The year 2000 was a year of sweeping change at Ben & Jerry’s. Independent since its founding in 1978, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational. The change in ownership was accompanied by a change in governance. Unilever assumed authority, though it did create an advisory board of former Ben & Jerry’s directors, including co-founder Ben Cohen. (Co-founder Jerry Greenfield continues as chair of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation.) In addition, by year-end, most of the senior management either had departed or was about to leave, to be replaced in early 2001 by a new management team.

A social audit of the company’s performance for the year 2000 cannot fail to take note of the impact that these developments have had on social mission performance. Senior management and the board devoted enormous time and energy to deciding the company’s future. One result was that the board and senior management were unable to establish social mission objectives for the year 2000. Another result was that the board itself provided much less input and oversight on social mission objectives than in previous years.

But even in the midst of change, the company pursued its social mission. Long-term strategic objectives provided valuable guideposts. And despite the distractions resulting from ongoing deliberations and negotiations over the company’s future, managers and employees continued to pursue previously established social mission goals. While it is difficult to measure performance as precisely as in years past, there is no question that Ben & Jerry’s remained committed to its three-part mission in 2000. What follows is my assessment, as independent social auditor, of the company’s social mission activities for the year 2000.

In 2000, Ben & Jerry’s continued to make good on its promise of “linked prosperity"—a commitment to share wealth created by company activities with all employees. The company provided competitive wages and generous benefits. It continued its commitment to profit sharing and to payment of a living wage to all employees. And employee stock options granted to all full-time employees at the end of 1998 became exercisable upon Unilever’s purchase of the company.

The number of employees at the St. Albans plant represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers remained a small fraction of the company’s overall workforce, and only one minor grievance occurred during 2000. Concerns that large numbers of employees would seek union representation have proved unfounded to date.

Workplace safety received a considerable amount of attention in 2000, with a strong emphasis on safety training. The company’s safety record improved. Even so, the injury rate for the company’s manufacturing workers, who comprise the majority of its employees and who do the hardest and most dangerous work at Ben & Jerry’s, are higher than the industry average. This is an area in which the company still has much room for improvement.

Ben & Jerry’s continues to struggle with diversity in the workplace. The number of people of color working for the company increased slightly in 2000, but Ben & Jerry’s remains an overwhelmingly white company. Given Vermont’s demographics—it is one of the whitest, most homogenous states in the country—the racial composition of the workforce is unlikely to change much.

There are, however, other ways in which the company can demonstrate its commitment to diversity and tolerance. To its credit, Ben & Jerry’s organized progressive businesses in Vermont to support enactment of Vermont’s civil union legislation in 2000. This legislation gives same-sex couples the same rights and protections of married couples.

Ben & Jerry’s purchasing from minority suppliers in 2000 exceeded the companywide goal by 50 percent, suggesting that there may be good opportunity to expand this program more aggressively. The company could also demonstrate its commitment to diversity through advertising, marketing and franchising (see below).

The company’s performance on gender equity and pay issues was good in 2000. Two years ago there appeared to be some basis for concern that women were paid less than men for comparable work. A closer look at the data found this to be untrue, with differences in pay between men and women attributable largely to length of service.

Although it added no new socially aligned vendors in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s continued to use purchasing to support social mission objectives. Purchases from existing socially aligned suppliers increased in 2000 over the previous year.

In the case of the two largest suppliers—St. Albans Cooperative (supporting family farms and purchasing only rBGH-free milk) and Greyston Bakery (purchasing ingredients from a nonprofit organization that offers job training and employment to low income people)—the company has demonstrated that it can successfully link its purchasing power to social mission objectives. The impacts of purchasing from some other socially aligned suppliers are less clear.

The company continued its solid environmental performance in 2000, with an emphasis on broad sustainability initiatives. It increased production from its plants by 3 percent overall, while at the same time reducing solid waste, recycling volumes, water use and energy consumption. Discharge of high strength dairy wastes remained unchanged. These results were achieved as part of the company’s effort to develop what it calls its “Ecological Footprint.” In plain English, this involves a systematic analysis of environmental inputs and outputs designed to identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve environmental performance.

Ben & Jerry’s made progress on two other sustainability projects in 2000. It completed a three-year initiative to convert all domestic pint packaging to Eco-Pints, which are made of unbleached paperboard. It also began a three-year project to find practical ways to reduce the amount of phosphorous runoff and nitrogen leaching from dairy farms (which seriously affect water quality) while sustaining and enhancing the economic viability of family farms. The project is a collaborative effort involving Vermont dairy farmers, university experts, feed and fertilizer producers and Ben & Jerry’s, which is providing funding for the project through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. The company’s support for this pioneering work was an outgrowth of an earlier decision to focus on broader environmental impacts of its business rather than on narrower questions, such as whether or not to create an organic product line.

For years the company has struggled to open more PartnerShops®. Finding suitable partners and developing opportunities into operating reality has proved to be a challenging task. In 2000 four new PartnerShops opened their doors; three of the new locations were opened by existing partners and one by a new nonprofit partner. This brings to 12 the total number of PartnerShop locations.

Despite the addition of more staff resources to support PartnerShop initiatives, it remains unclear whether the model of working with nonprofits to provide entry-level job training can be replicated on a large enough scale to make PartnerShops more than a symbolic undertaking.

The number of women and people of color who are independent for-profit franchisees increased slightly in 2000. But efforts to link franchise development strategies with community economic development initiatives in selected communities produced no meaningful results in 2000.

Although it initiated no new socially conscious marketing initiatives in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s completed the transition to Eco-Pint packaging in 2000, becoming the first and only frozen dessert company in the United States to use unbleached paper containers for its product. The company’s longstanding opposition to the use of rBGH in its products, and its support for consumers right to know about genetically modified ingredients in food products, continue to earn its well-deserved accolades.

The major blemish on this otherwise strong record is the continued foot-dragging on introduction of temper�evident packaging, which the company has said for years it has plans to develop.

As noted in previous audits, Ben & Jerry’s has struggled to find effective ways to express its core values in markets outside the United States. The company still appears to have no coherent social mission strategy for global expansion. However, its experience in the United Kingdom demonstrates that the social mission can be exported. But much work remains to be done in finding appropriate ways to communicate core values as the company continues to expand into new markets abroad.

Philanthropy remains a principal means by which the company expresses its social mission. Ben & Jerry’s continues to give a generous amount of its pre-tax profits to philanthropic causes. Employee-led Community Action Teams focus resources on communities in which Ben & Jerry’s operates. The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation continues to support grassroots organizations committed to social change; the Foundation dispersed a record $622,000 in 2000, an increase of more than 100 percent from the previous year.

What is the overall assessment of Ben & Jerry’s social mission performance for 2000? The record of actual accomplishments is quite modest. In many instances, the company simply managed to stay the course, continuing to pursue existing goals. In some instances, it made no progress at all. While there may have been no brilliant breakthroughs, there were no catastrophes. Certainly more could have been achieved had top management and the board not been so fully preoccupied with decisions about the company’s future.

Under the circumstances, Ben & Jerry’s and its employees have reason to be proud that they were able to achieve as much as they did in 2000. Indeed, the company’s accomplishments would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of employees who believe strongly in the social mission and consider it to be an integral part of their jobs. Many simply went about their business unselfconsciously, in the process demonstrating that the social mission is an important part of what Ben & Jerry’s is all about.

The commitment of employees to building and maintaining a reputation for social responsibility was undoubtedly one of the reasons why Ben & Jerry’s was such an attractive acquisition for Unilever and other bidders. Now that Ben & Jerry’s is part of a larger, more traditional corporation, the beliefs and actions of employees will be even more critical to maintaining the company’s values. Management can lead, and the Founders can advise, but the employees of Ben & Jerry’s will be the heart and soul of the social mission in the future.

James E. Heard

May 2001