May 9th is World Fair Trade Day, which falls, like every year, on the second Saturday of the month. What better way to celebrate than by looking at the data on the concrete results achieved.
The Equo Garantito guarantee system allows us to verify compliance with the requirements of the Fair Trade Criteria Charter by Italian organizations. To do this, it collects reliable information and data, demonstrating that the effects are not promises but proven outcomes. The data is published annually in the Annual Report , which we present in May, detailing the activities of Equo Garantito members (importers, fair trade shops, and Italian producers) in the areas of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) .
This provides a platform for good practices in environmental sustainability, such as the cotton knitwear from Altraqualità (altraq.it), which is certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)—an international standard that guarantees organic cultivation of textile raw materials and compliance with high environmental criteria throughout the production chain—or almost all of Altromercato's (altrornercato.it) sea freight, accounting for 94% of volumes, with a significantly lower emissions impact than air freight.
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Through a guarantee system consisting of three steps : self-assessment, internal and external verification.
The 2025 self-assessment forms show that members meet all essential requirements, averaging 83% on key criteria (a minimum score of 60% is required). The internal assessment was conducted through 11 audits conducted by nine assessors, including interviews with 73 people and visits to 17 locations. The external assessment involves certification of the system's proper functioning by a third-party body (Csqa Certificazioni) .
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Source: Altreconomia