Thursday, 22 January 2015

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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