In 2000 Ben & Jerry’s spent $1.5 million with diverse suppliers, exceeding our spending goal of $924,000. In 1998 we instituted a minority supplier program for our non-ingredient procurement. Given that the company’s ingredient purchases are largely commodities where we buy from a handful of suppliers, we felt there was more opportunity for diversity in our non-ingredient purchases. Total spending for non-ingredient purchases in 2000 was $33,400,069. Of total spending, 4.49% of that went to businesses operated by women and minorities as defined by the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

In 2000 new purchasing policies were introduced that included a Diverse Supplier policy designed to evolve our program towards certified minority and women-owned businesses. The purchasing department held training sessions at all three plants and at Central Support that included the minority-sourcing program.

Ben & Jerry’s is a member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council and we use the Diversity Information Resources directories to assist in sourcing diverse suppliers. In 2000, in addition to this traditional directory of minority-owned enterprises, DIR has introduced a directory of women-owned businesses. These are national directories of minority and women-owned businesses that are updated and issued annually.

Approximately 41.19% of our ingredient and supply purchases in 2000 ($105,000,000) were from companies that we view as being aligned with Ben & Jerry’s values. This was an increase from 37.98% in 1999. A list of these suppliers follows:

As a farmer member-owned business, this supplier represents an alternative economic model. The Co-op has supplied all of Ben & Jerry’s milk and cream since 1985. In 2000 the company paid the Co-op a premium of $480,000 to provide milk from cows that they have pledged have not been treated with rBGH, a genetically engineered growth hormone use to increase milk production.

The Greyston Bakery of Yonkers, New York, is owned by an operating foundation and represents a unique business model. Greyston has been a supplier of brownies to Ben & Jerry’s since 1988. This ingredient is used in our Chocolate Fudge Brownie™ ice cream and frozen yogurt, two very popular flavors. The Greyston Bakery is owned by the Greyston Foundation, a nonprofit social service network that operates its bakery to train low-income people for self-sufficiency. Some of these people have been without homes for some time. In 1998 we began a three-year phase-out of the premium we have paid to Greyston, having mutually agreed that the bakery should orient itself to charging market prices for its products in order to be economically viable over time. We continued in 2000 to provide technical assistance to Greyston in the design of its new plant. Greyston is in the process of building a new production facility in order to increase the efficiency and flexibility of its operation. We are also working with Greyston to open a caf� that will function as a PartnerShop in Yonkers.

The company continued to source coffee extract from Coffee Enterprises. Coffee Enterprises sources their coffee beans for Ben & Jerry’s from the Aztec Harvest Cooperative in a region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Cooperative members use organic agricultural methods.

In conjunction with our vanilla supplier, the Virginia Dare Company, we used a blended vanilla extract that contained vanilla beans from the Savegre River region of Costa Rica. Our supplier purchased about 10,000 pounds of vanilla beans— all that this organization was capable of producing. One result of this relationship was that the Costa Rican rainforest has been reforested or reclaimed for sustainable production. This trading relationship helped to reduce pressure to clear-cut additional forests in this area. These purchases have also supported community development projects, including a regional health center, acquisition of supplies for schools and infrastructure improvements.

Universal Flavors, our supplier of banana puree, purchased the puree from the Borja family business in Ecuador. According to Universal, Mr. Borja was transitioning to organic methods and leading efforts to educate Ecuadorian farmers about sustainable farming methods. Mr. Borja operated a childcare center at his banana processing facility. He offered medical insurance and transportation to his workers and he has established The Water Foundation to increase awareness of environmental issues.

This manufacturer of our pint container sourced all of the paper that we used for our pints from Riverwood Paper Company. Riverwood’s manufacturing process for this paper is entirely free of bleach. Bleaching paper with chlorine releases dioxins into the environment, and the EPA has found that dioxins are very toxic.

The company initiated a voluntary recall of Peanut Butter Cup pints in October of 2000 when we learned that the peanut butter cups supplied to us may have contained undeclared tree nuts.

There were no quality assurance actions brought against the company in 2000.

In 2000 we continued to make improvements in our safety record which were reflected in some of our safety statistics, but we continued to be below industry standards. The number of Lost Time Cases was reduced by 15% and the number of Lost Time Days was reduced by 12.5% in 2000 over 1999, indicating that the number of serious injuries and the severity of the injuries had been significantly reduced. The company’s overall Injury Incident Rate, however, remained higher than industry averages for the ice cream manufacturing and frozen dessert industry.

There was a strong focus on safety training in 2000. Professional lesson plans were developed by the company’s safety team and 10,500 hours of safety training was conducted company-wide in areas such as: Ergonomics, Manual Material Handling, Slip, Trips and Falls.

No safety related regulatory actions were brought against the company in 2000.