Banana

Welcome!

The organic banana that brought you here was locally grown in Magé, Brazil.

"Organic," "local" and "fair trade" are examples of the kinds of labels and certifications discussed in the Certified Green panel that you just attended.

They are also major preoccupations of our organization, Quebec, Canada-based environmental group, Equiterre.

Who are we?

Equiterre is one of Canada's leading member based and funded citizens groups. We work on domestic policy as well on promoting responsible consumer choices. Our campaigns reach more than a million people each year.

Equiterre helps build a social movement by encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to make ecological and equitable choices, in a spirit of solidarity.

We promote:

• fair trade
• sustainable agriculture
• responsible consumption
• energy conservation
• active transportation
• public transit
• green building practices
• efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Discover our most exciting recent projects.

Based in Quebec, Canada, but active in the world

Equiterre has been active at the international level since its founding by a group of young activists after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

• At the discussion panel, you may have met Steven Guilbeault, our cofounder and deputy executive director, who also co-chairs Climate Action Network International, a network of more than 700 non-governmental organizations from more than 90 countries.
• We have attended six U.N. climate change conferences, including last year’s conference in Durban, South Africa, where we organized a panel discussion on sustainable transportation featuring experts from around the world.
• We've published many reports, notably on independence from oil – an issue that we work on at a national and international level.
• We recently received a Greek member of E.U. Parliament and met with U.N. right-to-food envoy Olivier De Schutter.
• We helped organize international fair trade forums in Cancun (2003) and Hong Kong (2005).

Fair trade is one of the main ways we are active internationally

Equiterre helped pioneer the fair trade movement in Quebec in 1996. Now most Quebecers would be hard pressed to remember a time when fair trade products were not readily available. Today, we are still involved in the movement, which continues to find new ways to address issues of poverty, the environment and North-South inequities.

For more information on:

Our fair trade projects
Rio+20

To contact us at Rio+20:

Eveline Trudel-Fugère
etfugere@equiterre.org