At Ben & Jerry’s we have a long and proud history of campaign for climate change. In 2015 we ran a global campaign, Save Our Swirled, which called for a greener, cleaner future ahead of the UN climate summit. Supporting 10:10’s Blown Away campaign is the latest instalment of our climate activism!

We are adding our voice to 10:10’s campaign to show the love the UK has for wind power with the hope that the UK government will lift the planning ban on onshore wind turbines. This would allow more turbines to be built giving the UK access to more clean energy and becoming less reliant on fossil fuels.

Ben & Jerry’s regularly partners with NGOs, charities and movement building networks that have all the policy know-how in issue areas, such as Stonewall for our Marriage Equality campaign and the International Rescue Committee for our Together For Refugees campaign. Partnering with the experts is essential, as they know how we can take change to the next level! 

It’s real. It’s happening now. For us, it’s not just about polar bears and ice sheets, it’s about people and it’s an issue of economic and social justice.

We’ve always had a commitment to minimizing the negative impact our business has on the environment. We’ve made investments in energy efficiency and waste reduction at our manufacturing facilities, installed bio-digesters that turn waste to clean energy at our European manufacturing facility.

In 2015 the government introduced rules that have effectively stopped anyone building new onshore wind turbines in England after pressure from a vocal minority. According to the government, people are ‘fed up’ with wind turbines, but we think that’s just not true: the latest government research shows that people love wind! In fact, 76% of the British public support onshore wind and only 7% oppose it. Onshore wind is not only the cheapest energy source out there, but also one of the most popular.

The government has blocked financial support for large scale onshore wind – this affects big wind farms that plug into the national grid and power our kettles. 

Onshore wind has also been blocked in the planning system, which means that local authorities can’t give the go-ahead for even one wind turbine, and a farm of them would be impossible. 

Meanwhile, the government continues to give financial support to more polluting forms of energy such as coal, oil and gas. This is a real climate justice issue that requires action – as the moves to block wind energy in favour of fossil fuels go against the UK’s commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement to move towards renewable energy. 

You may be surprised but it turns out most Brits love wind power! In fact, new government figures show 76% of us love it and only 7% oppose it. And when it comes to fracking, only 18% of people support it. To find out more, check out this bite sized blog. 

Nearly all businesses have greenhouse gas emissions associated with their operations, and that includes Ben & Jerry’s. We have assessed our carbon footprint, and are working throughout our operations to reduce it. Through our ‘Caring Dairy’ programme, we are working with our farmers to reduce methane emissions from farms. We are also leading the change to a cleaner, greener freezer in the United States and our Chunkinator at our Netherlands factory helps power the factory from ice cream bi-products.  We also know this is not nearly enough and we must do more. We make progress and report on this each year in our Social and Environmental Assessment (SEAR) Report. 

Yes, Ben & Jerry’s is committed to reducing its absolute GHG footprint. We believe corporations should set ambitious goals that are rooted in science. Ben & Jerry’s is committed to de-linking the growth of our business with the growth of our GHG emissions. We’ve committed to an 80% reduction in our absolute emissions by 2050, despite an ambitious plan to grow our business. Between now and 2020, we’ve committed to reduce the emissions intensity per unit of production by 15%.

More than half of our company’s carbon emissions come from the production of our ingredients, most notably, milk. On farm emission are 42% of the overall life cycle emissions of our company, so in order to make real progress to reduce our footprint, we’ve got to partner with our family dairy farmers to improve manure management, reduce enteric emissions from the herd, and move towards better cropping methods that promote soil health and sequester carbon. In addition, we’ll continue to drive efficiencies throughout our manufacturing plants, our logistics network and our frozen supply chain.

100% of the electricity used at our European factory in Hellendoorn comes from wind power! The factory is also powered by natural gas, a percentage of which is bio (green) gas generated through our bio-digester.