Section 2: Continued

Environmental Policies, Organization & Management

• There is an Environmental Responsibilities section in our Employee Orientation Handbook. This section outlines the CERES Principles under which we operate, and gives new employees ideas on how to help the company achieve its environmental goals. At orientation, new employees are given an introduction to and general training in Ben & Jerry’s environmental practices and policies.
  
• Every October, Ben & Jerry’s celebrates Environmental Awareness Week by holding contests and activities promoting awareness of current environmental issues.
• Within all manufacturing facilities in Vermont, including the corporate offices, there are information boards set up for environmental awareness postings.

External Communication of Environmental Issues
Following are the tools Ben & Jerry’s uses to share environmental actions with the public:

• Copies of our CERES Report can be acquired by contacting CERES in Boston. The CERES website also provides additional information at www.ceres.org.
• Our Annual Report contains a detailed section on company environmental issues. The 1999 Annual Report includes the results of a yearly Social Performance Audit, which includes an objective view of Ben & Jerry’s environmental impacts and accomplishments for the year.
• The public tour at the Waterbury manufacturing site is not only one of the most popular tourist attractions in Vermont, but also one of the most effective hands-on ways for Ben & Jerry’s to communicate its environmental philosophies, impacts and accomplishments to the public. This information is shared through the use of information displays and the guided factory tour, which includes a Ben & Jerry’s multi-media show.
• Ben & Jerry’s website at www.benjerry.com contains information outlining the Company’s environmental program and informing the public of our current environmental issues.
• "Position Papers” on current environmental issues and company initiatives are available at all Ben & Jerry’s retail outlets.
• The company’s annual One World One Heart� Festival encourages public awareness of social and environmental issues and offers guests opportunities to get active. While each festival is unique, a few common themes persist; composting and recycling as much waste as possible are key goals at every festival. On average, 10 tons of waste are diverted from the landfill through these initiatives, which represent approximately two-thirds of the year’s total waste stream. In addition, festival-goers have the option to participate in our yearly postcard campaign, which focuses on various environmental and social issues.

Environmental Tracking/ Cost Accounting
Ben & Jerry’s tracks the cost and impacts of all waste and energy use (e.g. waste disposal, recycling, composting, etc.) associated with company operations. The Manager of Natural Resources Use and the Environmental Coordinators use a system of integrated environmental tracking tables to collect data that’s updated monthly, and normalized to a gallon of first quality product. Information included in these tables ranges from solid, hazardous and dairy waste production to wastewater production, energy usage and recycling. Costs of each category’s management are also incorporated into the tables.

Since 1994 Ben & Jerry’s has been normalizing all figures with this unit of measurement in order to create baseline data that will serve to identify trends and set goals. Environmental tracking data from four Vermont sites appears in this report .

Auditing
ENVIRONMENTAL
Every Ben & Jerry’s Annual Report includes the results of a yearly, company-wide Social Performance Audit. This audit also comments on Ben & Jerry’s environmental record for each year. Our 1999 independent auditor was James E. Heard of Washington, DC.

HEALTH AND SAFETY
In 1999 we created a new management structure for safety. We filled the open position of Corporate Safety Manager. We organized a Safety Council that includes the Chief Operating Officer, the Director of Manufacturing, the Corporate Safety Manager, the Senior Human Resources Manager, the Manufacturing, Training Manager, the Manufacturing Safety Specialist, The Site Plant Managers and the Corporate Treasurer. In 1999 the Safety Council met eight times.

Our Health and Safety auditing process is separate from our environmental audits and assessments. These audits are administered on a site-by-site basis with a frequency of one random check per month per facility. The Manager of Health and Safety performs these random checks.