3. SOCIAL MISSION GOALS
3.1 Peace & Justice
The information on this page has been examined by an independent auditor.
GOAL 1.
Use our Company to further the cause of
Peace and Justice.
One of our core Company values is to seek and support nonviolent ways to achieve peace and justice through our business. We intend to bring this to life over the next several years in the following ways:
1A and 1B. – Increase the purchasing of ingredients and raw materials from suppliers who are working for social and economic justice and a more peaceful world.
Ben & Jerry’s has three current sourcing initiatives that further the cause of peace and justice.
1. We are buying Fair Trade Certified/Fairtrade Certified ingredients. For these ingredients, we have third-party assurance that farmers in developing countries are paid a Fair Trade minimum price for their harvest which reflects the sustainable cost of production, as established by an independent body. In addition, farmers growing Fair Trade crops are required to make social investments in their communities and meet standards of continuous improvement in sustainable farming practices. We believe that the Fair Trade model, which helps small farmers in developing countries compete and thrive in the global marketplace, is a path to creating social and economic justice. For more information on Fair Trade, visit Transfair USA in the United States or Fairtrade Foundation in the UK, or Max Havelaar elsewhere in Europe.
Fair Trade marketing standards are set by labeling organizations at the country level and therefore are not consistent globally. Even the name isn’t consistent – it’s ‘Fair Trade’ in North America and ‘Fairtrade’ elsewhere! In addition, Ben & Jerry’s produces a composite product, including many ingredients that are not available under Fair Trade certification. This makes it difficult to quantify Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade sourcing on a global basis, so we have decided to present our 2008 Fair Trade status by region. We recognize that we need to develop a more sophisticated metric that can meaningfully measure our global progress on Fair Trade sourcing beyond the number of flavors that are Fair Trade Certified. We intend to work towards developing such a metric in 2009.
OUR STATUS IN 2008:
United States
Four of 55 pint flavors produced in the United States carried the Fair Trade Certified logo in 2008 (Chocolate, Vanilla, Coffee, Coffee Heath® Bar Crunch), indicating that they contained some Fair Trade Certified ingredients. One of five minicups was Fair Trade Certified (Vanilla). One of five novelties was Fair Trade Certified (Vanilla bar). Four of 39 flavors produced in bulk for scoop shops were Fair Trade Certified (Chocolate; Vanilla; Coffee; Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz®). The Fair Trade Certified ingredients used in these flavors are vanilla, cocoa powder, and coffee extract.
Europe
Three of eighteen flavors produced in Europe in 500 ml tubs were Fairtrade Certified in 2008 (Vanilla, Vanilla Toffee Crunch, Chunky Monkey®), indicating that they contained some Fairtrade Certified ingredients. Three of seven mini-tubs; and three of 22 flavors produced in bulk for scoop shops were Fairtrade Certified as well (Vanilla, Chunky Monkey®, Vanilla Toffee Crunch). The Fairtrade Certified ingredients used in these flavors are: vanilla, cocoa powder, banana puree, sugar, toffee candy pieces, chocolate chunks and a chocolate coating for macadamia nuts.
Canada
None of our pints or bulk flavors produced in Canada were Fair Trade Certified in 2008, though some were made with specific Fair Trade Certified ingredients such as vanilla, cocoa, and coffee extract.
Asia
Ben & Jerry’s products marketed in Asia are produced in the United States and Fair Trade sourcing initiatives are captured in the data presented above.
Future Plans:
Ben & Jerry’s will launch its first Fair Trade/Fairtrade flavor to be sold globally in 2009 and we currently plan to add new Fair Trade flavors in 2010 and beyond.
2. We are buying brownies from Greyston Bakery. This longtime Ben & Jerry’s supplier in Yonkers, New York, is a social enterprise operated by the nonprofit Greyston Foundation with a mission to support low-income individuals and their families as they forge a path to self-sufficiency. By purchasing brownie inclusions from this supplier, Ben & Jerry’s helps Greyston to achieve its mission of economic and social justice.
OUR STATUS IN 2008:
United States
We purchased brownie inclusions from Greyston Bakery for seven of our U.S. pint flavors: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (ice cream, organic ice cream, and frozen yogurt), Neapolitan Dynamite®, Half Baked® (ice cream and frozen yogurt), and Dave Matthews Band’s Magic Brownies®. One pint flavor contains brownies (with a different specification) from another supplier. One of five mini-cup flavors also uses Greyston brownies.
We also purchased Greyston brownies for four of our U.S. flavors produced in bulk for scoop shops: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (ice cream and frozen yogurt) and Half Baked® (ice cream and frozen yogurt). One bulk flavor contains brownie inclusions with a different specification that we source from another supplier.
Canada
We purchased Greyston brownies for three out of 13 pint flavors produced in Canada: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (ice cream and frozen yogurt) and Half Baked®.
In all, Ben & Jerry’s increased our total spend on Greyston brownies for North American production from 2007 to 2008 by 5 percent.
Europe
We purchased Greyston brownies for four of our 18 European 500 ml flavors: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (ice cream and frozen yogurt), Half Baked®, and Bohemian Raspberry™; as well as one of our seven mini-tubs. One flavor uses brownies (with a significantly different specification) from a different supplier.
We also purchased Greyston brownies for 3 of our 22 European flavors produced in bulk for scoop shops: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (ice cream and low fat ice cream) and Bohemian Raspberry™.
In all, Ben & Jerry’s decreased our total spend on Greyston brownies for European production from 2007 to 2008 by 39 percent. This decline is the result of a decision to discontinue one flavor in the European market that contains Greyston brownies.
Ben & Jerry’s has also supported Greyston Bakery with technical assistance to help improve their ability to deliver quality ingredients to Ben & Jerry’s and to improve their cost competitiveness over the long term.
3. We are buying Cage-Free eggs/free-range eggs. Ben & Jerry’s has been moving towards a policy to buy eggs from suppliers whose laying hens are not confined to battery cages (called ‘cage-free’ in the United States and ‘free-range’ in Europe). While some may disagree with us, we believe these egg production systems, when certified to meet third-party standards, allow laying hens more space to engage in normal behaviors and create better animal welfare outcomes than conventional battery cage operations.
OUR STATUS IN 2008:
In the fourth quarter of 2008, 30 percent of the eggs used in Ben & Jerry’s U.S. production, by volume, were purchased from cage-free suppliers. Approximately 85 percent of these cage-free eggs were third-party certified to the American Humane Certified or Certified Humane standard. Ben & Jerry’s is two years into a four-year project to achieve 100 percent sourcing of Certified Humane cage-free eggs for our U.S. production by 2010.
100 percent of Ben & Jerry’s European egg supply comes from farms meeting free-range standards for laying hens independently certified by Control Production Eiren (for Dutch farms) and KAT (for German farms).
We source conventional eggs for Ben & Jerry’s Canadian production.
1C. – Build key alliances with leading-edge global partners to activate our consumers on issues of peace and justice.
OUR STATUS IN 2008:
Ben & Jerry’s was involved in five active partnerships in 2008 connected to this goal.
- Globally, we established a partnership with the United Kingdom-based organization Peace One Day to help drive awareness of the United Nations’ annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on September 21. Ben & Jerry’s also provided significant underwriting for Peace One Day’s project to develop and roll out curriculum materials to teach peace in 3,800 U.S. schools. We featured Peace One Day on the Ben & Jerry’s website in September 2008 and funded their video production of the 2008 London Peace Day concert for broadcast.
- We partnered with ONE.org in the U.S. and the Millennium Development Campaign globally to build awareness of the United Nations’ goals to end extreme poverty around the globe by 2015. Our flavor ONE Cheesecake Brownie™ (in the U.S., Mexico and Asian markets) and Cheesecake Brownie (in Europe and Canada) launched in 2008, carrying a message about the Millennium Development goals on its packaging. We used promotions in Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops and on our website to raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals. Employees in Vermont and a few of our scoop shop franchisees participated in Stand Up Day in October, in which more than 116 million people around the world stood up together to call for stronger action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, according to event organizers.
- We launched Imagine Whirled Peace® in the United States, a new flavor named for John Lennon and dedicated to the cause of global peace. We celebrated the anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1968 Bed-In for Peace by re-enacting the event in New York City, and inviting the public to nominate leading peace activists for a $10,000 grant. We made two grants to Aaron Voldman’s Student Peace Alliance and Robert Kent’s Peace Camp Initiative to continue their work in the cause of peace.
- We worked closely with Fair Trade organizations in the United States and Fairtrade organizations in Europe who share a mission to promote economic and social justice in the production and trade of agricultural products grown in developing countries and sold in developed countries. In addition to sourcing efforts we made to meet the requirements for Fair Trade/Fairtrade certification on several of our products, we paid licensing fees for the use of the Fair Trade/Fairtrade logo on our packaging. These licensing fees provided support for these organizations’ marketing activities to increase consumer awareness of issues related to trade justice and to build demand for Fair Trade/Fairtrade products. We also participated directly in Fair Trade month and Fairtrade Fortnight activities in the U.S. and in Europe designed to raise consumer awareness of Fair Trade.
- Our flavor Peace of Cake™, sold in the Netherlands, is the basis for a partnership with an organization called War Child, which runs programs that rehabilitate child soldiers from war-torn areas of the world and help to integrate them back into civil society. Sales of Peace of Cake™ ice cream in 2008 paid a royalty to War Child; Ben & Jerry’s hosted 25 Peace, Love and Ice Cream events in partnership with War Child; and, Ben & Jerry’s continued to operate a ‘pop-up’ scoop shop and run a ‘Peace Fridge’ rental program that provided additional exposure and funding for War Child. All these activities together helped Ben & Jerry’s acquire 2,210 new ‘friends’ for War Child in 2008.
