In Delhi 6,000 tons of waste end up on the streets every day. Approximately 2 million people make a living by collecting this waste. The company Conserve uses rubber inner tubes of cars, safety belts, plastic bags and old jeans as base material for producing fashion accessories. In the Delhi district where the waste is collected, Conserve has started a school to give local children an education for a better future. For more details about Conserve, see www.fairtrade.nl.

Together with woodworkers in Vietnam Piet Hein Eek has designed eye-catching products made of boxwood for Fair Trade Original. For Vietnamese woodworkers boxwood is pretty and fast-growing base material. However, it becomes easily warped. Piet Hein Eek has solved this problem by using a special design. Baskets and dishes are made of small, thin strips which are threaded together. This way, they can shrink and expand while the product remains intact. The woodworkers have asked the fishermen in their village for advice about knots and sturdy threads.

We, Mattias Rask and Tor Palm, are a Swedish design duo. We strive to work with artisans from around the globe, creating objects with a deeper story in the encounter between design and crafts. Glimpt of South Africa is our first project where we tried out our ambition to work with artisans from other parts of the world. As a joint venture with The Potters Workshop in Cape Town, we created a series of products meant for the European market but with a feeling of South Africa. The outcome was the ceiling lamps Forbidden Fruit. The lamps combine ceramics and turned wooden pearls.

For Unseen Products Ferry Meewisse has developed a bag line in a workplace nearby Calcutta. The line consists of button and zipper bags and is made of eco-leather. All models are made in three colors that are light brown, dark brown and black. Lining is black with a frrry ville screen print.
Ferry has wrote his expiences down in his blog

Winner Toon van Tuijl Design Award 2007!

Os Elos is the project behind the leather carpets designed by Manon Juliette in Brazil. Her design is a winner on different levels. Not only is the carpet a beautiful and tactile creation, it is also a source of employment for Brazilian people with disadvantages. And you wouldn’t tell by admiring the carpet but it is totally made out of leftover leather. Then, the process allows the carpets to be fixed together using nothing but the leather itself. There is no need for any sewing or gluing which makes the carpets a modular system and enables the carpets to be extended or divided as necessary throughout it’s life. Guaranteed to fit whatever home you decide to move on next.

The co-operation of feminine producers in Nepal, has started this new project. A Design products collection. In co-operation with Dutch designers a new collection has been produced with the first 18 companies. All participants of this unique project are part of fair business. Womanpower has a poverty alleviation target reached trough a business, work and production improvement.

Since 2005 Dutch Design in Development (DDiD) acts as a matchmaker between Dutch designers and small, medium enterprises in developing countries. During these matchmakings, Dutch designers work together with local designers an craftsmen to produce products that are \'tuned\' for the European market.
DDiD works mainly by order of Dutch companies that want to stimulate the sales in Europe of sustainable produced products from developing countries.
DDiD offers Dutch designers the possibility to gather new inspiration and to work in different circumstances and with other materials and techniques than they\'re accustomed to.
Partner of DDiD (which was founded by NCDO), is the Association of Dutch Designers (BNO).

DDiD is about sustainable design:

People
• Sustainable trade with producers in developing countries
• Exchange of knowledge on design, trends and product development
• DDiD works with fair trade producers but also works with producers who are willing to improve their social and environmental circumstances and conditions

Planet
• Use of sustainable materials e.g. bamboo (as a replacement for wood, suitable for textile fabric), water hyacinth (suitable for making paper and rope) • Use of waste material
• Sustainable production

Profit
• DDiD products are sold exclusively in living – and fashion shops, department stores and b to b companies / multinationals in the Netherlands and Europe
• Producers in developing countries increase their sales

The Impulse collection of lights is a result of combining ancient handicraft methods from Nepal with high tech technique developed in the Netherlands. An example of where East meets West. During his trip to Nepal Michiel van der Kley became fascinated by the age old tradition of papermaking from the Lokta plant. This indigenous material is both beautiful and interesting as every piece will look slightly different in colour and thickness. However, because of its vulnerability it’s almost impossible to mould it in round shaped moulds. To be able to produce his lamp designs, van der Kley invented a new material ‘paper-plastic’: by using a different layering technique and impregnating the paper with an environmentally friendly coating, he is now able to manufacture sustainable lamps out of Lokta paper.