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13. COUNTRY CAPSULES
A Global Mission We don’t have the space or time to tell you everything about how our Company is acting on our Social Mission around the world, but here’s a sampling. Feel free to visit the international page of Ben & Jerry’s website for more about our activities in specific countries. Finland Ilmastotalkoot — Ben & Jerry’s was proud
Charity Christmas Cards — To kick off the holidays, we sold Christmas cards from our scoop shops across the country, and Ben & Jerry’s donated €1 per card to charity.
France Free Cone Day — At no less than
Climate Change College — Marie-Laure Geai, CCC Ambassador for France, acted on her belief that snowboarders and the resorts they enjoy must go green. To that end, she launched her own program to dispense eco-advice and to bring the snowboarding community together under a common cause. Part of her program included developing a pamphlet and a series of lectures in the resort-rich Chamonix Valley promoting sustainable water and energy management in hostels.
Germany Our Free Cone Day, held at scoop shops in Cologne and Berlin, was a huge success, with 3,000 scoops given away and nearly €1,000 raised for a number of local NGOs. In Berlin, DJ Motte (the founder of Berlin’s Love Parade festival), brought music to the masses in front of the scoop shop, and helped celebrate a special “Free Cone Love Parade Day!”
Greece The first two weekends in September marked the first introduction to Ben & Jerry’s in Greece and what better place than at Allou Fun Park in Athens? The event was set up right next to the scoop shop, at which people were invited to come over and try out their basketball skills; shots were aimed at Ben & Jerry’s buckets (corresponding to different flavors) and everyone who hit a shot got a free scoop. Some 2,600 people attended, and 1,328 scoops were given away.
Hong Kong Free Cone Day was held on September 23rd and some 2,496 scoops were given away. The day was marked by a number of charity fundraisers with the help of our partner, the Crossroads Foundation. In all, we raised HK$29,355 for a number of local charities. The figures are all the more amazing because the city was actually hit by a typhoon that same day, which caused events to shut down early.
Ireland Nearly 4,000 cones were served up at our eight scoop shops on Free Cone Day. We developed a free single-serve “Shorty Voucher,” available online, and got 1,000 downloads! The day was also marked by our efforts to raise money for Fairtrade Ireland, which unofficially netted some €1,000 Euros, five times more than last year!. Climate Change College — Cara Augustenborg, CCC Ambassador for Ireland, developed the site www.GreenDIY.ie to help Irish consumers find information about sustainable materials and methods to use in do-it-yourself (DIY) projects. The site was featured as the Irish Times Eco Website of the week, and has received lots of other positive publicity both in Ireland and abroad, attracting readers from 69 countries! One associated program of the site is The Green DIY Learning House, which featured more than 25 products and ten tips to inspire people to begin ‘Green DIY’ projects in their own homes. The House was displayed outside a major shopping center in Ireland in September, and — in a single day — prompted more than 85 people to sign a pledge to do a specific ‘Green DIY’ activity in their homes. The story of Cara’s time as an Ambassador for the CCC and the ‘Green DIY’ campaign is going to be included in an upcoming children’s book on Climate Change by Nicola Davies.
Italy Ben & Jerry’s opened our first scoop shop in Italy on March 18th in the UCI Cinemas of Lissone (near Milan).
Mexico No fewer than 60,000 cones were given away on Free Cone Day, and 4,000 pints were donated to a food bank charity. At a special event Christmas party, 280 cones were given away at a local orphanage.
Netherlands In 2008, we tested a pilot ‘open factory’ tour in our Hellendoorn plant, where Ben & Jerry’s is made in Europe, inspired by the success of the Waterbury Factory Tour in Vermont, which just happens to be the biggest tourist attraction in that state. We set an initial target for 3,000 consumers to visit and view the factory, and we reached the goal in September. An employee-led social mission plan has also been developed in our Hellendoorn plant, similar in concept to our Community Action Teams in the U.S. Under the plan, employees will be given the opportunity to volunteer to participate in community projects, philanthropic grants will be given to local charities, and a Company employee-gift matching program will be initiated. The social mission plan has been funded to support staff time and associated expenses with a €77,000 endowment from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, along with a €103,700 commitment from the Hellendoorn Management team. Climate Change College — Aart van Veller, CCC Ambassador for the Netherlands, is currently completing his university studies while managing his own business called We Are Cool. Committed to inspiring businesses to reduce their energy consumption and pollution impacts, We Are Cool (www.wijzijnkoel.nl ) supplies specific techniques to accomplish those goals. Aart’s biggest current client is MTV in the Netherlands, and while he’s been greening their business practices, they’ve documented his business journey on-air.
Grazing Cow Day — To spread the word about our Caring Dairy program of sustainable dairy farming to the German and Dutch media — and in partnership with the CONO Dairy Cooperative — we celebrated the time-honored Grazing Cow Day in March. This annual Dutch celebration marks the Spring day on which cows can go outside and roam after a long period of being inside in the barn for the winter.
Portugal Lisbon for the Climate Initiative — We participated in this multi-tiered effort for Earth Day to help the citizens of Lisbon make their city an example of sustainability and environmental respect and draw attention to climate change. We brought costumed polar bears along to help with street marketing; and used a print and e-mail campaign; and did concentrated outreach to local universities to collect nearly 10,000 signatures on a petition to city leaders to move swiftly in response to climate change. Climate Change College — Filipe Miguel Moreira Alves, CCC Ambassador for Portugal, Filipe piloted Lisbon’s first cooking oil recycling service in 2008, turning this waste product into second-generation bio-diesel for use in municipal garbage vehicles. Filipe’s NGO expects to collect 2,000 liters of oil monthly, which would achieve a monthly reduction of seven tons of CO2 emissions.
Singapore A total of 49,950 cones were given away at various events, at which SGD$ 6,791 was raised for the Singapore Children’s Society.
Spain
Climate Change College — Inés Reverter, CCC Ambassador for Spain, worked to address water shortages through a restaurant partnership that combines the installation of water saving equipment and consumer-facing communication in a chain of restaurants in the city.
Sweden and Denmark On Free Cone Day, we served 1,500 free scoops in Denmark and 6,000 in Sweden. On the same day, we raised €200 for Save the Children in Denmark and approximately the same amount for Sweden’s chapter of the World Wildlife Fund.
Turkey
Gediz Delta Campaign –
United Kingdom Sundae on the Common Festival — For the fourth year, Ben & Jerry’s held our Sundae on the Common Festival in London’s Clapham Common in July. The two-day festival featured live music, fairground attractions, and loads of free ice cream. Edinburgh School Project — In conjunction with a meeting of the U.K. Retail Field Team, we undertook a project at the Cockenzie Primary School in East Lothian, Edinburgh, Scotland. The aim was to enhance the garden for the pre-school and nursery age students, enabling the children to explore their surroundings, learn how to care for the environment through gardening, and to grow their own food. Our work included landscaping, tree planting, and laying a sand labyrinth path. Of course, we also brought the teachers and children a taste of the best ice cream in the world! Climate Change College — Erika Nagae, CCC Ambassador for the United Kingdom, launched a social enterprise compost business. Passionate about diverting food waste from landfills, her project goal was to worm her way into the food business and close the loop on their food waste through vermiculture (worm composting). She targeted food waste generated by fifty students living in shared-kitchen dorms at the University of Manchester. Worm composting bins were installed in the kitchens as both a testament to how easy and effective composting is, and as test to determine whether the bins would be a socially and economically viable option for universities to consider on a wider scale. As part of her efforts, Erika raised grass roots awareness by distributing campaign postcards, maintained a program blog (http://erika.ccc.yournewspage.com), and made numerous appearances on TV, radio, newspapers, and internet media. |
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to be the first company to participate in Finland’s Ilmastotalkoot, a program which aims to combine the expertise of seven of the biggest advertising agencies in the EU to create an environmental media campaign valued at €4 million. Campaign messages will detail simple ways for people to fight climate change, among other topics. An introductory seminar featured a number of lecturers, including Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission Director Anniek Mauser, who spoke on just how effective climate-friendly corporate strategies can be. 
Car-Free City — For our Autoton päivä, or Car-Free City event, we donated free ice cream to people using public commuter transportation. We timed the event to coincide with Finland’s car-free day, in which some streets were blocked-off from cars, and commuter tickets for buses and trams were less expensive than normal. Ben & Jerry’s patrols fanned out to the bus and tram stops and stations to thank people for doing their bit, and gave out nearly 5,000 free scoops of ice cream.
fifty sampling points nationwide, we served 90,000 free scoops on Free Cone Day 2008, thanks in large part to the more than 130 employees from Unilever France who helped us out. This year, music was almost as important a part of the April festivities as the treats; we created a special mix and a frozen music label — both named Woody Tunes — and made the music tracks available for free download. A live show was held at the famous Parisian nightclub La Scala in the evening, featuring the spins of legendary Paris DJ Beatrice Ardisson. Special donations in the amount of €1,200 were collected at the show to help support the work of French Climate Change College Ambassador Marie-Laure Geai (see below).
In Support of La Défense — On February 21st, Ben & Jerry’s French team organized a special event in La Défense, Paris’ most important business district. The team spent the day trying to raise awareness of Fairtrade certified flavors, as well as to raise the morale of the employees in the district, who have been hard hit by the $7.1 billion rogue-trading scandal at French banking giant Société Generale. The Company team was supported by employees and volunteers from Max Havelaar (the French Fairtrade organization).
While the program demonstrated great employee enthusiasm for the brand, we think we can improve the experience further, so we decided not to move to a full-scale open factory at this point. An expanded tour experience is now being developed to coincide with Hellendoorn becoming a 100% Ben & Jerry’s Factory in 2012.
Peace in the Park — In June, Amsterdam was the site for Peace in the Park: a day-long celebration of world peace, with plenty of our flavor, ‘Peace of Cake’ on hand. More than 700 people attended, sampled Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for free, and sipped glasses of prosecco, while listening to Netherlands pop star Sandy Dane sing a variety of tunes, including her new “Peace, Love & Ice Cream” (Ben & Jerry’s and SONY/BMG).
On Free Cone Day 2008, 91,000 scoops were given away, including 66,000 single-serve ‘Shorties.’ In conjunction with Free Cone Day, we (along with partners Accion Natura and Fundacion Prosegur) held a fundraiser entitled Apadrina un Árbol to raise money for reforestation work, which netted some €1,500.
Climate Change College — Jakob Rutqvist, CCC Ambassador for Sweden, developed his idea that internet communications technology (ICT) could be a key answer to rising CO2 emissions caused by increased business travel. He established a program that works with businesses in Sweden to help them cut unnecessary business travel through effective use of ICT. His program features a web portal (
New Scoop Shop Rollouts — In 2008, we opened our second, third, and fourth Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops in Turkey, in a trendy cinema, a premium shopping mall, and on one of Istanbul’s busiest streets, respectively. We also ran a launch competition wherein our consumers sent us their wishes for a better world 2008. Not surprisingly, happiness, a cleaner environment, and peace were among the most popular wishes.
With the motto, “The only thing we cannot freeze is time,” we partnered with The Doga Foundation to lend our weight to efforts to protect the Gediz Delta, an important wetland area in Turkey that is home to ten percent of the world’s flamingos and hundreds of other bird species. We sponsored a press launch and offered other financial support to raise awareness of this important issue.
