“Sustainable and Fair Trade”

On 17 September 2026, a normal Thursday, STUBE Niedersachsen hosted a one-day study excursion in Göttingen titled “Sustainable and Fair Trade”. The programme brought together international students to explore practical models of sustainability, fair trade supply chains, and social inclusion or resource management in Germany.

The excursion began with a visit to Neue Arbeit Brockensammlung, a charitable project combining social services with resource management. The group was welcomed by Karin Sippel from the social service team and her colleague Gwendolyn Friedrich from the shop management team. The name Brockensammlung means a collection of pieces or rescued items, founded in 1984 during a period of high unemployment in Germany.

The motto of the mission is to provide unemployed individuals with meaningful work, daily structure, self-confidence and social respect, helping them reintegrate into the regular job market. There are three locations in Göttingen for their second-hand shops with carpentry and painting workshops offering vocational training too. It seemed to be really practical and workers receive social welfare benefits plus an additional stipend (1.50 euros per hour). We saw different used things in good condition and also some vintage artefacts that are really older.

From there we walked to our next stop at CONTIGO Fairtrade GmbH headquarters and warehouse in Göttingen’s Weststadt, followed by a visit to their inner-city shop and outlet. CEO Ralph Wüstefeld guided the group through the headquarters and explained the company’s philosophy on fairness, sustainability and corporate goals which includes eye-level partnerships with producers, professional speciality stores, highest customer satisfaction, high brand awareness, fair compensation for all employees, and building reserves for growth.

In the warehouse of CONTIGO, all the products are packed and parcelled by hand. The most interesting fact we saw was that actually no automated machinery or computerised tracking systems are used for monitoring, sorting, or packing products inside the warehouse. We were welcomed into the warehouse and we saw how an article turns into a fair product. There are not so many staffs inside but everyone is busy and doing their part efficiently to meet market standards and keep the fairness alive.

Many handcrafts from different parts of the world and especially coffee of many kinds – the whole tour was so much fun and interesting to watch. I personally was obviously searching for something from my country, India. It’s so nice to see articles from different parts of the world are recognised in one place and the worker is directly paid for their efforts. We saw some good collection of vintage coffee artefacts and many other fair trade products.

Later we went to one of the CONTIGO shops, and there we were welcomed by shop manager Diana Feesche. We had nice talks with the staffs there about their life in the shop and how much change fair trade brings to the table. We all enjoyed the speciality coffee along with some fair chocolate milk together at the outlet bar, served by an English-speaking staff member. I got to drink one of the tastiest chocolate milks I had in Germany. Such a nice place to contribute to something so sustainable and fair to all.

So my takeaway from the seminar is actually a lot that I can hardly say in this short report but something so relevant and big on its own. The excursion successfully demonstrated how sustainability operates across different dimensions in Germany – through CONTIGO’s human-centred, hand-packed supply chain and ethical producer partnerships, and from Neue Arbeit Brockensammlung’s second-hand shops, it brings vocational empowerment of unemployed individuals. The day concluded with lunch at the Zentralmensa of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, leaving us with valuable insights into social enterprise and sustainable commerce.

Aravind Chalaparambil Manianpillai