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From its humble beginnings in the 1950s, Fair Trade has developed into a global movement. A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor, “The Next Step in the ethical consumer revolution,” reveals Fair Trade sales across Europe, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Japan have experienced double digit growth since 2002.

“Ethical consumerism will increasingly come to the fore as people shop for products they feel akin to politically, ethically and aesthetically, said Nick Beevors, consumer market analyst at Datamonitor and the report’s author, in a prepared statement. “Consumers will choose brands that are actively making a difference in a transparent and trustworthy manner. This is reflected by the double-digit growth of 15.7 percent (between 2007 and 2012),which Datamonitor forecasts for fair-trade purchases over the next 5 years, in the 11 countries covered in the report.”

Environmental concerns represent the most important issue in ethical consumption today, helping to drive the growth of ethical markets such as fair-trade. Consumers are becoming more concerned with how their actions are affecting the world around them, even eclipsing general concerns about society, economic and animal cruelty issues.

Catastrophic natural disasters in the western world, such as hurricane Katrina in the U.S., drought in Australia and floods in the U.K., are increasingly attributed to climatic change and as the threat becomes more ‘real’ to western consumers, the trend will become increasingly important. “Consumers are most concerned about climate change not just in an altruistic way regarding the fate of nature, but as genuine concern for human life and importantly, their own quality of life,” said Beevors.

As ethical and environmental consciousness grows so too will certain types of buying behavior. This is reflected by the growth of key product segments, notably Fair-Trade and organic consumption. As more businesses adopt more ethically sound policies, transparency and trust will become an increasingly important currency as manufacturers attempt to cool a potential consumer backlash to ‘greenwashing’ in the search for clear, honest and effective environmental benefits. For more information, go to: www.datamonitor.com.