What's the meaning of the word "Solidale" (Solidal) ?

When a buying group doesn't search for the ultimate discounted rate, but instead puts people and environment before profit the group become a Solidal buyers group. As a consequence, in a Solidal buying group the guidelines in the choice of the products and the producers are the respect for the environment and the solidarity between the members of the group, the traders and the producers. More in detail, these guidelines lead to the choice of local products (in order to minimize the environmental impact of the transport), fair-trade goods (in order to respect disadvantaged producers by promoting their human rights, in particular women's, children's and indigenous people one's) and reusable or eco-compatible goods (to promote a sustainable lifestyle).

Why do new groups born ?

Every single G.A.S. has it's specific motivation, but usually all groups draw their roots from a critical approach to today's global economical model and consumistic lifestyle; individuals that feel the unfairness in this model and are searching for a practical alternative can find reciprocal aid and advice by joining solidal buying groups.

How typically a new group grow ?

Usually when some friends develop a trend toward a less consumistic way of life the idea of undertaking shared purchases initiatives is quite natural. When the idea becomes more concrete, a fair amount of effort is needed for the search of some local producer that meet the solidal criteria; the next step is the establishment of an internal structure in the group in order to collect the orders and redistribute the products, and the solidal buying group is already born!

What's the G.A.S. Network concept ?

As stated before, a very demanding task in a G.A.S. is the continuous search for producers and products that satisfy the most stringent ethical requirements, and it is now possible to share this kind of information between different groups by joining them in a network; nowadays the Italian network counts about 100 solidal buying groups.

Freetuscany no profit association

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