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6. Environment > Greenhouse Gas Emissions Background and Strategy Scientists began to recognize in the early 1960s that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would make the earth warmer. Since that time, rising levels of carbon dioxide primarily resulting from human activities have led to measurable global warming — and global climate change. For many years, in response to this challenge, Ben &. Jerry’s has been striving to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s how we’re acting on this commitment. United States In our Vermont plants, we have identified several key areas of focus, including the following ongoing commitments:
By year end 2006, we successfully achieved our five-year goal to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from our US manufacturing operations by 10%. We successfully achieved and exceeded this goal, reducing our normalized CO2 emissions by a total of 32% below 2002 levels by year-end 2006. In 2007 we began to turn our attention to the emissions associated with our entire US value chain — from our supply chain upstream to the point of sale and downstream to disposal. We already know that most of the climate change impacts of our business happen outside of our manufacturing plants, so we laid the groundwork in 2007 to better understand the details. We intend to complete a carbon inventory to identify significant greenhouse gas emission sources and then we’ll chart an intelligent course forward. We plan to initiate the study in 2008. Europe In collaboration with the Dutch HIER campaign, the project of a consortium of nearly 40 NGOs, Ben & Jerry’s European business launched a ‘Climate Neutral Ice Cream’ project in 2007. This multi-year initiative focuses on four steps:
2007 CO2 emissions performance United States In evaluating our CO2 emissions, we look at the data we collect in two different formats: normalized (CO2 emissions per gallon of product) and absolute (total tons of CO2 emissions). On a normalized basis, the CO2 emissions from our Vermont plants increased in 2007 by 7% above 2006 levels. This result was largely due to lower production volume at our St. Albans plant, which reduced efficiencies. On an absolute basis, CO2 emissions from our Vermont plants were flat from 2006 to 2007. Read more about some of the changes we made in 2007. 
The Netherlands Ben & Jerry’s production accounts for approximately 45% of the total production of the manufacturing plant in Hellendoorn, The Netherlands. The data below represent the CO2 emissions of the entire plant — so we can’t take all of the credit for an excellent performance in 2007. The Hellendoorn plant reduced its CO2 produced per metric tonne of ice cream by 8% from 2006 to 2007. This remarkable performance was the result of increased production efficiency at the plant and the payoff of efficiency investments made in the past year. Check out examples of the projects we initiated in 2007. On an absolute basis, CO2 emissions at the Hellendoorn plant increased by 8% from 2006 to 2007, which primarily reflects the strong production growth in 2007.  |
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