In April, Social Enterprise students traveled to Burlington, Vermont to visit the corporate offices of Ben and Jerry's and Seventh Generation, a few of the pioneering companies practicing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The trip provided great exposure to the innovative approaches that social and environmental departments of these companies are employing, and opened our eyes to the possibilities of what a corporation can be and do in these areas. Ben and Jerry's The corporate offices of Ben and Jerry's reflect the same childlike euphoria that their product creates with a school-yard slide and a freezer full of ice cream right in the reception area.
Yola Carlough, Director of Social Mission for Ben & Jerry's and Andrea Ash the Manager of Environmental Resources introduced us to the company and gave us a tour. When asked about corporate culture and mission, Carlough explained "Ben and Jerry's is founded and dedicated to a sustainable corporate concept of linked prosperity. Our mission consists of three interrelated parts: Product, Economic and Social." It is a mission evidenced throughout the company and hanging above the entrance of the ice cream factory.
Carlough and Ash had both been at Ben & Jerry's before Unilever bought the company in 2000. Many of the student's questions revolved around the Unilever takeover and how things had changed. Carlough said that having the social mission embedded in the company's DNA from the beginning, is easier than attempting to retrofit an organization with CSR. For a Multinational company (MNC) that wants to practice CSR it is harder to build a CSR culture from scratch than to buy a company that is already practicing CSR and have its culture influence the other units of the MNC.
At Unilever, Carlough found that Ben & Jerry's culture of CSR has spilled over to Lipton Tea which is now exploring sustainable agriculture practices. She also noted that when a MNC buys a company with a strong social mission, the MNC is often aware that they are purchasing a brand which is strongly tied to the social mission, and that brand maintenance may not be cheap. When Greg Zumas, one of the student organizers of the trip, asked about the process for 'greenlighting' mission driven campaigns, Carlough acknowledged that the challenge is greater than in pre-Unilever days when such decisions were made around the water cooler.
Now with a much more detailed process, Carlough is often challenged to prove that a "social investment makes sense." "It's hard to explain to corporate that you need to pay more for fair trade coffee extract so Mexican farmers can support their families," she said. Adhering to the social mission with projects often requires time be spent in educating Unilever decision-makers on the social, environmental and economic issues involved. As such, Carlough encourages those interested in CSR to acquire skills in accounting, analytical thinking and strategic planning.
Despite the challenges of having a new corporate parent, Ben and Jerry's has maintained its focus and progress on environmental and social causes. Since 2001, all pint flavors are now packaged in unbleached paperboard Eco-Pint containers. Ash is actively working on an entirely biodegradable pint made without added chlorine, and the Company continues to focus on sustainable agriculture and global warming. The Annual Social and Environmental Assessment report highlighted their purchase of carbon offsets and included a clip of a recent ad campaign to educate Americans about the decline and importance of family farms in America. Even under new management Ben and Jerry's continues striving for a sustainable and socially responsible future.
Seventh Generation
Seventh Generation is the nation's leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household products, with distribution in thousands of natural product and grocery stores nationwide. The name of the company, "Seventh Generation", comes from the Iroquois belief that "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." The idea for consumers is that every time they use a Seventh Generation product they are making a difference by saving natural resources, reducing pollution, keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment and making the world a safer place for this and the next seven generations.
At Seventh Generation, Gregor Barnum, Director of Corporate Consciousness, spoke of how the company was beyond thinking about "sustainability" and was rather thinking about "regeneration". "Regenerative is what nature is," he said. Seventh Generation is exploring how they can create products that are the most beneficial within the systems they interact with. This goes beyond the concept of not polluting, and the company is now considering what they can do to improve society and the environment.
According to Barnum, Jeffrey Hollender, the CEO, has recently changed his title to, "Chief of Un-Fƒing up the world." Barnum provided the group with a tour of Seventh Generation's office space. Their kitchen has the most energy conserving refrigerator on the planet, and their dining hall has fooseball and ping pong tables. The wood used in the building was locally sourced and the company has an open floor plan, with no enclosed office space.
Barnum explained that the new office was designed to give employees the freedom to reach new peaks of productivity. Quoting Buckminster Fuller he said, "Everybody's born a genius. Society takes it away". His goal is to find a better way to harness the genius inside each individual employee and to use it to attain new levels of productivity, adding that a forty-hour work week is simply a form of inefficient slavery.
As well as learning about specific innovative approaches these companies are employing, Burlington - with its abundance of local environmental and social mission driven companies - provided a stark contrast to the box-store populated towns and small cities we had all been accustomed to seeing. All of us left Vermont inspired by the vibrancy and diversity in the city's economy.
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