DIRECTIONSMONTHLYSUPPLEMENT

FEBRUARY 07

TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE WORLD OF CORPORATE REPORTING

Welcome to Directions Monthly. This month we look at the importance of bringing your home values into work with you. We are delighted to havePhilippa Marshall discuss how Ben & Jerry’s have been able to go from Cow to Cone giving equal weight to product quality, economic and environmentaland social goals. Also known as ‘The Cone Ranger’ she provides an insight intothe real people and values behind the logo, and how the culture is kept alive.

Nigel Salter Lucie Harrild

Directions Monthly February 2007 Issue 9

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield; friends since junior high; business partners since they converted an abandoned gas stationin Vermont, USA in 1978, were an unlikelybusiness success story. Ben had been firedfrom just about every job he’d had, and Jerry,bless him, failed three times to make it intomedical school. When they finally found theirniche at the gas station and began churningout some of the tastiest, all natural, super-premium ice cream around, success deeplytroubled the pair. Suddenly the fun chaoticgas station with its Free Cone Days, outdoormovie festivals and in-house honky-tonkpiano-man gave way to expansion throughselling pints to local grocery stores andrestaurants. Our dairying duo had grown up in the sixties with a strong sense for socialand environmental justice. A sense whichdidn’t exactly sit right, in their opinion, withtheir slow transformation from feckless scoopshop owners to gasp, golly – business people!

The duo were ready to throw in their spoons,until wise words from Maurice Puropora, anoctogenarian artist/restauranteur made themchange their minds. While Maurice’s exact

words are lost in the mists of time, the gist ofit, so the guys tell us, was this – who saysbusiness has to be negative? You own thecompany, you decide how it runs and how

it could be a force for positive change.Bring your own values into how you treatsuppliers, customers and the planet – andbusiness can be much more powerful thanphilanthropy ever could.

The words hit home, and the boys went on tobase their company on a three-part mission,giving equal weight to product quality,economic and social and environmental goals.However, as they’re the first to point out, while it’s their names above the door, on thepints, and on the web, behind the logo, arehundreds of dedicated souls who’ve beenbringing their home life to work for the past twenty nine years. And this article willattempt to explain why they do it, what theyget out of it and how this culture is kept alive,beyond big business stuff like mergers andacquisitions*.

Values Led SourcingThere were lessons to be learnt about valuesled sourcing. ‘We’d be lying if we said it’s noextra trouble to do values-led sourcing. Butone of the most powerful ways we can influencethe world is through our purchasing power’Mike Spinelli, Ben & Jerry’s Flavour Guru.

One of our earliest flavour sourcing storiescame in 1990 working with Greyston BakeryCompany, a social enterprise that employed,trained and counselled the homeless. Our firstorder to Greyston was a couple of tons. For usthat was a small order. For Greyston, that wasa huge order. It caused their system to breakdown. And our supply chain people werereally unhappy about the quality of Greystonproduct. Mike Spinelli’s first few weeks at thecompany were spent on secondment toGreyston. He remembers,

* B&J’s was acquired by Unilever in 2000, who to its credit signed an unprecedented agreement withBen & Jerry’s to allow us to run it as a separate company within Unilever. As a result to this day wecontinue to operate with most of the same faces, under the guidance of our own independent boardof directors, and most importantly with full protection for our unique three part social mission.

From Cow to Cone Why you shouldn’t bring your work home with you, but you should bring your home values into work with you. How Ben & Jerry’s brings it home - from the pasture to Paraguay, and limits its carbon hoofprint too.

Philippa MarshallThe Cone Ranger aka European Communications Manager

Don’t miss the next Directions Monthly

“By the time I was sent to Greyston we wereadvancing them money and helping themdesign the line and train their staff to makethe goods. It was a baptism of fire for me inmy first days with the company, but workingalongside the employees at the Bakery is stillone of my most rewarding memories – and I’m still here some 18 years later”.

Without engaging our staff by sending them over to Greyston to meet the people,experience the social side to their businessand providing Greyston the technicalexpertise so they could supply us,Chocolate Fudge Brownie, one of our topthree selling flavours wouldn’t exist.

Happy CowsCaring Dairy is another example of whensomething great occurred as a result ofengaging in dialogue with stakeholders. This European sustainable dairy farminginitiative began in 2004. It helps the dairyfarmers supplying our H’doorn factory,improve their sustainability performance –finding the right balance between theeconomic, social, environmental and animalwelfare aspects of farmers. Caring Dairyproject manager or Happy Cow Girl, AnniekMauser explains: “One of the biggestenvironmental impacts from our ice creamoriginates in dairy farming. What’s more, dairyfarmers in Europe are under huge pressure.Our end goal is to develop sustainable dairyguidelines that can help farmers everywhere –and the planet!” Holding meetings withproduction, marketing and supply chain onthese farms, and vice versa has been amutually rewarding exchange.

Fairtrade In July 2006, co-founder Jerry Greenfieldintroduced our first Fairtrade Vanilla flavourat ‘Sundae at the Common’, B&J’s UK musicfestival. For us, the transition to Fairtrade is about making what we have been doing for years – working closely with co-ops indeveloping countries on sustainableagriculture and paying them a fair price –more visible and credible to our consumers.But it’s not without its headaches too.

The size of the sugar bags we receive fromour co-op in Paraguay proved really difficultfor our production team to lift into the mixer.Sharing stories and photos of the value thefairtrade premium gives to sugar farmersin Paraguay has been really important inreinforcing that this flavour is about morethan a smooth, efficient production line! It’s all about giving equal weight toproduct quality, economic, social andenvironmental goals.

Sometimes, doing business in this way,means a lot of obstacles, but our experiencehas shown that people will work harder toovercome these, and are generally more funto be around when their personal values arereflected in the work they’re doing.

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Climate changeBack in 2002, the overwhelming majority of our staff felt we had to start doingsomething to combat global climate change.Dubbed later Lick Global Warming, welaunched a campaign diet to lose tonnes of CO2; switching to green energy at ourfactories; setting up efficiency plans andcommunicating this to our consumers throughour website www.lickglobalwarming.org. In 2005, we also got everyone committed tocutting air travel and offsetting any essentialbusiness travel through our own Cool YourJets carbon offsetting portal athttps://benjerryuk.myclimate.org

We also initiated the Ben & Jerry’swww.ClimateChangeCollege.org – a launch-padfor young people to grow their own grass-roots campaign to fight climate change.Launched in association with WWF and polarexplorer Marc Cornelissen, the college aims to inspire students to lead with their values, in whatever path they choose.

At the heart of our business are two friends united in their passion for full-fat,chunky dairy ice cream and their belief thatcapitalism should, and can care. But thisdoesn’t always mean a cuddly, easy-goingwork environment. Sometimes, doingbusiness in this way means a lot of obstacles,but our experience has shown that people willwork harder to overcome these, and aregenerally more fun to be around when theirpersonal values are reflected in the workthey’re doing.

And there’s nothing like sharing experiencesbetween suppliers, customers, and employeesto help this whole process tick along.

Finally, people, don’t stop being who they arewhen they cross the office threshold each day,and bringing a bit of home with you – whetherthat’s your dog (30 dogs a day in our headoffice and counting…), your recycling or yourviews on cloning dairy cows – is in our humbleview, a good thing.

1963 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfieldmeet in 7th grade gym class inMerrick, New York (Long Island).

1977 Ben and Jerry move to Vermont.

1978 Ben and Jerry open their Ben &Jerry’s Homemade ice cream scoop shop and hold their first freesummer movie festival, projectingmovies on the outside wall of the old gas station in Burlington.

1979 Ben & Jerry’s marks its one-yearanniversary by holding the first-ever Free Cone Day: free scoops ofBen & Jerry’s for all, all day long.Now an annual celebration at Ben& Jerry’s Scoop Shops nationwide.

1985 The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation isestablished at the end of the yearwith a gift from Ben and Jerry tofund community-oriented projects;it is then provided with 7.5% of thecompany’s annual pre-tax profits.The First Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShopopens in Ithaca, New York.

1990 Ben & Jerry’s prints a “SupportFarm Aid” panel on 8 million pintcups with an 800# for supporters to call in a grass-roots effort tosupport family farmers.

1994 B&J’s arrives in the UK

1999 B&J’s in the U.K. launches the Flying Friesian, a raucous tour busretrofitted for fun, with a focus onfundraising for U.K. kids-in-neednetwork, Childline.

2002 It’s an ice cream flavour... it’s anenvironmental action website: it’s One Sweet Whirled™ – and it’s allinterconnected, as Ben & Jerry’spartners with the Dave MatthewsBand and SaveOurEnvironment.orgin a campaign to fight global warming.

2006 First Fairtrade Vanilla flavour in Europe.

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Our clients are extremely varied and include FTSE 100 corporations,some of the world’s most exclusive brands, independent entrepreneurialbusinesses, world leading educational establishments, law firms, privateequity firms, architects and charities.

We name companies, re-invent companies, and re-position companies.We help companies communicate with shareholders and advise them onhow to address corporate responsibility. We launch, brand and re-brand.

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This has been recognised with our work receiving numerous awardsincluding the ACCA award for innovation in sustainability reporting forour work with O2.

Contact:Nigel Salter Lucie Harrildnsalter@salterbaxter.com lharrild@salterbaxter.comTel: +44 (0)20 7229 5720 Tel: +44 (0)20 7229 5720

Directions Monthly supplements our main Directions report. This report is published eachyear and is now regarded as the UK’s most comprehensible analysis of the trends andissues in CR communications. If you want a copy of the full Directions Annual Survey andReport, call us on the number below or email directions@salterbaxter.com

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