http://www.benjerry.co.uk/values
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Bibliography
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/business-strategy/ben-jerry’s-–-bumpy-road-social-mission-pioneers
Mission Statement
Product Mission
To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the Environment. By definition, the manufacturing of products creates waste. We strive to minimize our negative impact on the environment. The growing of food is overly reliant on the use of toxic chemicals and other methods that are unsustainable. We support sustainable and safe methods of food production that reduce environmental degradation, maintain the productivity of the land over time, and support the economic viability of family farms and rural communities.
Economic Mission
To operate the Company on a sustainable financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our stakeholders and expanding opportunities for development and career growth for our employees. We seek and support nonviolent ways to achieve peace and justice. We believe government resources are more productively used in meeting human needs than in building and maintaining weapons systems. Capitalism and the wealth it produces do not create opportunity for everyone equally. We recognize that the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than at any time since the 1920’s. We strive to create economic opportunities for those who have been denied them and to advance new models of economic justice that are sustainable and replicable.
Social Mission
To operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally. We strive to show a deep respect for human beings inside and outside our company and for the communities in which they live.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Ben & Jerry's take their stakeholders into considerations when they make ethical decisions. This is to keep stakeholders happy and make sure that they maintain their relationships with these stakeholders.
Suppliers
Ben & Jerry's helped colaborated with their suppliers at the Vermont Dairy Farm to find practical ways to prevent agricultural run off including Nitrogen and Phosphorous in nearby lakes and rivers. Ben and Jerry's are strong believers of Fair trade and most of their ingrediants are fair trade certified, this shows that they are contributing to the community and making sure these suppliers of fair trade products are being paid fair amounts and being given good working conditions.
Customers
Ben & Jerry's labelled their products as all natural products, this would have made the customers feel like they are eating a healthy product instead of artificial flavours. This is unethical as they are effectively lying to the customers as it was found that some of their products labelled as all natural were not actually all natural afterall. Ben & Jerry's admitted to this but stated that thoise products that are not all natural were in fact mentioned in the small print, this is against FDA regulations and if Ben & Jerry's did not change this, the FDA could have got them into a large amount of trouble.
Employees
Employees are given excellent treatment by Ben & Jerry's. As Ben & Jerry's finances grew, the working conditions were improved meaning that the employees benefited from the success. Ben & Jerry's employees were also given shares and share opportunities meaning they also benefited from the amount of money that they were making.
Local Community
Ben & Jerry's gave their left ice cream to local pig farmers however this had an adverse effect as the meat became fatter and less tasty which meant that they could not sell their meat at the correct amount, this seemed like a good gesture at first and the farmers were grateful but they did not realise the affect that thr ice cream would have on the pigs and the health of the pigs. Ben & Jerrys also took precautions to prevent the agricultural run off in nearby lakes and rivers and worked with local universities and local farms to develop practical ways in which to do this.
Ben & Jerry's Corporate Social Responsibility
Ben and jerry’s use CSR to achieve more desired goals to increase the growth of their business and also help them maintain open line communication with employees. this would effectively gain a better outcome from employees and make the company more reputable.
Corporate social responsibility basically means that a company has to behave in a socially responsible manner. these companies would deal or work with other businesses who behave in the same or in a similar manner.
The public awareness and demand for socially responsible businesses is increasing drastically. companies in this day and age would take CSR into consideration when making any future business desicions.
Usage of Fair Trade ingredients has been adopted by a large amount of socially responsible businesses in previous years. Fair Trade products such as fair fair trade chocolate which is commonly used by Ben & Jerry's are meant to resolve the workplace and factory conditions in foreign countries in which the cocoa plants are grown. The rules and regulations of these companies that pick the plants are different from the rules and regulations put into action in countries such as America and the United Kingdom. These issues are usually that of companies that produce goods and services in foreign countries and export their products into countries that produce the food. Fair Trade standards ensure that employees have good and safe working conditions, work reasonable hours and are paid a fair amount for their work. Ben & Jerry's began using Fair Trade Certified ingredients in 2005 and announced a plan that they were to make all of their ingrediants fair trade by the year 2013.
Another method to be corporate social responsible is through community-based development projects. Community-based development projects have become an important form of development assistance among global socially responsible companies such as Ben & Jerry's. The Vermont Dairy Farm Sustainability Project was launched by Ben & Jerry’s in 1999. this project was set out to develop practical methods that could be used on typical dairy operations in the farm to prevent nitrogen and phosphorus run-off ensuring water quality stays high in nearby lakes and Rivers.
Ben & Jerry’s also donate a portion of its pre-tax profits to good causes as part of its efforts to be more socially responsible. Corporate philanthropy is employee-led through the Ben & Jerry's Foundation and Community Action Teams (CATS) at each site. Ben and Jerry’s also have a philanthropy called “The Foundation” which is employee-led by employee advisory groups who take proposals into consideration and recommend grants to good causes. They award $1.8 million across 5 grants annually to eligible organizations in America and around Vermont. These awards.grants are called:
-The grassroots organizing for social change program
-The national building grant program
-The Vermont Capacity Builiding Grant Program
-Vermont Economic Justice Grant Program
-The Vermont community action teams grant program
-The employee Matching Gift Program.
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Ben & Jerry's Unethical Issues
A Newsweek article claimed Ben & Jerry's had a less than savory reputation among some franchisees who own Ben & Jerry stores. There were lots of complaints made and these complaints from the franchisees include shipments that weigh less than they are supposed to, big box stores buy at wholesale prices that undercut ice cream stores. Also, Ben & Jerry's does not acceptably promote or market franchises thus making it hard for the franchisee to make money. Franchisees also complained that the marketing material that persuaded them into buying and owning a Ben & Jerry's store was not entirely accurate. Most annoying for these franchisees were estimates about the amount of gross sales, in which these sales figures were created at high profile stores such as airports and casinos.
Ben & Jerry's could have improved this by being more truthful regarding the sales figures that these franchises are likely to make, this has previously led to unhappiness from franchisees as they have spent lots of money on these stores only to be let down and not make as much money as they expected to make, Ben & Jerry's could also help to promote these franchisees and help them advertiseto gain a larger amount of customers.
Ben & Jerry's purchases carbon offsets to even out its contribution to the global carbon output. Ben & Jerry's even sends its ice cream waste to a methane bio-digester.
However, the watchdog group named the centre for science in the public interest claimed that labelling created by Ben & Jerry's may not have been correct. This watchdog group has been angered by the matter that Ben & Jerry';s labelled their products as 'all natural'. All but five of the 53 flavors of the Ben & Jerry's product line contain dextrose, alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils or other artificial flavors and chemically modified ingredients.
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest posted to its website that their Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson said, “It’s sad that Ben & Jerry’s is trying to pass off products laden with these factory-spun ingredients as ‘natural,’ when there’s little natural about them. These ingredients are man-made and simply don’t occur in nature.”
this watchdog group is threatening to call the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into the ring if Ben & Jerry's doesn't label their products correctly.
Ben & Jerry's has admitted that they did not label their products correctly. Its not-so-natural items are listed in the small print but listing ingredients in this way is against FDA regulations.
Ben & Jerry's MUST improve on this by labelling their products correctly and not unethically labelling their products as all natural if they are not in fact all natural, this would mean they are being truthful and they would not be committing an offence if they continue to not follow FDA regulations.
Ben and Jerry's faced the problem that there was too much ice cream in their factories. This issue occured a few years ago. After every run of Rainforest Crunch, Chunky Monkey, or Cherry Garcia, technicians at its Waterbury, Vermont, headquarters washed down their machines with hot water which left gallons of ice cream spill. At most companies they would have just simply got rid of the ice cream by washing it away. Ben & Jerry's, with its socially conscious operating philosophy, had another idea in which the ice cream was collected and given away to local pig farmers.
as good as this idea seemed, it created some peculiar issues. Some piglets that happily slurped Ben & Jerry's Homemade sugar water suffered from human-like arteriosclerosis. According to a local pig farmer, the slaughtered pigs that slurped down this homemade sugar water yielded a fattier pork. Ben & Jerry's never looked at the implications of performing these gestures and has led to much worse disasters, such as Ben Cohen's "rainforest harvest" which has created a lot of disruption in Brazil.
Ben & Jerry's could give their ice cream to local schools and companies as this would be an effective way of getting rid of their waste products and this would not be affecting pig farmers stock.
Ben and Jerry's ethical issues
it was important from the beginning for Ben & Jerry’s that the conditions in which the employees worked in got better as the financial status of the company improved. Every employee was awarded both company stock and stock options in 1998 which was an incentive to stay at the company as they are gaining money from shares in the company.
This could be improved by giving employees good opportunities to progress within the business and train them to progress, they could be given discounts on Ben & Jerry's products and have opportunities for pay rises for continuing work at the Business.
A project set by Ben and Jerry’s involved decreasing the size of the environmental footprint of the paper it used for the containers of the products. Most paper mills used to use elemental chlorine to bleach their wood pulp into a white colour. The wastewater from this process was laced with a large amount of toxic chemicals such as dioxin which is an extremely potent carcinogen which means it can cause cancer if it makes contact with the skin. Ben & Jerry’s pint cartons were made of paper coated with white clay that made them impermeable on the inside and ready to take ink on the outside. By getting rid of chlorine completely from the process; this means a significant amount of dioxin will be eliminated from the waste stream. 
The eco-pint was finally released in 1999 after years of development. By the end of that year, one-third of Ben & Jerry’s packaging was made out of unbleached paperboard. An average sized mill that would use the new process would only produce between seven and 10 tonnes of organochlorine-laced sludge a day which was a drastic improvement over the 35 tonnes a day produced by elemental chlorine. Even though this new method was more expensive, Ben & Jerry’s felt that it was worth it as they would be benefiting the environment. Ben & Jerry's could have improved this by making more than justa third of their products unbleached leading to a lower number of organochlorine-laced sludge, this would be a lot more friendly for the environment. 
Ben & Jerry’s also made changes to reduce the environmental impact of their dairy and other livestock farms. Feed, manure and fertilisers are filled with chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus; these chemicals become pollutants when they wash out of agricultural soils in large amounts and end up in rivers and lakes. In 1999, Ben & Jerry’s joined with a grain company, experts at Cornell University and the University of Vermont, its main dairy supplier and two pilot farms to look for ways to reduce runoff in many different ways. Lots of tests would have taken place to see how these runoffs can be prevented or decreased.
Ben & Jerry’s commitment to job training was also being changed. It had set a goal of opening five new PartnerShops, which were ice cream stores that were operated by not-for-profit groups such as job training programs, in 1998, but for many different reasons, they were unable to open any. Even though Ben & Jerry’s had already opened four shops owned by not-for-profit groups in 1999, Liz Bankowski who was the director of social mission was rethinking the whole idea as she believed these shops are best run by teenagers who need training to get into the job market rather than a mother with two children who needs the money. However these not-for-profit groups found it hard to sustain the large amount of resources and effort required to keep running these stores. Liz Bankowski began looking for local economic development agencies instead.
Ben & Jerry’s put a lot of effort into making their company as ethical as possible and take lots of precautions and spend lots of money to do so.
Ben & Jerry's could improve this by putting more money into these partnershops to help them maintain their business and keep the shop open, they wouldnt necessarily have to fund for the employees, but they could help keep the shops open and keep training these teenagers.
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