OTTAWA-- Students across Canada are celebrating the success of an unprecedented national student-run buying consortium that distributes fairly-traded, environmentally-conscious and union-made orientation week materials. Over 50 students' unions collaboratively purchased more than 200,000 items from ethical manufacturers. Items included T-shirts, tote-bags, laundry-bags, water bottles, lanyards, pens, and clipboards.

The not-for-profit buying consortium was created by the Canadian Federation of Students-Services in order to provide ethically manufactured materials of higher quality and lower price than readily available "sweatshop" materials.

"For years, students have been calling on their campus administrators to end the use of unethically produced garments and materials," said Dave Molenhuis, Canadian Federation of Students-Services Treasurer. "This project, makes it easy for students' unions to practice what they preach."

It is expected that this year's success will result in greater participation in the ethical buying consortium next year. "By harnessing the collective purchasing power of students' unions across Canada, we have made it easy and cost-effective for orientation week events everywhere to be sweatshop-free," said Ben Lewis, Project Coordinator. "As far as students are concerned, this project marks the end of the 'business as usual' approach to sweatshop materials on campus."

The consortium is an extension of other student-run ethical bulk-buying services. For example, the Federation has also coordinated the bulk purchase of over one million union-made student dayplanners printed on post-consumer recycled paper using vegetable-based inks and recycled coiling since 2001.

The Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's largest national students' organisation. It is composed of more than 80 university and college students' associations with a combined membership of over one-half million students.