Hello friends!

It’s probably not surprising to you that I’ve been talking to some of my coursemates about tea. Add a class on business ethics to this and I was like “I NEED to write a post about sustainable and ethical tea.” So first question:

Is there a difference between sustainable’ and ethical tea?

Short answer: No, I don’t believe there’s a meaningful difference.

Long answer: There doesn’t seem to be a standard definition for each concept, but from what I see when looking to the fashion industry as a reference [1], ‘ethical’ tends to emphasise the welfare of the people (and in other industries, animals) involved, while ‘sustainable’ tends to emphasise the environmental aspects of the industry.

Looking at the Ethical Tea Partnership’s mission page, the first line states that “The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is a membership organisation working with tea companies, development organisations and governments to improve the lives of tea workers, farmers and their environment.” [2] To me, that shows that the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘ethical’ are pretty much interchangeable, so I’ll be using the terms in that way too.

And that leads me to my next question:

What does ‘Sustainable/Ethical Tea’ Mean Anyway?

It’s easy to say that something is ‘sustainable’ or ‘ethical’, but given how nebulous the definitions of these words can be, is it possible for us to come up with a specific set of criteria to determine if something is sustainable/ethical? I think so!

I really like this paper by V Veleva and M Ellenbecker [3]; it’s a broad look at sustainable production and it comes up with six specific areas that we can look at:

• 
  Energy and material use (resources)
• 
  Natural environment (sinks)
• 
  Social justice and community development
• 
  Economic performance
• 
  Workers, and
• 
  Products.

In the context of the tea industry, I can see these six areas as being translated as:

• Efficient farming methods (especially in terms of carbon emissions)
• Farming and processing methods that are environmentally friendly (e.g. minimal pesticides/artificial fertilisers)
• The farm and tea factory exists in harmony with the community – i.e. it’s not exploiting the local resources. I can see this being very relevant in places where tea tourism is commonplace.
• It’s profitable, and hence self-sustaining
• Workers are paid fairly and where possible, are offered stable rather than seasonal employment
• Products are packaged in the most possible environmentally friendly way

As you can see, sustainable tea is more than just being environmentally friendly – it should be treating its stakeholders (e.g. employees and the wider community) fairly and be an active member of the community.

Do YOU know any Ethical/Sustainable Tea Farms/Tea Brands?

This is an area that I’m really interested in and I am planning to highlight sustainable farms and businesses around the world. If we tea lovers choose to buy from ethical businesses, we are helping these businesses survive and show that there is a demand for sustainable tea.

If you know a farm or a tea brand that is making or selling sustainable tea, please tell me their names! I’ll contact them and see if we can find out more about what makes this farm so great and how we can buy their tea.

Notes

[1] The Difference Between Ethical and Sustainable Shopping by Thread

[2] Ethical Tea Partnership – Mission

[3] Veleva, Vesela, and Michael Ellenbecker. “Indicators of sustainable production: framework and methodology.” Journal of cleaner production 9.6 (2001): 519-549.