History

The Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETP) mission is to improve the lives of people in tea communities and the environment in which they live and work. Throughout our history we have forerun new and innovative ways to achieve this.

We were set up in 1997 by a pioneering group of tea experts who wanted to take a coordinated approach to addressing ethical issues in the tea supply chain. Our approach was ground-breaking: at the time there was hardly any experience of social and environmental standards in the sector, and our focus was on raising these. 

We learnt a lot from this work, and know that audits can be a useful tool when trying to raise standards, but we are clear that they are not enough to address the fundamental issues that are holding back the sustainability of tea. Now that there is large-scale certification in the industry, we are concentrating our efforts wholly on achieving long-term change, and have phased out our auditing programme.

Today, we work with our membership of 50 international tea companies to tackle complex, deep-rooted issues that can’t be addressed sufficiently through certification alone. Building on our pioneering history, we convene tea companies, development agencies, governmental and non-governmental organisations to improve the lives of people in tea communities. We work in partnership to tackle the underlying issues that are holding back the sustainability of the sector.

Our work is far-reaching: we improve the incomes and well-being of tea workers, small-scale farmers and their families, help to empower women to be more independent, reduce gender-based violence and increase climate change resilience. As well as supporting communities on the ground with our programmes, ETP also leads the sustainability agenda through piloting business innovations and influencing policy.

Our work spans the main tea producing regions across the globe. We have expert regional staff in place in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka who understand the challenges faced by tea workers and farmers, as well as the industry in each region.

As our reach has evolved, so too have our partnerships. We work with a range of public sector partners such as IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and German development agency GIZ, as well as NGOs such as UNICEF and Mercy Corps. We have a strong membership base with 50 international members, including tea companies and retailers from Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America.

Find out how our work is changing people’s lives here.

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