Number 3

I definitely agree with the idea that Walt Freese has stated. I do believe that businesses have a duty to improve the environment, because big business like Ben & Jerry’s impact the environment either way, whether they know it or not so they might as well be conscious be aware of their impact. I also think that the company not only affects the environment around them but also on a global scale too. Although only an ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is a fortune 500 company which means that they have the power, resources, and money to affect the social, economic, and environmental conditions around them. The company not only reach people through their products but also through the messages in their commercials and their employees as well.

Socially Ben & Jerry’s can impact the conditions around them through volunteering for events around them and helping out the community. They could give money to the local organizations or give away necessities to the needy via money, etc. They could also, since they are an ice-cream parlor they could make peoples day and give away free ice-cream. More specifically since the company is a big company it has influence over its customers and employees so if they decide to advocate for social causes/movements it could suede others to do the same. Economically since the company has to purchase it goods from a dairy farm and container maker it decides which company receives there money and what type of farms they support, because who you buy your milk from for your ice cream is a part of your company too. They can help other organizations too monetarily and help them further their cause for the community and the environment as a whole. Environmentally the company can support different organizations that take stand on environmental issues pertaining to the company specifically. For example greenhouse gases, pesticides, GMO’s, global warming, animal/ herd food cloning, etc. Never underestimate the power of a company.

The CEO isn’t just talking either; he believes what he saying is true and I believe so too, because I see it through the companies actions. It interesting actually because Ben and Jerry’s takes huge stands on ten major topics. Ben and Jerry’s actually founded 1% For Peace in 1988, which set a goal to redirect one percent of the national defense budget to fund peace-promoting activities and projects. They also go against Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), based on concern about its adverse economic impact on family farming and public confidence in the wholesomeness of dairy products. The company’s pints carry a “Support Farm Aid” message as part of the grassroots efforts of Farm Aid, a non-profit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land. They are in a cooperative campaign with the national nonprofit, Children’s Defense Fund; the campaign goal is to bring children’s basic needs to the top of the national agenda. Over 70,000 postcards are sent to Congress concerning kids and other national issues. In an effort to drive voter turnout among young people, Ben & Jerry’s partners with Rock the Vote. RTV street teams leverage the long lines of customers on Free Cone Day to register over 11,000 voters. To protest proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they constructed a 900-pound Baked Alaska with their Fossil Fuel ice cream in order to raise awareness. When they began offsetting the carbon emissions from their employees’ travel, they worked with MyClimate and NativeEnergy, to help people across the country and around the world to purchase offsets for their airplane travel. When protesters in New York City and other places take to the streets under the Occupy Wall Street banner in the fall of 2011 to rally against increasing economic inequality in the United States, high unemployment, mortgage fraud, and too much corporate influence in American politics, Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors issues a direct statement of solidarity, and we show up in Zucotti Park on several occasions to scoop ice cream for Occupiers. As the campaign to label food products made with GMO ingredients moves across the states, including Vermont, Ben & Jerry’s stands with the growing consumer movement for transparency and the right to know what’s in our food supply by supporting mandatory GMO labeling legislation. In 2013, they also committed to transitioning all of our ingredients to be fully sourced non-GMO. Also when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration declared that it believed meat and milk from cloned animals was safe to eat, they were dissatisfied and to show their disappointment with the FDA’s decision – and to urge Americans to speak out against cloning – they sent a determined herd of cow-costumed folks to Washington, D.C. for a “Truth or Clone-sequences” demonstration.

It’s not always a good thing though. It many cases it is good to use an already glorified company too some, because through marketing it already has an easy passage way to teleport information to consumers and improve society that way. Sometimes though using companies to improve society gives a lot of power to the higher up class and could potential cut out opposing views. Plus since it is a company, it is prone to make mistakes and to not know what actually is helping society or hurting it and could steer us in the wrong direction, because no one has all the answers.