Ben & Jerry’s, a purveyor of happiness through delicious ice cream, is also a social stalwart. A leading representative of social responsibility, Ben & Jerry’s spells out their missions and issues directly on their website. “Our social mission compels us to use our company in innovative ways to make the world a better place.” To do this the company supports many issues that they care about like fair trade, GMO labeling, and peacebuilding, and utilizes renewable, sustainable methods of production and green systems, deploying the change they want to see in the world.
The company is undeniably a “green” for the environment business, looking to tackle difficult tasks – going out of their way to ensure their supply chain is maintained in an ethical and green way. These are just some of the ways that Ben & Jerry’s contributes to the environment.
Ben & Jerry’s “Caring Dairy” program was one of the first programs put into place to support their mission. It focuses not just on utilizing responsibly sourced dairy products but incentivizing farmers to adhere to these policies in order to have a relationship with the ice cream giant. The program offers farmers a method of evaluating, implementing and continuously improving sustainable agricultural practices on their farms. Each year there is a 12-step assessment, 3 required workshops and a mandate of implementing two process improvement plans. These basic requirements are good enough to get a farm into the basic program – achieving silver or gold level has many more requirements! In addition to the “Caring Dairy” program, Ben & Jerry’s institutes a cage-free policy. All eggs purchased for production come from hens on certified humane cage-free farms, which requires that the hens have wholesome, nutritious food, access to clean water, and adequate space to engage in daily behaviors.
Ben & Jerry’s are also supporters of the fair-trade initiative and use non-GMO products to develop their treats. The fair-trade initiative is a movement that ensures small-scale farmers around the world can compete in the global marketplace. More than 3.5 million dollars in ingredient purchases went to small scale farmers and farming co-ops in 2018. Additionally, all suppliers must use non-GMO ingredients for any products that they supply to Ben & Jerry’s. There is a strict zero-tolerance policy that ensures no co-mingling of GMO materials with those being supplied to Ben & Jerry’s for production. Suppliers are regularly audited throughout the entire chain-of-custody to ensure there is never any chance that genetically modified materials get into Ben & Jerry’s products.
Aside from the responsible methods of production, Ben & Jerry’s tackles social issues – some of them considered very difficult to discuss. A list of “Issues We Care About” can be found right on the Ben & Jerry’s website, where the company claims is “leads with progressive values”. At the start of the list is the “Dig Deeper” campaign – a campaign for racial justice. On the landing page the company discusses recent events and why they’ve chosen to support this particular cause, then lists a series of related articles supporting on a variety of topics that showcases resources about their cause.
This sort of engagement is tailored to creating conversation about a particular topic, and the method is utilized over and again in support of other campaigns like “Democracy”, “Support GMO Labeling”, “Fair-trade”, “Climate Justice”, “LGBT Equality”, “rBGH”, “Getting the Dough Out of Politics”, “Peace Building”, and “Refugees”.
The company, while succeeding in creating conversation, oftentimes finds itself at the center of the storm it creates. With many of the social issues that they tackle being politically charged, the vast divide in American politics has created a lot of backlash for the company. As they clearly state on their website, they lead with “progressive values” – a nod to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. So when Ben & Jerry’s supports a cause like “Black Lives Matter” or the anti-Trump movement through actions, words, or a new flavor, they are usually cheered by one side of the political establishment and chastised and even boycotted by the other. While there were no legal issues at hand, the company did presumably lose business in some areas as a result.
Regardless of how one feels politically, they stood up for what they believed in and in the end, who could ever fault someone for doing that? Besides, their ice cream is far too delicious and wholesome to ignore, so whether I agree with your political agenda or not, I applaud you Ben & Jerry’s, for all you do to support society and our planet.