A new study from global think tank The Club of Rome shows that moving to a circular economy – using and reusing, rather than using up – will pay off. If governments adopt circular economy policy measures by 2030, it is believed carbon emissions could be cut by almost 70%. In the meantime, companies must also do their bit.
For its part, Ben & Jerry’s has worked relentlessly to reduce its environmental footprint. In 2002, the company began offsetting the carbon footprint from its manufacturing facilities with Vermont-based partner, NativeEnergy. Using new equipment to separate manure solids and compost into bedding material for livestock, the company hopes to lower greenhouse gas emissions at Green Dream Farm by 12,900 metric tons over 10 years, saving $30,000 annually.
Then, in 2002, the ice cream maker ran its first global warming advocacy campaign with the Dave Matthews Band, featuring a new ice cream flavor whose proceeds supported the band’s climate change-focused Bama Works Foundation. Ben & Jerry’s also invested early, and often, in efficiencies throughout its manufacturing facilities, supply chain and retail Scoop Shops to increase energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.
Earlier this year, Ben & Jerry’s updated the life cycle analysis of its products, revealing the carbon emissions produced at each stage of an ice cream product’s life cycle, from the farm to the end of a pint container’s life. The results were used to create a clear roadmap towards reducing the company’s carbon footprint, pint for pint.
A sustainable living plan
Ben and Jerry’s parent company Unilever is also on board with the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), which aims to double business and increase positive social impact while reducing the company’s environmental footprint.
Unilever already purchases 100% of its electricity from renewable sources for all of its US sites through renewable energy certificates (RECs). Unilever also pledges to go 100% clean energy globally by 2020 via 50% onsite and 50% offsite generation.
The Chunkinator and other climate change fighting weapons
Ben & Jerry’s additional efforts towards tackling climate change include the Chunkinator, an anaerobic flotation reactor that turns ice cream byproducts into energy. This effort ties to a nationwide trend of companies converting food waste into biogas via biodigesters to help reduce food waste and turn waste into valuable products and revenue. This is good news, given the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO) reports about one third of all food produced globally is unconsumed, amounting to 1.3bn tons of food waste annually.
Located at Ben & Jerry’s Netherlands factory, this biodigesting tank consists of 24bn natural microorganisms transforming waste and wastewater into biogas that helps power the factory. To date, the Chunkinator has produced enough power to make over 16m pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Manure separators
Manure separators also play a part in Ben & Jerry’s fight against global warming. To help reduce the significant amount of ozone-depleting methane produced by cows at partner farm Green Dream Farm, the company has implemented a system significantly reducing how much methane enters the atmosphere.
By separating the liquid and solid portions of manure, the solids can be composted to make bedding material for the cows, while the liquids are used as fertilizer for crops. The farmer can even sell the excess bedding to surrounding farms, creating income from what would have otherwise been an expense. Ben and Jerry’s estimates the 10-year joint project with Green Dream Farm and NativeEnergy will have the equivalent of keeping 5,000 cars off the road for one year. The company hopes to implement the same pilot program at other Ben & Jerry’s farms worldwide.
Offsetting in reforestation
Through a partnership with Pur Projet, Ben & Jerry’s is exploring agroforestry opportunities for its supplier of vanilla, a much sought after spice the UNFAO believes is at high risk of depletion due to ongoing global demand. The project sees cooperative farmers work to reestablish native trees, reduce erosion, provide necessary shade for vanilla crops and offer opportunities for other agro-environmental projects.
A cleaner, greener freezer
Aware that conventional refrigeration relies on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – one of the most common and harmful greenhouse gases – Ben & Jerry’s is moving away from HFCs, testing hydrocarbon refrigerants instead, which are already widely used in Europe. This effort began in 2008 when Ben & Jerry’s teamed with Greenpeace to launch the Cleaner, Greener Freezer, which chills ice cream using energy efficient hydrocarbons.
Content on this page is brought to you by Ben & Jerry’s, sponsor of the Climate change: too hot to handle hub.
