Ben and Jerry's
- Submitted by: andy
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- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 03/07/2010 01:42 PM
- Pages: 6
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Ben & Jerry’s is bringing euphoric ice cream to folks around the world. From the first licensed Scoop Shop in Israel in 1988 to our latest forays into Europe, we’ve introduced our chunky and smooth flavors and sense of caring capitalism to millions of new fans.
• We said goodbye to the Eco-Pint, the unbleached paperboard pint container used to package our ice cream, after nine years. We had hoped that other food companies would join us in moving toward unbleached paperboard packaging, an environmentally friendly material that does not require the use of chlorine bleach. But since the market for this kind of packaging never grew much beyond Ben & Jerry’s, we ran into increasing supply, quality, and cost challenges. In the fall of 2006, we transitioned to a new bleached paperboard container for our pints. Our new supplier has an excellent track record of sustainable forestry practices and can help us achieve our long-held goal of finding a non-petroleum based, renewable coating for our pint package. The move away from the Eco-Pint will also allow us to eliminate approximately 1,000 tons of waste annually in our packaging supply chain. All in all, we feel this is a necessary step sideways that will allow us to keep moving forward on our journey to reduce the environmental impacts of our packaging.
• For years, we’ve sought out suppliers like Greyston Bakery who deliver environmental and social benefits in addition to the ingredients we need to make and package our ice cream. Measured by total dollars, our Values-Led Sourcing declined in 2006, to 49% of our raw material spend (i.e., ingredients, dairy, packaging), driven largely by the low milk prices we saw in 2006. We did not add any new VLS initiatives in 2006, but we did make plans that will likely increase our VLS spend in 2007, including the following:
• We made the decision in 2006 to convert the vanilla extract in our smooth Vanilla ice cream — and the cocoa powder in our smooth Chocolate ice cream — to...
• We said goodbye to the Eco-Pint, the unbleached paperboard pint container used to package our ice cream, after nine years. We had hoped that other food companies would join us in moving toward unbleached paperboard packaging, an environmentally friendly material that does not require the use of chlorine bleach. But since the market for this kind of packaging never grew much beyond Ben & Jerry’s, we ran into increasing supply, quality, and cost challenges. In the fall of 2006, we transitioned to a new bleached paperboard container for our pints. Our new supplier has an excellent track record of sustainable forestry practices and can help us achieve our long-held goal of finding a non-petroleum based, renewable coating for our pint package. The move away from the Eco-Pint will also allow us to eliminate approximately 1,000 tons of waste annually in our packaging supply chain. All in all, we feel this is a necessary step sideways that will allow us to keep moving forward on our journey to reduce the environmental impacts of our packaging.
• For years, we’ve sought out suppliers like Greyston Bakery who deliver environmental and social benefits in addition to the ingredients we need to make and package our ice cream. Measured by total dollars, our Values-Led Sourcing declined in 2006, to 49% of our raw material spend (i.e., ingredients, dairy, packaging), driven largely by the low milk prices we saw in 2006. We did not add any new VLS initiatives in 2006, but we did make plans that will likely increase our VLS spend in 2007, including the following:
• We made the decision in 2006 to convert the vanilla extract in our smooth Vanilla ice cream — and the cocoa powder in our smooth Chocolate ice cream — to...