2007 - Fast Company Magazine's Social Capitalist Awards
2006 – WorldBlu's World's Most Democratic Workplaces
In what is possibly the first-of-its-kind list the Washington D.C.-based firm WorldBlu has tried to identify the world's most democratic workplaces. Companies and non-profits from 4 countries participated and only 34 made the cut. Equal Exchange was honored to be one of the 4 worker cooperatives to be named.
Our worker-owned structure, and our way of blending familiar forms of civic democracy (one-person/one-vote, leaders are accountable to those they lead, etc.) with a viable business help to demonstrate that it IS possible to bring democracy with you when you go to work.
2006 – SBANE Innovation Award
2006 – Oregon Tilth "Organic Handler of the Year" Award
2001 - Oxfam America Heroes Award
1999 - Natural Products Expo Socially Responsible Business Award
Every year at the Fall Natural Products Expo a few of the 1,000+ firms in the Natural Products industry are signaled out for their socially responsible business practices. Equal Exchange was honored for its pioneering role in Fair Trade, and for it unusual worker-cooperative business model.
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Rodney North & Jessie Myszka accepting SBANE award for Equal Exchange |
1999 - Business Ethics magazine award for Stakeholder Relations
Every year Business Ethics magazine (now known as "CRO – Corporate Responsibility Officer") honors 3 or 4 companies that excel in some aspect of running a socially responsible business, especially those firms that are pioneering new models. In 1999 Equal Exchange was selected as the company that best exemplified how a firm could balance the interests of it many stakeholders, instead of simply maximizing the returns to its shareholders.
The judges noted how Equal Exchange did not merely choose to address the interests of employees or farmers, etc., but built into its ownership structure and brand many permanent protections for those with a stake in our business.
Our employees – Equal Exchange is a worker-cooperative, and as such is owned and governed by its "worker-owners". Each worker-owner possesses one-share and one-vote in important decisions and may run for our board of directors. The worker-owners hold 6 of the 9 board seats and elect all 9 board directors thereby ensuring their ability to look after their interests.
To prevent a gap between top managers and rank-and-file staff, there is also a 4:1 pay ratio cap: no employee may be paid more than 4 times as much as another. This compares to a top-to-bottom ratio of 300:1 or more at many Fortune 500 companies.
Our small-farmer suppliers – In our Mission Statement, in our Guiding Principles and in the brand we’ve carefully built over 20 years Equal Exchange has committed to buying 100% of our coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. on Fair Trade terms.
Outside investors – Equal Exchange is a business, and not a non-profit, and so we need capital in order to carry out our work and grow. To acquire that capital we promise our outside investors that we’ll use their funds to make an exceptional social impact, but also strive to pay them a 5% annual return. Over the years we have paid this 5% every year but two. When we had a very good year in 1996 we paid a 6% dividend, and when we had a rare loss in 1998 we still paid out a 3% return, even while the worker-owners took a loss.
The Environment – Equal Exchange has been a strong advocate for safe, chemical-free organic agriculture since 1990. Today over 85% of the 4,000,000 pounds of coffee we buy annually is certified organic, as is 100% of the tea, cocoa, sugar, almonds, and cranberries that we buy and sell.
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Our Co-op 
