1. The three levels of CSR are corporate philanthropy, risk management, and value creation.
Corporate philanthropy is the lowest and oldest level of CSR and consists of donations and volunteering. Ben & Jerry’s is a company that successfully manages this type of CSR, mainly through the employees-led Ben & Jerry’s Foundation created in 1985 which main mission is to give back to the community ("Ben & Jerry's Foundation | ABOUT US", 2018):
• Since 1985, Ben & Jerry’s has been giving 7.5% of its profit to the Foundation, which then has distributed the funds in form of grants to grassroots organizations ("Activism is at our core: The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation", 2014), i.e. community-oriented organizations which are managed by people who are the most affected by the problems these grassroots organizations are trying to solve ("Ben & Jerry's Foundation | Grassroots Organizing for Social Change Program", 2018).
• The Bucket Brigade Community Volunteering Program: this program provides employees with paid time off to volunteer at local NGOs. Workers are encouraged to help an organization which mission is In line with the values and priorities of Ben & Jerry’s (E.g. Protecting the environment) ("2016 SEAR Report | Ben & Jerry’s", 2016).
Risk management is the medium level of CSR and consists of a company minimizing its negative ESG impacts. Failure to do so can cause events like corporate scandals (corruption, consumer, labour, environment) which can then destroy a brand’s reputation, decrease share price and many more. Here is an example of good risk management by Ben & Jerry’s:
• Respecting laws: Ben & Jerry’s complies with laws such as the Human Rights Act 2003, the Protection Against Discrimination Act (2003), the Equality Act of 2010. Decisions regarding compensation and dismissal, recruitment and promotion, working hours, welfare, etc. are based on fair competition and evaluation, regardless of a person’s gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, parental status, situation of life, race and many other factors ("Inclusiveness: It's about the way we work together", 2018).
Creating shared value is the highest level of CSR and consists in maximizing positive ESG impacts. A company creates shared value when it makes profit and address ESG issue(s) at the same time. Unlike philanthropy and risk management, creating shared value is much more related to the nature of the business, is a new way for business to make profit by identifying profitable opportunities to address ESG challenges. Ben & Jerry’s is an example of company that creates shared value in many ESG areas. Here are a few examples:
• The Caring Dairy program: it encourages farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, in exchange for better incentives ("Caring Dairy Standards", 2018).
• Fairtrade: small scale farmers in developing countries promise to use environmentally sound practices in exchange for a Fairtrade premium which helps them improve their lives (social). For example, the Huatusco Coffee Cooperative in Mexico is the main coffee supplier for Ben & Jerry’s. The latter’s purchase of more than 300,000 pounds of coffee have provided farmers with better lives, their community with a medical centre, schools, library, etc. ("Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade Ingredients Share The Love", 2018).
2. Ben & Jerry’s causes different types of harm to the society and the environment. Here are a few of them and the explanation of the brand’s effort to minimize these risks. Social Harm:
• Health Issues: Products with a high sugar concentration and other unhealthy substances can cause certain diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer and obesity, etc. This is an issue that the brand does not mention and therefore does not try to deal with and reduce.
Environmental Harm:
• Waste: Ben & Jerry’s admits that the company creates waste. They have thus come up with a system to achieve Zero Waste. For example, in 2017, it succeeded in reusing and recycling the 8,887 tonnes of waste it disposed using the following program: all waste at the Ben & Jerry’s factories are either composted, reused, recycled, or sent back to the farmers-suppliers to be put in their methane digesters along with other farm waste, which then generates energy that the farm can use (Kvarnström, 2016).
• Greenhouse Gases: the company also admits that it produces greenhouse gases. Their most recent life cycle analysis in 2016 reported that 1.4kg of such gas was emitted for every pint manufactured. It therefore immediately set goals in accordance with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Although their progress in 2016 was as not as significant as they had hoped, the brand set new SBTi goals for 2017. Because the last CSR report of the company was published in 2016, the results of their 2017 performance regarding greenhouse gases was not publicly revealed yet. Other than the SBTi, the company is partnering with NativeEnergy, an organization which provides businesses with advice on how to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution and attain their sustainability goals ("2016 SEAR Report | Ben & Jerry’s", 2016).
• Water: water scarcity is today a significant issue ("Water Scarcity | WWF", 2018). The brand is not open about it in their Social & Environmental Assessment Report (SEAR)s. However, in its B-corp Impact Assessment (2017), Ben & Jerry’s admits that it does not measure nor manage its water use, but then explains that it sets water use targets, which have been met in the past few years. This is controversial as it cannot set water usage targets if it is not measuring it (Ben and Jerry's Assessment (2017), 2017).
When it comes to risks, other than laws and regulations mentioned in question 1, occupational health and safety is another potential risk. Somehow, this is not a topic discussed in the company’s 2016 SEAR report. However, they mention a Code of Business Principles for all suppliers, with a section dedicated to safety and healthy standards for workers.
Regarding this topic for the brand Ben & Jerry’s itself, the only document that make the information available is the mandatory B Impact Assessment (2017) for B-corporations. It explains that employees’ safety and health is always considered in management decisions. A safety and health training, a wellness centre, and a healthcare plan for employees are provided, senior management has to write down and address safety issues at least quarterly, and a Safety Reporting System is available for employees to communicate any safety concerns. Finally, safety and health inspections are performed at least quarterly, and follow a written procedure (Ben and Jerry's Assessment (2017), 2017).
3. Ben & Jerry’s stopped operating in Hong Kong in 2013. I thus could not find any information about the its contributions in Hong Kong. Reasons why the brand stopped its business operations in Hong Kong are unclear but if it were to re-open, many social and environmental issues still need solutions: the ageing population or pollution are a few examples.
However, Ben & Jerry’s is a multinational company that help address such problems in many other countries. I mentioned a few examples of Ben & Jerry’s creating shared value by both being profitable and helping to solve important current issues when answering the first question. However, here are a few more.
Climate Change: this is one of the major current challenge of humankind. Ben & Jerry’s tries to tackle this problem which it sees as not only an environmental but also a social issue. To tackle this problem, Ben & Jerry’s has been conducting tailored Climate Change work in many countries. Today, the brand has several climate justice partners including Avaaz, The Climate Reality Project, 350.org and Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) (see Deliverable1, Climate Change Impact) ("Join the Climate Movement!", 2018).
However, it is worth noticing that Ben & Jerry’s support for stopping Climate Change can create controversies. It is well known that emissions of greenhouse gases help cause global warming. However, even if Ben & Jerry’s claims to be trying to help reduce climate change, it is also true that the brand has only started to seriously consider reducing their greenhouse gases emission in 2016 and so far, the results have either been not as high as expected, or simply not published.
Marriage Equality is another challenge Ben & Jerry’s has cared about since 1989. They have for example shown support to marriage equality and to many steps leading to it, some examples being the Vermont’s Civil Union Bill in 1999, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2001, the Tokyo Rainbow Pride in 2014, etc. Finally, Racial Justice, Democracy, Refugees are other causes they support by educating people, teaching them how to make their voices heard (E.g. For democracy, by signing the petition to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act ("Reauthorize the Voting Rights Act!", 2018)), etc. ("Issues We Care About | Ben & Jerry’s", 2018).
Here are a few recommendations that I believe would make the brand more successful at addressing different social and environmental issues. First, the brand seems to be a bit passive when advocating certain causes (petitions, sharing knowledge). The company is heavily managed by an Independent Board of Directors which aims is to make sure that the company successfully fulfils its social mission. This board consists of experts in different social and environmental areas from gender inequality to reducing carbon emissions along with topics such as education for all, waste management and more, and the brand should better utilize these resources to become more active when fighting for certain causes.
Second, before asking citizens to convince their governments to take their Paris Agreement commitments seriously, Ben & Jerry’s should first focus on being more transparent and giving more frequent updates on their progress when it comes to carbon emissions.
4. A reason behind Ben & Jerry’s success is linked prosperity. It believes in engaging and satisfying every single stakeholder for the business to prosper as well (Ben & Jerry's, 2016):
• Employees: Ben & Jerry’s wants a workplace that truly reflects their values, a culture where management is in the hands of trusted employees instead of a small group. This is why engaging and educating its employees was one of their focus points in 2016. It for example led a workshop for their employees in their factory in Vermont in order for the latter to engage with each other, learn about their different experiences, etc. ("2016 SEAR Report | Ben & Jerry’s", 2016).
• Suppliers: Following the fair-trade movement is a way for the brand to have good quality ingredients, protect the environment and take care of small-scale farmers in developing nations by offering them a better life and community (E.g. premiums) ("Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade Ingredients Share The Love", 2018).
• Community/Public: the public has several interests including social and environmental challenges. Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of Directors is responsible for satisfying them. A specific example of good engagement with the public would be the brand’s use of social media to ask US citizens to suggest how the brand could make the world a more equitable place. This led to supporting the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Community service is also another efficient way to engage with the community.
• Customers: one interest is the quality of products they purchase. Ben & Jerry’s carefully assesses the quality of products they buy (E.g. part of the Caring Dairy program standards) and is transparent about what they composition ("2016 SEAR Report | Ben & Jerry’s", 2016).
• Unilever: this multinational is also an important stakeholder as the owner of Ben & Jerry’s. Its main interests are return on investment as well as reputation. For example, Unilever is a signatory to the United Nations Secretary General’s Global Compact (1999) and therefore expects Ben & Jerry’s to respect and support human rights within its sphere of influence. The Code of Business Principles distributed to suppliers is one the results ("2016 SEAR Report | Ben & Jerry’s", 2016).
I believe that the report is more designed to be read by external stakeholders like the public than by the internal ones, which explains why it does not mention much of the employee policies. More transparency and more signs of engagement with employees would thus be an improvement. And if the reason why communication with employees is not shown in this report is because such engagement does not exist, I suggest that the brand takes approaches such as feedback interviews and surveys to better understand their employees. Indeed, engagement between employees themselves are slightly mentioned, but direct communication between employees and upper management seems to be rare.