Jena has been a "Fairtrade city" for 10 years

The city of Jena continues to fulfill all five criteria of the Fairtrade Towns campaign and bears the title Fairtrade Town for another two years. The award was first presented by Fairtrade Deutschland e.V. in 2012.

Christian Gerlitz, Mayor and Head of Department for Urban Development and the Environment, is delighted about the extension of the title:

"The confirmation of the award is a nice testimony to the sustainable anchoring of fair trade in Jena. I am proud that Jena is part of the international network of Fairtrade Towns and that civil society is so committed to fair international trade."

Ten years ago, the city of Jena received its first Fairtrade award from the non-profit association Fairtrade Deutschland e.V., for which it had to demonstrably fulfill five criteria. As early as 2011, support for fair trade was enshrined in a city council resolution. A steering group was formed with actors from the field of development policy. Since then, it has coordinated the activities on site.

Commitment of civil society and educational institutions

The commitment of civil society and educational institutions in Jena is particularly diverse: the city's own chocolate - the Jena "Paradies-Tafel" -, the city partnership coffee "San Jena", initiated by Eine-Welt-Haus e.V., the first fair daycare center in Thuringia (Kita "Sternschnuppe"), the studentFAIRma of the Jenaplan School Jena and various campaigns for Fashion Revolution Week, the digital change map, which is currently being updated, and the sustainable homework booklet "Möhrchenheft" are just a few examples of successful projects in recent years.

Expansion of municipal development cooperation

Together with the stakeholders in the steering group, the city of Jena continues to focus on expanding municipal development cooperation. This essentially includes the promotion of fair trade, local development-oriented educational activities and close cooperation within the framework of city partnerships in the global South. The city partnership with San Marcos in Nicaragua deserves special mention here.

The Fairtrade Towns campaign also offers the city of Jena concrete options for action to implement the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted in 2015. Under the motto "Think globally, act locally", the city of Jena is making an important contribution with its commitment. Since 2021, the City Council of Jena has also adopted a sustainability strategy with a comprehensive program of action. The sustainability strategy was developed with external support from Zukunftsfähiges Thüringen e. V. and is part of the "Globally sustainable municipality in Thuringia" project. The action program contains 174 measures, including a focus on promoting the Fairtrade movement in Jena.

Fairtrade Towns in Germany

Jena is one of almost 800 Fairtrade Towns in Germany. The global network of Fairtrade Towns comprises over 2,000 Fairtrade municipalities in a total of 36 countries, including the UK, Sweden, Brazil and Lebanon. Further information on the Fairtrade Towns campaign can be found here(link is external).