Bentley on Track to be the First Fair Trade-Certified U.S. Business University

“Fair trade is a business model that ensures we are valuing people and planet just as important — if not more important — than profit,” Milbery said. “It ensures that people are being paid fairly and that there is no child labor or slavery involved all the way up the supply chain.” 

According to a nationwide Bentley-Gallup survey, 88% of Americans think companies should try and make the world better, with 72% saying they would pay more for a product from a company that treats its employees well. 

“The conscious consumption movement is growing, and more people are seeing that consumers can collectively use their purchasing power to push businesses to favor the triple bottom line over bottom-line profit,” White said.  

He sees that kind of social advocacy by BSLCE student leaders, including those who helped Milbery launch the Fair Trade Fair in 2014 and who first proposed the Fair Trade University certification process in 2015. “This is also a story about our students as civic leaders — business school students who are going to go out into the corporate world and represent a generation that wants to use business to help create a better world,” White says. “When we purchase fair trade products, they taste extra good because of their special ingredients: equity, fairness, planetary stewardship and justice.”