A Reflective Analysis of Ben and Jerry's and the PAEP Project
Over the past two months, I’ve
been working with my group to uncover the mysteries of Ben and Jerry’s amazing
policies for environmental sustainability. While I’m sure they aren’t the only
ones out there (on a corporate level mind you), they are definitely one of the
better ones I’ve seen and it was an interesting experience. My group and I made
use of Ben and Jerry’s fairly strong attachment to Burlington, their home while
working on this project. In this reflection I will briefly explain and analyze
where Ben and Jerry’s started, their policies, science and technology, as well
as their efforts to make what they do more environmentally friendly before
ending with my individual reflection on the whole process. Let us dive into
their origins first!
Ben
Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in junior high school where their friendship
began. After graduating high school and attempting to go to college, they
decided that college wasn’t what they wanted and dropped out. They pooled
together their life savings as well as a small bank loan and decided to open up
an ice cream shop at an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont in May, 1978. Using
their imagination and skills from a $5 ice cream making course from Penn State,
Ben and Jerry created the various unique flavors we now know as Ben and Jerry’s
ice cream. From there, you could say the rest is history. Nonetheless, a great
start to a now world famous company.
Ben
and Jerry’s have many environmentally savvy policies that make them stand out.
For starters, they have several environmental policies that have found their
way into technology as you will see shortly in the next paragraph. Ben and
Jerry’s also advocates for fair trade and are currently working on sourcing all of their ingredients to be fair
trade certified. Jerry put is nicely when he said “Fairtrade is about making
sure people get their fair share of the pie. The whole concept of fair trade
goes to the heart of our values and sense of right and wrong. Nobody wants to
buy something that was made by exploiting somebody else” (Jerry Greenfield).
They also continue to support other policies such as cage free eggs and no
GMOs. These policies are great models for other companies to hopefully use in
the future.
While
it wouldn’t be fair to say that Ben and Jerry’s oppose science and technology,
I will instead say they are selective. Being a very left sided company, they
try to stay ‘natural’ and environmentally friendly to put it simply. For
example, they created a new hydrocarbon freezer which they like to call the
“The Cleaner Greener Freezer” (Ben and Jerry’s) which is not only more energy
efficient, but also cleaner for the environment. They also oppose GMOs and
always label them as such, as well as pushing to use milk from cows who aren’t
using rGBH. This is to help keep the natural, organic ingredients that they
love to use! Ben and Jerry’s are also working on better paper for their pints
as they say here on their website. “Our long-term goals include using
unbleached paperboard and finding food-safe renewable resins that can make our
packaging fully compostable.” (Ben and Jerry’s). Definitely not a bad away to
improve their product by using technology!
As
you have read in the previous paragraphs, I mentioned many of their efforts to
make what they do more friendly to the environment. How exactly does all this
tie into the ethical framework they are trying to establish here? Ben and
Jerry’s is definitely not a very “normal” company by corporate standards. They
are, as I said, very left sided meaning they are pushing to reduce their
footprint, which is actually a very good thing. Being more environmentally
aware, they are able to set the example for others around them. I also believe
that this is part of their goal since the first step to solving a problem is
being aware of it to begin with. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, their
ethical framework is environmental sustainability.
I
believe that their ethical framework is exactly what we need for a very
important reason. Companies these days, due to Taker influence, neglect the
environment. They are constantly pushing to make what they do more efficient
and cheaper, but not necessarily better for Mother Earth. Ishmael offered a
similar idea as the Taker’s story or “The
world was made for man, and man was made to conquer and rule it” (Ishmael 72). Ben
and Jerry’s on the other hand try to take the opposite approach. Having a lot
of influence these days due to their popularity, they’ve made use of their
fantastic marketing skills to show the Takers that you can do things in an
environmentally friendly way. Since they are well known for their ice cream,
they can try to influence others to follow in their footsteps. This is where
their ethical framework comes into place. You can see a good example of this
with their Hydrocarbon Freezer. It is cleaner and more efficient than older
freezers and is a perfect example of advocating cleaner practices in the
industry.
This
entire process has definitely been a good chunk of work. While I definitely
think we could have done better in some aspects, I am still pleased with the
end result of our hard work. At the start, we didn’t really communicate much.
We divided the work and kind of left each other to do our respective parts.
Looking back, we probably should have worked more as a group, but it did
improve later on. After our site tour and the poster work began, this is when
our teamwork really began to shine. We met about 5 times after the site visit
(in person!) where we worked together on the poster. While some of us were not
always able to make it, we did have at least ¾ of us there each time which is
very good in my opinion. I was usually leading the meetings and I was able to
brush off my excitement into my group and the result was fantastic. Overall,
I’m very pleased with the co-operation my group put into the project when it
mattered the most (a.k.a. the poster). They were willing to take time out of
their busy schedules to meet in person and talk it out which I believe is more
effective than using social media or instant messaging. The only thing I would have
changed was our teamwork at the beginning when it was almost non-existent.
Work
Cited
"Activism |
Ben & Jerry's." Ben & Jerry's. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov.
2013. http://www.benjerry.com/activism.
Quinn, Daniel.
"Four." Ishmael. Bantam trade pbk. ed. New York: Bantam/Turner
Book, 1995. 72. Print.
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