labour intensive industries and fair trade
clothing represents almost nothing of the total clothing sold.
this really has to change.
hopefully it will as long as the awareness keeps building.’

---
please do take a look at the people tree site
and support the producers.
http://www.peopletree.co.uk

safia minney is the founder of people tree.
the new statesman (http://www.newstatesman.com/2006052200)11)
and edge upstarts (http://www.edge.co.uk)
awarded her the social entrepreneur of the year 2006.
the awards recognise the core of social enterprise:
its people. as well as being visionaries and business leaders,
social entrepreneurs are employers.
they are educators and mentors who pass on prac tical skills
and social values to their employees.
with this in mind, the 2006 awards focused particularly on
employers who invest in training and employees who
have benefited from learning on the job.
read safia’s blog
http://www.peopletree.co.uk/safia

all graphics by chris haughton.
chris haughton is an irish illustrator and designer living in london.
after studying design and illustration in ireland's national college of
art and design he travelled for two years, mainly to china, india and
in south east asia. he then settled in hong kong for a year and
worked freelance doing design and illustration work before moving
to london. chris illustrates for time magazine, the guardian, the times,
the independent, the irish times and the south china morning post.
his illustration website can be found at
http://www.vegetablefriedrice.com