What’s in a name?
Fairtrade names are all over the map.

We’ve been discussing how best to build naming conventions around the labels in this site. Particularly in the retail goods type this can be a challenge. Some labels have the country integrated into their name (Fair Flower Program Germany) others do not (Environmentally Friendly Label (Croatia)). Where the name is not in the title we decided to add it in brackets to make it easier for people using our site.

Here’s another pickle presented by Fairtrade, which seems caught between Fairtrade, Max Havelaar, and Transfair as well as between Mark and Label:

Fairtrade Austria
Max Havelaar Belgium
Transfair Canada
Max Havelaar Denmark
Max Havelaar France
TransFair Germany
Fairtrade Foundation UK
TransFair Italy
Fairtrade Mark Ireland
Fairtrade Label Japan

While we welcome diversity there are times when standardisation is useful. From a consumer and directory building perspective, we’re leaning toward the standards are useful end of the spectrum with regard to label names.

Tags: fairtrade, standards
Posted by Jacob on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 | Permalink |

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