ENTERPRISE
Going Beyond Fair Trade:
Equal Exchange’s Democratic Business
Structure Ensures Mission-Driven Growth
By Kat Schuett
Ina utopian world, what would a business looklike? Certainly, it would follow organic and fair trade practices, making sure that farmers were treated as equals, rewarded for their work and not exposed to harmful pesticides. But what happens once it leaves the farm? How do you create a truly “fair business?”
Creating a business that
was fair from farm to store
(and everything in between)
was the inspiration for Equal
Exchange, the first company
to sell fair trade food or bev-
erages in the United States.
In 1986 the founders not
only developed a system for
fair trading with small farm-
ers, but also sought to build a
business infrastructure that
was as democratic as possi-
ble. The result was a worker-
owned cooperative where
each employee owns an
equal share in the company
made via employee-shareholder vote. The company’s by-laws reflect its mission as well. These in-
clude an egalitarian pay scale that is not exceed a 4:1 ratio between the highest and lowest paid
full-time employees, and a “no exit strategy” policy stating that if the employee-owners ever de-
cided to sell the business then any net proceeds must be donated to another fair trade organiza-
tion, and not simply pocketed. And, due to its unconventional capital model, in over 25 years of
growth Equal Exchange has never had to compromise its mission to satisfy profit-seeking
investors.
