Trade and Sustainability:
From Local to Global
This website is a small contribution to making this world more fair and just by focusing on environmental, social, and economic equity.
I have used my travels in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, England, and beyond explore grassroots tools that promote sustainable development. Those tools include Fair Trade, Direct Trade, cooperatives, local production and purchasing, and microfinance. As a teacher, writer, and concerned citizen, I continue work to identify authentic sustainable business practices and avoid green-washing. I want to share discussion of these interests with others, and I welcome your feedback.
I got started on this path .in my studies of trade agreements including 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). I realized that those agreements promote unsustainable development. Therefore, my focus over the past twenty years has been and will continue to be on ways to
Thank ou for taking time to learn and think about how we can pursue sustainability in effective ways that benefit people around the world.
Paulette L. Stenzel,
Professor of Sustainability & International Business Law, Broad College of Business, Michigan State University
Celebrating achievements!
In the fall of 2014, the undergraduate student members of the Broad College Sustainability Action Committee (SAC) installed two water filtration stations in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State Univesity. This enables students to save resources (water, fossil fuels for transportation) and funds (users avoid buying water in plastic bottles). It also eliminates plastic bottles which are recycled (more accurately stated, "down-cycled") or end up in a waste site. The stations were funded, in part, by funds from a 2012 Lewis Quality of Excellence Award from the Broad College of Business awarded to the SAC for other earlier projects. Since it was founded in 2011, the SACE has completed numerous projects that save resources within our college. The group also educates students and others about sustainability. For details, visit our webiste at http://msusustainability.weebly.com/on-campus.html
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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 her books and uniforms, enabling her to continue her studies in the local public school. |
Research Trips Related to Sustainability2014: 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 and organics, with producers from the Maya Vinic coffee cooperative. 2010: Traverse City, Michigan area to study organics, Fair Trade, microfinance, 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 perspectives of indigenous people on Fair Trade, the effects of industrialized agriculture, and sustainability. 2007: Nicaragua to study Fair Trade and the effects DR- CAFTA and the Plan Puebla Panama. 1997 to 2006: Multiple trips to Mexico for research on sustainable development and to lead a study abroad program on business in Mexico., |
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. I serve on the board of directors for its companion organization, the Spartan Global Development Fund 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. For more information, visite SGDF 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 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 or more buses on a community service road trip during spring break each year. We are among the most active chapters in the United States! See www.stlf.net for information. |
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