A FAIR TRADE STUDY BREAK THAT LEADS TO POSITIVE CHANGE. Sep REPORT FAIR TRADE CAMPUS WEEK

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1 A FAIR TRADE STUDY BREAK THAT LEADS TO POSITIVE CHANGE Sep REPORT FAIR TRADE CAMPUS Y 2017 WEEK

2 INTRODUCTION Fair Trade Campus Week is a fun-filled week bursting with activities where Campus life and businesses intersect to create tremendous educational and promotional opportunities for all. It is the opportunity to celebrate the fair trade movement and Fairtrade certified products in Campuses across Canada! fairtrade.ca/fairtradecampusweek Campuses are first Campuses and foremost a place of learning. They have also always been the place where great ideas collide, revolutions take place and solutions to many of societies challenges are born. As the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Guiding Principles for Businesses on Human Rights start to shape the way companies do business in the Global South, Fairtrade offers a vibrant concrete tool to empower development through trade. across Canada have been a force of nature for Fairtrade in the previous years and we are seeing companies and retailers across the country engaging with Fairtrade as a result of the deep commitment they sense from younger generations. Fair Trade Campus Week is a great opportunity for students to celebrate the impact they are having for farmers and workers across the world. That Fairtrade cup of coffee won t only help you stay Laurentian University awake through that early morning lecture or to finish that paper, it also helps an entire coffee community! Julie Francoeur, Fairtrade Canada Executive director 2

3 HIGHLIGHTS - 5th edition 53 participating campuses a 23% increase from 2016 For the 2nd year in a row, activities took place in all 10 provinces 23 companies (increase of 15% from 2016) and 4 food service providers 26,000 students and staff received Fairtrade product donations - a 13% increase from ,000 people engaged through in-person initiatives Almost 40 events for the World s Largest Fair Trade Bake Sale 154,000 impressions on Fairtrade Canada s social media impressions which equals an impressive increase of 236% from 2016 Participating campuses have approximately 240,000 social media followers: imagine the potential reach! Over 2,000 page views on Fair Trade Campus Week-related web pages which represents a 50% increase from % of campuses who reported back will participate again next year! uottawa Concordia University 3

4 PARTNERS CAMPUSES Alberta Bow Valley College Keyano College MacEwan University Prairie Bible College University of Alberta University of Calgary British Columbia British Columbia Institute of Technology Capilano University Simon Fraser University University of British Columbia University of Northern British Columbia Manitoba Red River College New Brunswick University of New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Memorial University of Newfoundland Nova Scotia Acadia University Cape Breton University Dalhousie University Nova Scotia Community College, Institute of Technology Nova Scotia Community College, Kingstec Nova Scotia Community College, Truro Nova Scotia Community College, Waterfront Saint Mary s University St. Francis Xavier University University of King s College 4 Ontario Carleton University Conestoga College Humber College, Lakeshore Humber College, North Campus Laurentian University McMaster University Mohawk College Niagara College Ryerson University St. Paul s University College Trent University University of Guelph University of Ontario Institute of Technology University of Ottawa University of St. Michael s College University of Toronto, Mississauga University of Toronto, Scarborough University of Toronto, St George Western University Prince Edward Island University of Prince Edward Island Quebec Cégep de Sorel-Tracy Cégep Édouard-Montpetit Collège André-Grasset Concordia University McGill University Polytechnique Montréal Université de Montréal Vanier College Saskatchewan University of Regina COMPANIES Alpha Wolf Coffee Ben & Jerry s Camino Discovery Organics Divine Chocolate Doi Chaang Coffee Co. Endangered Species Chocolate Equifruit Ethical Bean Coffee Fair Trade Jewellery Co. Full Steam Coffee Glee Gum Green Campus Cotton Hatch Coffee Roasters Just Us! Kicking Horse Coffee Laughing Whale Coffee Numi Organic Tea Nuterra granola Planet Bean Tubify Organic Craft Freezies VOLO Athletics Whistler Chocolate PARTNERS Aramark Association québécoise du commerce équitable Brown s Dining Solutions Canadian Fair Trade Network Chartwells Sodexo World University Service of Canada Cégep Edouard Monpetit

5 ENGAGEMENT Every year, Campuses prove to be creative when it comes to organizing engaging activities to talk about fair trade. This year, 53 campuses actively participated by holding different activities throughout the week or on certain days. Campuses are encouraged to organize what makes most sense for them, to showcase Fairtrade products and explain the impact of Fairtrade. Here is an overview of the most successful type of activities and ideas that took place this year: Booths (Q&A, sign up, follow on social media, chance to win a prize, tasting pop up) Chocolate fountain Coffee house Different featured product or theme every day of the week Fairtrade cotton t-shirt signing (in one word what fair trade means to you) Film festival or movie night Giant Fairtrade cookieeating challenge Giveaways / contests (booth, social media, event) Invite sponsor companies to attend or speak at events Look for the gorilla walking around campus Pancake breakfast (students were asked a question about Fairtrade) Participate in other likeminded initiatives on Campus during the Week Petition Photo booth Question/prize wheel Smoothie bike (built by the Campus) McGill University Soccer match Speaking at the beginning of classes Special discount on Fairtrade products sold on Campus Trivia Vendor fair with local vendors and musicians Waffle Wednesday Wine and beer night World s Largest Fair Trade Bake Sale by donation worked better than set prices Concordia University Laurentian University 5

6 ONLINE PRESENCE We saw significant engagement across several social media networks captured on our Tumblr page. The page is a great indicator of the activities that took place and features most of the social media posts shared by partners throughout the Week. As part of our content creation strategy, we created a wide range of visuals and other digital tools via our Digital Tool Kit that could easily be shared on social media by participants. With a focused strategy around social media content, we saw on Fairtrade Canada s social media platforms alone an impressive increase of 236% in social media impressions from 2016! Impressions were calculated at around 154K for the month of September, which includes our activities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In addition to social media visibility, partners were featured in our online content strategy through our website. As part of this strategy, we created a list of participating campuses and companies and publicly launched the campaign with a News piece and a blog post. Despite not seeing a significant increase in general traffic to our website this year, we noticed an impressive traffic bump to the Fair Trade Campus Weekrelated pages which received 2,016 page views all together during the month of September, which is a 50% increase from last year. Cégep de Sorel-Tracy Humber College 6

7 WORLD S LARGEST FAIR TRADE BAKE SALE The World s Largest Fairtrade Bake Sale, a new campaign launched in 2017, took place during Fair Trade Campus Week on Thursday September 28. It is an initiative led by Canadian campuses wanting to come together to celebrate farmers and workers of the Global South by baking treats made of Fairtrade ingredients. Other groups were also invited to organize their own bake sale - even a few high schools joined in! Fairtrade Canada created resources such as a microsite (fairtradebakesale.ca), a logo, a collection of shareable images, stickers, posters, social media messages and a press release template. Meanwhile other partners like the Association québécoise du commerce équitable and the Canadian Fair Trade Network helped coordinate and implement the event, and were recipients of the funds collected*. Of course, Campuses were the leading force behind everything and collaborated closely with various partners to make the bake sales a reality. Take a look at our Tumblr page to see the deliciousness and creativity! *At the time of writing this report not all of the proceeds had been received. However, they will be used to support fair trade education and awareness in Canada and community development projects through producer partners in the Global South. The World s Largest Fair Trade Bake Sale in numbers: Estimate of 25,000 participants Close to $10,000* collected across the country (not all initiatives collected money) Close to 40 bake sales organized Bake sales took place in all 10 provinces 15,000 impressions via Fairtrade Canada s social media platforms which equals to almost 10% of the overall week s impressions 2,919 website views McGill University 7

8 FEEDBACK & LOOKING AHEAD As in previous years, the comments and feedback from participants involved were positive! Of the Campuses who reported back, 89% will participate again (11% responded Don t know which was mostly due to students graduating) whereas 100% of companies will do so as well. Across the board there is an agreement that this campaign is extremely valuable to raise awareness about fair trade and Fairtrade certified products while allowing different partners such as food service, students, administration and companies to connect. Companies were also impressed by the number of participating campuses (and their commitment and enthusiasm) which keeps growing: we saw a 23% increase from Meanwhile, Campuses continue to be delighted with the quality and quantity of Fairtrade product donations. Below is some of the feedback collected as well as some elements to take into consideration as we look ahead to the 6th edition of Fair Trade Campus Week. Feedback The coordination of Fairtrade product donation is well organized. However, for some product categories that are time sensitive like fresh produce the process could be improved. It would be ideal for Campuses to be matched with companies that provide products not available on campus. That way, it would give them an opportunity to discover new ones! While all products were well received (as well as the quantities provided), in terms of format, some Campuses definitely prefer to receive products that are low in waste (such as bulk ingredients) as they want to have more green initiatives. However, others have a clear preference for smaller and individual items. Coffee, chocolate, tea, bananas are always very popular while there is still a definite interest in also receiving different product categories. Companies are encouraged to send promotional materials to support their products, including giveaways. Companies must ensure to ship the products early enough so that they arrive before the Week. Companies also enjoy the fact that they can contribute as little or as much as they want: it allows for companies of all sizes to participate. Looking ahead to 2018 As participation is increasing, the matching process for product donations is getting increasingly difficult. Fairtrade Canada doesn t have space or resources to manage this in-house but will propose a new process whereby campuses contact companies directly. This will mean that deadlines will be strictly enforced. Campuses are encouraged to partner with close by campuses to join forces. Campuses and companies are encouraged to get in touch with each other to explore product availability opportunities. While social media visibility is required by all campuses receiving product donations, it still has proven to be difficult to get visibility for all sponsors. We need to explore how we can further support campuses to increase social media visibility. More social media visibility should also be done ahead of time to promote initiatives such as the Twitter Chat. Use the hashtags #FairTradeCampusÉquitable, #FairTradeCampus, #CampusÉquitable to be consistent. Our 2017 stars Of the 27 Campuses that sent complete reports, 2 were randomly picked to win a bag full of Fairtrade products. Congratulations to University of Prince Edward Island and Laurentian University. 8

9 PHOTOS MacEwan University SFU Humber College University of New Brunswick uottawa University of PEI 9

10 Sep FAIR TRADE Semaine du CAMPUS Y WEEK équitable 2017 Thanks to our Sponsors! Merci à nos commanditaires! MC/TM Fair Trade Campus Week is a perfect way to get students, staff and Food Service providers more educated on Fairtrade; teaching about what Fairtrade means, why its important and what products are available 10 to them. Additionally, it helps to educate the next generation of shoppers on making informed purchasing decisions at their grocery stores. Michelle Gubbels, Project Manager, Equifruit It s a fun way to spread awareness and drive engagement all across the country! fairtrade.ca Molly Lederer, Director of Communications and Marketing, Glee Gum

11 FAIRTRADE CANADA Fairtrade Canada is the Canadian member of Fairtrade International. We are a national, nonprofit organization that certifies, promotes and advocates Fairtrade. Our work can be broken into five main categories: certification, licensing, commercial engagement, education, advocacy. Our Vision A world where trade justice and sustainable development principles are practiced globally, thereby moving world farmers and workers from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency. Our Mission To support the principles of trade justice and sustainable development by: Increasing the sales of Fairtrade certified products in Canada Maximizing the benefits of Fairtrade to farmers and workers Supporting the work of others to advance our vision Fairtrade Canada 11

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