Ben & Jerry’s: How One Company has Integrated Sustainable Practices into its Business Model, and Thrived
by Jennifer Lefebvre
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream began as a small “scoop shop” in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont. From the company’s inception more than thirty years ago, their plan was to provide quality ice cream while also creating a company that was socially conscious about the world and its environment. Within only a few years of opening, the demand for their ice cream grew and the company started making deliveries to local grocery stores and restaurants. In 1983, their first out-of-state franchise opened in Portland, Maine and they began to distribute ice cream in Boston, as well. By 1985, they were expanding outside of New England and decided to establish the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. The company provided 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to fund community-oriented projects through the Foundation. In 1988, they received a corporate giving award from the Council on Economic Priorities. Also in 1988, the company established a new Environmental Action Plan which was conceived largely by the company’s already environmentally conscious employees.
The program began when a group of employees dove into the company’s dumpsters to evaluate the amount and type of waste generated by the company. Their “research” gave them three types of trash to focus on: plastic, paper, and cardboard. They began shipping their plastic ingredient buckets to Vermont Republic Industries to be recycled and reused. Ben & Jerry’s production crew purchased a baler which helped in recycling cardboard to be used by paper broker companies. Through these measures, within one year of the inception of the plan, the company had already saved $17,000 in hauling and landfill costs.
Realizing their success early on, the company created the “Green Team,” a team led by employees whose primary goal is to create more environmental awareness and to educate others. In the same year as the creation of the “Green Team,” they completed their first wastewater pre-treatment lagoon system helping to reduce the levels of high-strength dairy wastewater before it ends up in the water treatment center. This was the beginning of many years of research to monitor their wastewater volumes. In 1992, Ben & Jerry’s became the first publicly-traded company in the United States to sign the Ceres Principles. This requires them to submit a report of their environmental performance every year. In 2001 Ceres presented the organization’s first-ever award for Outstanding Sustainability Reporting to Ben & Jerry’s.
In 1993, the company began giving their out-of-date, mislabeled and unusable product to a local trash-to-energy incineration plant which helps to generate power to people’s homes. In addition, they began to supply some of their waste product to a local composting plant where the waste is used as fertilizer for crops. In 1998, new storefronts were built using environmentally conscious materials like recycled glass. In addition, the company began using unbleached brown kraft paper for packaging purposes.
In 1999, Ben & Jerry’s launched its 3-year Sustainable Agriculture Project, the first phase of which involved a two-farm pilot project to develop tools to demonstrate that management practices can reduce the risk of nitrogen and phosphorus losses from dairy farms. In turn, such practices could improve the environmental performance at the farm level. In 2002, the company made public its goal to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent. Their plan was to offset two years of CO2 emissions by supporting a wind turbine in the grasslands of South Dakota.
Although Ben & Jerry’s was purchased by the national company Unilever in 2000, the company was adamant that their Environmental Plan was a commitment about which they and their employees felt strongly. Because the company and its employees stood behind Ben & Jerry’s Environmental Plan, Unilever has left these efforts virtually untouched as they folded the company into its global portfolio. Because of this, Ben & Jerry’s has been able to continue its sustainable practices and is now known as one of the most environmentally conscious company’s in the United States. In the end, not only has the company’s practices benefitted the environment, Ben & Jerry’s reputation has been strengthened among environmentally conscious consumers and the company has seen additional benefits from cost savings generated by implementing more sustainable business practices.
Tags: Ben & Jerry's, Ben & Jerry's Foundation, Ceres Principles, Council on Economic Priorities
