Trade and Sustainability:  
       From Local to Global


Why I created this website    
I created this website in 2009 to share what I have learned about the pursuit of sustainability. What is working?  What has the potential to work even better?   To supplement this website, my blog www.mariposapaulette.com includes stories about people and their actions that make a difference.  I love to share what I have learned through public presentations and workshops.  See the links to your left. 

As of 2020, my work and professional life have evolved.   Work in sustainability has led me to study and teaching about ethics (values and moral principles).  After all, social, environmental, and economic equity are essential values if we are to preserve our precious planet and honor and respect each other as human gbeings. 

Moving on into a new decade


My experiences 
I am a professor at Michigan State University, a writer, and a concerned citizen.  During my travels in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, England, Cuba. Tanzania, and beyond, I have learned about grassroots tools including Fair Trade, direct trade, cooperatives, local production and purchasing, organics, and micro-finance.  

My work with Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF) is central to my passion for making a difference in the world and my role as an educator at Michigan State.  We founded the Registered Student Organization (RSO) on July 4, 2009, with four twenty-five dollar contributions to loans on KIVA.org.  Two years later, we launched our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  As of 2020, we are celebrating eleven years of work with small entrepreneurs.  We are now focusing our lending on work in Guatemala with our field partner, As Green As it Gets (AGAIG).  And, as of fall 2020, we have made over $110,000 in loans with an over 99% repayment rate.  Our efforts are sustainable–and our work expands.  Visit www.spartanglobalfund.org to learn more.  

During my career, I have studied international trade agreements and how they promote or impede sustainable development.  These agreements include 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), the Meso-American Development Plan (originally called the Plan Puebla Panama), and others.  Unfortunately, in many instances, those agreements fail to facilitate sustainable development.  Therefore,  I focus on ways to engage in trade while protecting people and respecting the Earth.  See below for an introduction to my students' accomplishments as well as a list of countries and U.S. cities that have hosted my research.  ​
​
What is new?

I have led the implementation of a new curriculum on Ethical Leadership for all Broad College of Business Students at Michigan State University with a full launch fall of 2018.  Below is a link to an article out the program I piloted in my Business Law and Ethical Leadership Honors classes during spring 2018.  It is now used in all Business Law and Ethical Leadership classes in the Broad College of Business at MSU  The course is a requirement for all of our undergraduates. In short, we take ethical leadership seriously!  https://broad.msu.edu/2018/05/18/ethics-growing-emphasis-broad-college-business/    

Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF) is in the news again with an article published by the Broad College of Business on June 14, 2017.  We are celebrating a $1,378 micro-loan–one of our largest loans to date–to field partner in Guatemala to help a coffee farmer recover from a fungus that was destroying his crop.  Read about that and the many other activities of our passionate SGDF members below.  https://broad.msu.edu/2017/06/14/spartan-global-development-fund-business-social-change/  

​On Earth Day, May 2017, I was featured in an article by Be Spartan Green, published by Michigan State University.  I was delighted that the article featured my work with students in the classroom and through Spartan Global Development Fund.   See https://broad.msu.edu/2017/06/14/spartan-global-development-fund-business-social-change/​


Moving forward 
First, we must dream of living in more sustainable ways and educate ourselves about the means to do so. Then each must take action.  No one can do everything, but each of us can do something. Thank you for joining me in doing something in ways that stem from your heart and passions.
                                            Paulette L. Stenzel, 
                                            Professor Emeritus of Sustainability & International Business Law
                                           Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University
                                                                     Contact me at stenzel@,msu.edu

Adviser 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.  I serve on the board of directors for its companion 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Please visit www.spartanglobalfund.org.  

Research Related to Sustainability

2020: Program Director for Service Learning Education Abroad Program:  Grassroots Tools of Sustainable Development in Guatemala.

2018 and 2019: Travel and study in Guatemala with our Spartan Global Development Fund members to meet with recipients of microloans and update research on microfinance, direct trade, Fair Trade, and cooperatives in Guatemala.

2016:   Tanzania on a team to explore the potential for microfinance projects in the rural village of Naitolia in northern Tanzania.  


2015:  Havana, Cuba to study sustainability and community development as the U.S. and Cuba reestablish diplomatic and trade relations.

2014:  Quebec, Quebec for an international forum on cooperatives. 

2014: Minneapolis, Minnesota to study cooperatives.

2013: Madison, Wisconsin to study cooperatives. 

2012: Guatemala to study Direct Trade, Fair Trade, and microfinance.

2010:  Chiapas, Mexico to study Fair Trade, cooperatives, and organics.
​
2010:  Traverse City, Michigan area to study organics, Fair Trade, microfinance, and local production.   

2009:  England to lead workshops at Coventry University's International Youth for Fair Trade conference and serve as a delegate to a Fair Trade conference at Oxford University.  

2008:  Ecuador to study perspectives of indigenous people on Fair Trade, industrialized agriculture, and sustainability.
  
2007: Nicaragua to study Fair Trade,  DR- CAFTA, and the Meso-American Development Plan. 

1997 to 2006: Multiple trips to Mexico for research on sustainable development and to lead study abroad groups to study environmental law and business in Mexico.
"Joy in Nicaragua."  

This is Jessica YaJaira Blandón Díaz on the San Juan de Limay River near Nicaragua's northern border.  Her father is a carver of marmolina (soapstone–a stone related to marble) and a member of a Fair Trade cooperative.  Fair Trade provides Jessica's family with enough income to pay for her books and uniforms, allowing her to continue her studies in the local public school.