Ben and Jerry’s and Ethical Business

Can businesses be ethical? Is social responsibility just a front in order to increase profits? Are these ‘socially responsible’ actions just an impact of increased revenue?

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc. is an ice cream manufacturer founded in Burlington, Vermont, USA, in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. They have company stores situated at over 615 locations around the world and, as of March 2021, an estimated net worth of around $300 million.

Business Ethics

Ben and Jerry’s promotes itself as an ethical business with its three-part mission statement being ‘Make the world’s best ice cream, pursue progressive social change, and provide fair compensation to employees and shareholders alike’ – they partially proved this in 1991 when they became the first publicly traded American company to offer health and other benefits to same-sex partners of employees. One could argue that this movement to provide for those with same-sex partners was purely opening a whole new demographic, at this time in the United States around 8-10% of the population had experienced some form of homosexuality, therefore you can assume that this part of the population, as well as LGBT allies, are more likely to purchase from Ben and Jerry’s as opposed to competitors. Therefore, increasing sales and profit margins for little to no cost for the company itself.

Ben and Jerry’s was also the first organization to release a transparent audit of the company’s impacts on society, including not only the positive impacts but also the negative ones, something which it was by no means required to do, giving the brand a sense of authenticity. Investors are bound to invest more in companies that are transparent in their impacts and figures as they are the safest investments. The transparent audit was likely a ploy to attract investment and thus be able to expand the company.

In addition to this, they offer a ‘liveable wage policy’. Offering employees almost double the minimum wage, increasing with inflation, extensive maternity and paternity leave. Furthermore, if the employee is a parent to a child below elementary school age, they are offered accommodations, working hour changes, shortened work weeks, etc. However, announcing that you pay employees nearly double minimum wage does not say much about a business. Likely, workers are simply working at a level above minimum wage - you wouldn’t be shocked if everyone in a law firm earned double minimum wage -  they are simply paying for the services the worker provides.

Counselors and life coaches are available to employees free of charge, which sounds very good but is in the company’s best interests as it means more productive workers with fewer days off sick, therefore having more positive benefits to the business as a whole than the employees themselves.

Many actions taken by Ben and Jerry’s may be perceived as performative, for example, supporting Greystone Bakery in New York by buying their brownies for their ice cream and therefore contributing to a large portion of their revenue. However, this is one small business in a nation of them, so the impact is limited.

Another example of performative ethics and good treatment is their response to a complaint about the quality of the brownies in their ice cream, as opposed to looking into the brownie manufacturing process, reviewing ingredients, etc. the company replaced the product and offered a complimentary factory tour. What change is this making?

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that Ben and Jerry’s involvement in activism goes above and beyond the average corporation - during the height of the BLM movement, Ben and Jerry’s named an ice cream flavor after it, donating all the proceeds to the cause. During the Occupy Wall Street protests, they provided free ice cream and invested in fuelling the protest.  As well as regularly awarding $1.8 million in grants to eligible non-profit organizations nominated by customers and approved by employees.

Environmental Ethics

The ‘Caring Dairy Program’ prohibits farmers from using artificial growth hormones, ensures free grazing, and ensures cows get regular massages. Phrases such as ‘free grazing’ are incredibly subjective, and ‘organic’ marketing is very popular with consumers at the moment. Thus probably benefiting the company hugely, although the exact specifications of such a program are unclear.

Ben and Jerry’s is a certified B corporation that has required it to pass rigorous standards consisting of accountability, transparency, social responsibility, and environmental performance, thus proving legitimacy behind claims and the fact their passion is about responsibility and not money. Further portraying this is their community-based projects such as the Vermont Dairy Farm Sustainability Project which supports the safeguarding of water quality from dairy farm by-products. Not only does this support those farms which supply Ben and Jerrys, therefore supporting their efforts to improve the environment, but also other local farms.

To assist farms and reduce the environmental liabilities of Ben and Jerry’s and dairy farms, the business set up a deconstruction program for their dairy farm suppliers, in which the organization sends their dairy waste from the Vermont plants back to farms. This waste is put into methane digesters which produce energy to power the farm.

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream boxes are 100% post-consumer recycled paper board and compost friendly, as well as the energy efficiency of their factories, this helps them reduce the environmental impacts they have on the world.

Unilever Involvement

As of 2001, the founders of Ben and Jerry’s no longer hold any board or management position and aren’t involved in the day-to-day management of the company as it was sold to Unilever. Unilever often relies on ruthless outsourcing to poorer countries, creating harsh working conditions and unemployment elsewhere. While Unilever hopes to carry on the tradition of engaging “in these critical, global economic and social missions”, the cut to pension schemes in the UK by 20-40%, as well as the increased CEOs salary shows that Ben and Jerry’s management no longer holds any social responsibility.

Ben and Jerry’s has carried out ‘socially responsible’ actions, but to what extent are these for the greater good of society as opposed to purely private benefit? Or should we not mind as long as they still carry out actions that benefit society? In conclusion, I believe that relatively speaking, Ben and Jerry’s is a somewhat ethical business – whether or not that was their actual main intention.

Written by Elin Thomas; edited by Alidar Kuatbekov