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13. INDEPENDENT ASSURANCE LETTER
To the Stakeholders of Ben & Jerry’s Inc.: We have been engaged to conduct an examination of the Selected Data identified below which is contained within the Ben & Jerry’s Inc. Social and Environmental Assessment Report for the year ended December 31, 2009. Ben & Jerry’s Inc. management is responsible for the Data and the selection of which Data would be included in the scope of this examination. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Selected Data listed below based on our examination. Except as discussed in the following paragraph, our examination was conducted in accordance with attestation standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s ISAE 3000. These standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Selected Data are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and statements included in the Selected Data. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. We were unable to obtain sufficient audit evidence to satisfy ourselves that the statements concerning Fair Trade ingredients in Europe, Values-Led Sourcing (VLS) spend in Europe, impact of Caring Dairy in Europe on greenhouse gas emissions, and Cage-Free egg certifications and purchases in the U.S., are fairly presented. These items are marked with an asterisk (*). Non-financial data is subject to more inherent limitations than financial data, given both the nature and the methods used for determining, calculating, sampling or estimating such data. We have not carried out any work on data reported other than the 2009 Selected Data, prior reporting periods, nor in respect of future projections and targets. We restrict our opinion to the Selected Data. In our opinion, except for the effects of such adjustments, if any, as might have been determined to be necessary had we been able to examine evidence regarding Fair Trade ingredients in Europe, VLS spend in Europe, impact of Caring Dairy in Europe on greenhouse gas emissions, and Cage-Free egg certifications and purchases in the U.S., the Selected Data for the year ended December 31, 2009 is fairly presented, in all material respects.
LeBlanc & Associates, LLC
Selected Data, published as of August 17, 2010, includes the information presented only in Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 5.0 of the 2009 report, comprising reporting on Ben & Jerry’s “Social Mission Goals” and Values-Led Sourcing. |
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