Section 4: Continued

Community Participation & Accountability

• Each site that handles potentially hazardous chemicals (St. Albans, Springfield, Waterbury, Distribution Center) is fully furnished with Level A Chemical protective suits, monitoring equipment, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units, and other hazardous material (HazMat) response equipment. Trained HazMat teams are comprised of maintenance staff, employees and volunteers from various departments, including all managers and supervisors.
  
• Each site is required to submit to the State of Vermont a complete listing (including normal inventory amounts) of hazardous chemicals used on site. In addition, walk-throughs of each plant are conducted with outside emergency personnel to identify hazardous areas.

OUTSIDE PARTIES

• Two sites have completed drills with outside rescue personnel. At some of our sites, our HazMat personnel are part of their local voluntary Emergency Response crews.
  
• Ben & Jerry’s safety personnel continually attend seminars and conferences designed specifically for Emergency Response discussions. We continue to correspond with the University of Massachusetts Lowell Work Environment Laboratory and the New England Environmental Trainer’s Group, and have shared information contained in news-letters sponsored by the University.
  
• Finally, Ben & Jerry’s safety staff are members of the Vermont Safety and Health Council.

COMMUNITY AWARENESS

• All of Ben & Jerry’s Emergency Response plans have been updated to include Process Safety Management and Risk Management Planning. They are available for review by affected parties, including local emergency room personnel, town officials and homeowners.
  
• Ben & Jerry’s works with local response crews to update emergency response training.
  
• Ben & Jerry’s is happy to provide facility-specific information to the communities where plants are located.
  
• Ben & Jerry’s reports to Tier II (Vermont’s Community Right To Know Program), which lists any and all Hazardous Materials/Chemicals that are used and/or stored on site.

Section 5:

Product Stewardship

Ben & Jerry’s evaluates the environmental impacts of all production operations:

Ben & Jerry’s also evaluates the life-cycle analysis of materials used and, if necessary, the company will seek more environmentally friendly alternatives.

An example of this area is the packaging project we initiated in 1997 with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry of Charlottesville, VA. With their help, harmful materials and chemicals existing in the pint container were identified and research started on ways to design-out those components. In 1998, Ben & Jerry’s introduced the ECO-Pint, made from unbleached Kraft paperboard with a non-toxic printable clay coating. The company is in the process of transitioning to this new package. Ultimately, the company’s goal is to create and use an unbleached container that is 100% biodegradable. Ben & Jerry’s is currently researching how the unbleached paper may be used in other areas of the business.