As a consumer spending money on the necessities, frivolities and luxuries of North American living do you ever consider who benefits from your contributions to the economy? Do you wonder if the product you just purchased was made by an exploited worker here or in a developing nation? Do you ask yourself how much pollution your dollar might have dumped into a local or distant river, the air, or the soil? When we don't ask these questions and spend our dollars without conscience we might pollute and we might exploit. It can't be avoided. Or can it?

There are some people who believe that it can, and they base their purchasing decisions on ethical commitments to the environment and the fair treatment of people. Many work through co-ops and networks, but some are putting a new twist to their efforts. These people are now building Internet communities that support fair trade initiatives in developing countries and electronic co-operative marketplaces. Through the Internet these citizens are building a relatively new suburb in the electronic "global village."

Online communities of consumers sharing common social, environmental, economic and political goals are appearing with greater frequency on the Internet. In just over a year Co-op America has attracted nearly 50,000 individual members. They use the services of the co-operative to purchase socially responsible products, invest in healthy community development and collectively work toward changing the behaviour of corporations that profit by polluting the planet and exploiting employees. Some 2,000 businesses are listed in the Co-op America Business Forum, giving members access to over 100 categories of green and social responsible products and services.

In the developing world, producers are also coming together and building Internet communities. They are supported in these efforts by hundreds of Alternative Trading Organizations (ATOs) that seek to establish of sustainable trade structures and practices between developed and developing nations (Fair Trade Initiatives).

An excellent example of an ATO creating an Internet community that directly benefits producers in the developing world is PEOPLink, a non-profit organization based in Kensington, Maryland. Since 1995 PEOPLink has assisted craftspeople in Latin America, Asia and Africa in using technology to market their products directly to consumers in the developed world. It is their stated purpose to empower "poor producers to use the Internet to maximize the benefit of world trade."

PEOPLink has established a worldwide Internet community comprised of trading partners that seek a model of sustainable trade that benefits their communities directly. In the PEOPLink model, a trading partner is a development organization that supports hundreds or thousands of community-based artisan producer groups in a region or country. PEOPLink trains and equips trading partners with digital camcorders, used to capture images of crafts for use on the PEOPLink Web page where they are promoted to retail and wholesale buyers. PEOPLink also provides assistance to trading partners in building and maintaining their own Web sites to provide extensive information on the country, the artisans and their products.

It is a system that eliminates the opportunistic middlemen generally found exploiting these markets, and suddenly makes international trade far more democratic, equitable and profitable for producers in developing nations. As PEOPLink continues its work, it is now assisting other ATOs and their producers in establishing their own Internet trading communities.

An ATO that could be soon looking for assistance in marketing products on the Internet is Ten Thousand Villages (TTV). With a network of over 120 retail stores in North America, TTV retails goods produced by 50,000 artisans from developing nations. Expanding that network to be more global means using the appropriate tools. As TTV Director Doug Dirks explains, "we are currently seriously looking towards the Internet as a possible sales opportunity."

The Internet has, since its inception, been a good way to exchange information, ideas and opinions. Now, it's beginning to prove itself as a viable vehicle for bringing local and like-minded peoples from diverse places together to engage in fair trade. [using the Internet to promote sustainable commerce]

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Word Watch
	Fair trade n. trade between small producers, usually in the developing world and consumers that includes better prices, reasonable credit and a stable, long-term trading relationship. More in Word Watch Glossary
In Depth
	Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility. Principles for global corporate responsibility: Bench marks for measuring Business performance. (Rev. ed.) New York: ICCR, 1998. 80 p.
Virtual Ideas
	Co-op America PEOPLink Ten Thousand Villages IISD Business site article on Ten Thousand Villages

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