Better Origins: How we choose our suppliers
We set out to establish a business that truly does no harm to the earth, or the lives it sustains. So we care about product origins a lot more than most.
For us, it’s local first. If someone is making goods we need in our neighborhood, they’re our obvious choice. We can better see who we’re supporting, what values they uphold, how they do what they do, and we know where to turn if quality falls short of expectations. The same holds true for the rest of the country, to an extent. It’s the single best choice we can all make for the sustainability of our society. And less transportation generally means less resources consumed, which makes it a win win.
Yet, not everything can or is made locally, and even if it is, it’s not always a suitable choice. Local suppliers can’t always keep up with demand, or necessarily care for product quality, or even know what to do when a retailer comes knocking. So some things just have to be sourced overseas.
But which countries are safer to buy from than others? How do we avoid slave labor, environmental destruction, toxic ingredients from areas with different health standards to ours, and even funding genocidal regimes when we can’t meet our makers?
These are big questions. But thankfully, there are organizations such as Freedom House have already mapped these things out for us.
Head to freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map to discover how each country scores in their freedom index
Buying ethically is still possible. We’ve managed to not only stock our entire store, but also equip our cafe, purely from the Free World, principally the US. And here’s how we choose where to draw the line on product origins when we have to venture overseas:
Are the people of that country free? Would we ultimately be helping them or hurting them? Will they be taxed by tyrants or terrorists? What impact will they leave on their local (and our global) environment?
There are actually maps for all these things. Freedom house is where we start…
Hold that thought. I have to rush off to go open up the store now. I’ll show you those maps shortly.
TO BE CONTINUED.