Trade and Sustainability:
From Local to Global
This website explores ways to conduct business and our daily lives in more sustainable ways. I have studied the environmental, social, and economic effects of trade agreements and economic development plans for many years. My focus has been on effects of the North American Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA), The Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the Meso-American Development Plan (originally called the Plan Puebla Panama). Research on international trade led me to seek ways to make trade more fair and sustainable through grassroots tools including Fair Trade, Direct Trade, cooperatives, local production and purchasing, and microfinance. Additionally, I am exploring ways to identify authentic sustainable business practices and avoid green-washing.
Thanks for taking time to learn and think about how we can pursue sustainability in more effective ways.
Paulette L. Stenzel,
Professor of Sustainability & International Business Law, Broad College of Business, Michigan State University
News: We are celebrating two major awards!
Congratulations to the Broad College Sustainability Action Committee which received the Lewis Quality of Excellence Award from the Broad College of Business, Michigan State University on September 14, 2012. The award celebrates contributions demonstrating innovation and continuing improvement within our college. This organization, formed in April of 2011, has accomplished many tasks that save resources within our college and has created various programs to help educate our students and others about sustainability. For details, visit our webiste at http://msusustainability.weebly.com/on-campus.html
Congratulations to the Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF) which received the MSU Department of Student LIfe Leadership Award as an "Emerging Student Organization 2011-2012." This organization has accomplished amazing things in the world of microfinance since it was founded in the summer of 2009. Check out SGDF's website at www.spartanglobalfund.org. Through its new 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, SGDF is now making interest-free loans to producers affiliated with the Fair Trade organization Esperanza en Accion in Nicaragua and the Direct Trade organization As Green as it Gets..
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"Joy in NIcaragua." This is Jessica YaJaira Blandón Díaz on the San Juan de Limay River in the mountains near Nicaragua's northern border. Jessica’s father is a carver of marmolina (soapstone -a stone related to marble) and a member of a cooperative of stone-carvers in San Juan de Limay. Fair Trade gives Jessica's family extra income to pay for Jessica’s books and uniforms, enabling her to continue her studies in the local public school. |
Research Trips2012: Guatemala to learn about Direct Trade and Fair Trade in Guatemala with the Direct Trade organization As Green As it Gets.
2010: Chiapas, Mexico to study Fair Trade and organics, producers from the Maya Vinic coffee cooperative. 2010: Traverse City, Michigan area for interviews with entrepreneurs involved in organics, Fair Trade, and local production. 2009: England to lead workshops at the International Youth for Fair Trade conference at Coventry University and to serve as a delegate to a Fair Trade conference at the Said Business School, Oxford University. 2008: Ecuador to study Fair Trade, the effects of industrialized agriculture, and sustainability, focusing on perspectives of indigenous people of the Andes. 2007: Nicaragua to study Fair Trade and the effects DR- CAFTA and the Plan Puebla Panama. I met with Fair Trade producers throughout the country and managers at maquiladoras; 1997 to 2006: Multiple trips to Mexico to lead a study abroad program on business in Mexico, with a focus on the effects of free trade, and ways to pursue sustainable development. |
Advisor to Student Organizations at MSU:Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF): SGDF raises funds for microloans for small entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world. For more information, see the SGDF Newsletters page on this website (see the link on the left hand side of this page) and the SGD website at www.spartanglobalfund.org.
Co-Chairperson of the MSU Broad College's Sustainability Action Committee. "The Sustainability Action Committee is a group of students at Michigan State University dedicated to making the Broad College of Business more sustainable in its practices." For more information, please visit http://msusustainability.weebly.com/on-campus.html MSU Students for Fair Trade (MSUSFT): MSUSFT educates MSU students and members of our Lansing area community about Fair Trade, and its members organize a "Fair Trade Bash" each spring. See http://msustudentsforfairtrade.weebly.com/about-us.html. Broad Net Impact: Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization that works through business to make our world more sustainable. Broad Net Impact at Michigan State University is an independent chapter of Net Impact Central, based in California. Please visit http://mba.broad.msu.edu/organizations/netimpact/. Students Today, Leaders Forever: The MSU chapter of STLF works to engage students leadership through community service projects in the Lansing/East Lansing area and during a spring break trip. MSU STLF sent three buses on a community service road trip during spring break 2012. See www.stlf.net for information. |
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