The Co-operative Group is the largest consumer co-operative in the world, operating in a range of sectors (including the financial services, food retail, pharmacy, travel, funeral and farming sectors amongst others). We are also a growing business; the acquisition of Somerfield in April 2009 cemented our food business as the fifth largest food retailer in the UK, and the merger of our financial services business with Britannia building society, overwhelmingly endorsed by Britannia members earlier this year, will help create a £70bn ‘supermutual’, extending a more values-based High Street alternative for consumers.
The Co-operative Group are firm supporters of fairtrade
Furthermore, we are currently undergoing a ‘renaissance’, involving the mass re-branding of our stores and investment in what is believed to be the largest advertising campaign in UK corporate history. This clearly reaffirms the Co-operative way of doing business and is firmly centred on the social goals and ethics of our organisation – it is both value and values that we seek to offer our 3m members and the wider community.
The Co-operative Group is considered by many as the pioneer of ethical business. In terms of international development, we consider that the breadth of our activities, combined with our pioneering and tireless support for trade justice and development issues over the years, sets us apart.
Benefits for over 1 million
The Group’s international development activity in 2008/09 is estimated to have generated benefits for over 1 million people in the developing world, and contributed in some degree to all of the MDGs. Through the numerous innovative products we offer (including the first own-brand ethical water, which has helped finance over 110 Playpumps in South Africa and provide clean drinking water to over 275,000 people to date), to high quality carbon offset programmes that provide both environmental and social benefits (such as fuel efficient stoves in Cambodia); from the creation of a US$50m microfinance fund that has already supported the working poor in over 20 developing countries, to the ethical trading programme of our food business that covers over 130,000 workers in developing countries alone, the Group’s impact is wide and varied.
It is in the field of campaigning, and pioneering issues on development, where the Group has arguably demonstrated its leadership and commitment most strongly however.
Fairtrade pioneers
The Group was a firm supporter of Fairtrade before the official Fairtrade Mark was introduced in 1994 and helped pave the way in the early days for the larger-scale conversions we are seeing these days from the likes of Tate and Lyle. Today, the Group boasts the broadest Fairtrade product range of any UK supermarket.
On the finance side, the bank’s customer mandated Ethical Policy, introduced in 1992, remains unique in the UK marketplace in that it actively screens out businesses that fail to meet minimum ethical criteria, including provisions relating to international development, trade and human rights. £305 million of finance has been declined to date in connection with these concerns. Conversely, estimates show that a third of the bank’s profits are attributable to customers for whom ethics is important.
Co-operative campaigning
From the bank’s hard-hitting campaign on cluster bombs in 2002 to the more recent Trade Justice campaign in association with Christian Aid, and work with Amnesty International UK celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Group has long sought to educate and mobilise its 3m members and the wider public on matters of development and human rights. More recently, we have been using increasingly innovative communication channels, such as theatre and film to generate awareness, support and action, including arranging eighteen screenings of the film ‘Black Gold’ in 2008, exploring issues of Fairtrade and trade justice.
It is significant that our membership base consider international development a priority concern. In light of this, not only is the Group maintaining its commitment to international development work in the current climate, but we are actively stepping up our support. We are allocating an additional £1m to development projects in each of 2009, 2010 and 2011, which will help provide additional assistance to our producers’ communities and help us pursue co-operative solutions for overseas development.
Contributed by
Have your say
You must be logged in to comment. If you don’t already have one,
you can register for an account here.