Back in 2005, a small distributor started in Vancouver with a mission to change the world through the simple act of buying and in the convening years, Fairware has had an outsized impact on our entire industry to produce more sustainably.
After all, when they first began their business nearly 20 years ago, they were the first ones pushing suppliers –gently but firmly– to report, change, or advance their sustainable practices and they were the 1st distributor to become B Corp certified. Since then, they’ve earned an Ecovadis Silver and have become Climate Smart certified, and though Fairware has been tracking their social and environmental impact for over 10 years, in 2024 produced their first Impact Report.
Now, normally, Impact Reports are dry, multi-page doc that, despite their accomplishments, often leave you feeling less inspired than when you started reading them. Not Fairwares. It’s a beautifully designed, compelling message that unpacks their responsible sourcing mission, supply chain overview, their justice, equity, diversity & inclusion commitment, company culture, hiring approach, and their community impact.
Why is something like this even important? Because many distributors will lean toward a commitment to source better, source responsibly, but it’s another matter
entirely to put a stake in the ground and publicly declare your commitment and progress to all partners, clients, and future stakeholders.
Fairware states, “We believe that if done right, merchandise can amplify movements, uplift communities and showcase a more sustainable way of doing business” and their impact report codifies that belief and reveals actionable change.
Join us as we chat with CEO Denise Taschereau and COO Sarah White, who, as always, share from their experience in order to help make us all better.
One quick note: If you are going to skucon and the PPAI Expo, we’ve got a host of activities we’d like to invite you to and we’ve made it simple for you to find them all at commonsku.com/expo – We’re hosting a Breakfast Club, Happy Hours, and members of our team are leading sessions, I’ll be leading a session on how to map bold merch trends to a killer sales strategy, Charlie Moscoe and Aaron Kucheraway are leading a session on Connecting your Workflow, and you can even find a handy list of all the commonsku suppliers and their expo booth numbers in a convenient doc — For our breakfast club and happy hours you’ll need to RSVP so hop on over to commonsku.com/expo and we will see you in Las Vegas.
