Responsible Sourcing – Ethical Tea Partnership
Social justice and environmental sustainability are major issues facing the tea industry. As a tea planter, our founder, Sam Sameen, spent years working with tea-growing communities so is well versed in the challenges: education, environmental degradation and workers’ health, to name a few. During Sam’s time in the Sri Lankan tea plantations, he was closely involved in employee welfare and instrumental in projects that included building houses and crèches for workers, providing access to clean drinking water and getting electricity into workers’ quarters.
Since starting The Tea Makers of London in 2010, Sam has remained committed to helping support the communities and regions from which we import our tea.
What Is The Ethical Tea Partnership?
The Tea Makers of London is proud to be a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) – a not-for-profit organisation working with tea companies, development organisations and governments to improve the lives of tea workers, farmers and the environment in which they live and work.
The organisation is made up of small but dedicated expert teams across most tea-growing regions, including Africa and Asia, and includes a London-based secretariat.
What Are The Goals?
The aim of the ETP is to drive forward long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment. The ETP's work improves the progress that is being made towards attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in tea-growing regions.
A Better Future For The Tea Industry
As much of the world’s tea is grown in places that face significant sustainability challenges, the ETP’s priority is to tackle the deep-rooted issues and some of the most complex challenges that tea workers and farmers are facing. As well as supporting communities on the ground with their programmes across Africa and Asia, ETP also leads the sustainability agenda through piloting business innovations and influencing policy.
Their work also focuses on improving incomes and empowering women, as well as helping the sector to become more resilient to the impact of climate change.
To date, the ETP’s work has reached more than 1 million tea workers, small-scale farmers and their communities.
Find out more here: Ethical Tea Partnership