“Compassionate capitalism isn’t hard to do but it’s amazing how many people put profit over people.”

Shared Earth first opened in York in 1986, and more than thirty years later are they are flying still the flag for ethical trade in the UK. We spoke with their Retail Director Jen Harland, who describes Shared Earth’s products as a “crazy mix of everything you can imagine”, but the goal for their impact is crystal-clear:  

We want to trade ethically and not make a profit from other people’s pain – we want to run a business which doesn’t take from the earth without giving back or from people without giving back. Compassionate capitalism isn’t hard to do but it’s amazing how many people put profit over people.

The devastating consequences of climate change are growing day by day, and Shared Earth’s mission has evolved accordingly:

Fair trade was the key mission to start with, but now there’s equal emphasis on fair trade and the climate crisis because they go hand on hand. Our suppliers are suffering – suppliers’ workshops are regularly under water because of flash floods. We want to improve the lives of disadvantaged people while fighting the climate crisis. A healthy environment is one of the principles of fair trade, but more emphasis has been put on this because if we as a company harm the earth we harm our producers – we can see the world around us burning and it’s hard not to have extra emphasis on the climate crisis – the market feels like it’s going the same way and the market for sustainable products is growing. Ultimately, we want to help more artisans.

Protecting their artisans is also a high priority:

I don't know many other organisations who have a Supplier Director. She raises issues on their [artisans’] behalf. She’s also the importer, gathering all the products from small artisan families, and does the quality control – but she works with their best interests and checks on them.

We asked Jen Harland how Shared Earth measures their impact on people and the planet:

Every two year we look closely at the impact when we do our World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) audit. We must do that. When we visit, they take us round and show us the impact. The more we can order from a supplier we know that impacts them in a positive way – if we feel like sales are drying up, we’ll work with them on new product development – largely design – Lucie, David, Jeremy work well with suppliers and support them to produce products customers are asking for – we help them change their materials from say resin to glass.   

We really want to reduce plastic packaging – we’ve already reduced to near zero – there are very few items which come wrapped in plastic now. We really want to focus on making the final change to say we’re 100% plastic free on every item. Plant-based plastic if it gets wet it can sometimes disintegrate – when you’re shipping on sea this becomes a problem. It’s great to say we’ve reduced it – but to reduce it to nothing would be brilliant.

Despite UK customers arguably becoming more aware of the impact of their purchases on people and the planet, in recent years it has been very tricky for ethical businesses to operate here.

This year our landlord tried to double our rent. We fought them on it and threatened to go to court over it – it’s difficult because costs of everything in this country are going up higher and higher and higher. Regardless, our rent has still gone up by £18k in a single year and in five years they can assess it again. So hard to continue to make money when the whole of economics is against you – greedy landlords, extortionate electric costs, shipping costs shot up during covid – shipping costs have lowered again now, and we pass on the savings to the customers.

Despite these ongoing challenges, Shared Earth’s staff are passionate about what they do:

When you work for an ethical company, you can’t help but fall in love with the ethics and now can’t imagine working anywhere else. Staff stay because they want to – we have staff in shops who’ve been here 17 years. For a retail business it’s unusual to retain staff members for that amount of time but people love working for us. Money isn’t everything.

If you’re interested in craft, homewares and textiles please visit Shared Earth to see what they have on offer.

p.s. They also have a stock of Traidcraft gardening gloves – we know our supporters love em.