Speaker A
Welcome back to Green is Good, and we're so happy today to have Rob Melon. Rob is Global Director of Social Mission at Ben & Jerry's. Welcome to Green is Good, Rob.
Rob Michalak discusses Ben & Jerry's social mission, linked prosperity, and sustainable business practices on Green is Good.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Ben & Jerry's integrates social mission with business for sustainable impact.
- Linked prosperity is a form of capitalism that benefits all stakeholders.
- Sustainable sourcing and fair trade are core to Ben & Jerry's supply chain.
- Partnerships and certifications strengthen social mission credibility.
- The company continues to innovate in social responsibility and conscious capitalism.
What the video covers
- Rob Michalak, Global Director of Social Mission at Ben & Jerry's, shares his career journey and the company's social mission evolution.
- Ben & Jerry's three-part mission statement from 1988 includes social, product, and economic missions focused on sustainability.
- The company practices a thoughtful form of capitalism called linked prosperity, ensuring all stakeholders share in success.
- Rob highlights the importance of supporting smallholder producers and family dairy farms through sustainable sourcing.
- Ben & Jerry's partnership with Unilever has enabled expansion of social mission initiatives globally.
- The company actively promotes fair trade certification and sustainable agricultural practices for key ingredients.
- Rob discusses the rise of benefit corporations and the growing movement toward conscious capitalism.
- The social mission now includes rigorous third-party audits and certifications to maintain credibility.
- Ben & Jerry's aims to create demand for non-GMO and conventional agricultural products in the US.
- Rob encourages viewers to engage with social mission values and shares resources for learning more.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Rob Michalak's Background
- 01:14Early Career and Connection to Ben & Jerry's
- 02:08Ben & Jerry's Mission and Linked Prosperity Concept
- 03:24Social Mission Evolution and Partnership with Unilever
- 04:38Sustainable Sourcing and Fair Trade Practices
- 06:58Benefit Corporation Movement and Conscious Capitalism
- 08:13Third-Party Certifications and Agricultural Initiatives
- 10:37Final Thoughts and Encouragement to Engage
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
you know we' were so excited to have you on uh I'm as a as as a company that's done so much good for so many years but also feeds our hungry tummies with your delicious products and and you do so
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Thank you. Great to be here. You know, Rob,
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sometimes you got some good uh good roads ahead that are clear and uh you know hopefully we can get to a good place you know rob you you're you have such an interesting bio you were there at the beginning in the Heyday period of
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we're so excited to have you on. As a company that's done so much good for so many years but also feeds our hungry tummies with your delicious products, and you do so
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today well you know I actually go way back it was a cosmic connection I I arrived in Vermont in 1977 as a Young Man kind of a freelancer and uh back then I didn't uh have the greatest cars
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much social good, it's truly an honor to have you and your great brand on Green is Good today.
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okay so I got a ride from this guy and he's talking to me and he says what do you do and I said I'm a freelancer I said what do you do and he said well my buddy and I just bought a gas station in
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Well, thanks. And, you know, it's all the journey, and sometimes there's a bump in the road, but
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food and a lot of bit of ice cream and eventually the ice cream took over and as they became successful you know they wanted to make sure that the success of their business would be shared in terms of you know that Prosperity I came on
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sometimes you got some good roads ahead that are clear, and, you know, hopefully we can get to a good place. You know, Rob, you have such an interesting bio. You were there at the beginning in the heyday period of
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written the uh three-part mission statement in 1988 which included a social Mission along side the product and economic Mission and nobody was writing this stuff in 1988 like this and at the top of the mission we talked about having a sustainable corporate
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Ben & Jerry's. You took a little break, you came back, and now you're doing the social mission stuff. Can you give, in your own words, the whole evolution of your career at Ben & Jerry's and where you are
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knew that we wanted to have a linked Prosperity because the concept that they they had was it's really a capitalistic concept but it's this more thoughtful carrying form of capitalism that says look if everybody's sharing in the prosperity then we're all participating
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today?
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any value that was the underpinning of the economy and so the the the global economy went over the edge and what and Jerry are saying is look if we have an economy that includes people that links the prosperity so that all stakeholders
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Well, you know, I actually go way back. It was a cosmic connection. I arrived in Vermont in 1977 as a young man, kind of a freelancer, and back then I didn't have the greatest cars
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around the time that Unilever bought Ben and& Jerry's but I came back in 2006 and ever since then I've been the global director of social mission and the good news is is that that partnership with Unilever has worked out
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because as a freelancer I was making a lot of money. So my car broke down one day, and I was hitchhiking, and actually this Volvo pulled over, and I kind of looked in. I said, the guy looks
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figure that out early on but now we are doing so many things uh we're actually probably I can say this we are doing more things in terms of the social Mission now than we really ever have in the company
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okay, so I got a ride from this guy, and he's talking to me, and he says, "What do you do?" And I said, "I'm a freelancer." I said, "What do you do?" And he said, "Well, my buddy and I just bought a gas station in
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partnership with un lever but also being Ben and Jerry's still manag from Vermont for the whole world and uh we're able to do a lot of stuff and and so now we understand how it originated and explain now how it's being applied practically
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Burlington. We're going to do food, not sure exactly what." And it turned out to be Jerry, and he and his buddy Ben had started this gas station, and in the early days they did a little bit of
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were and everyone realizes this for the most part you guys were practicing that back when like you said before it was cool to do it before it was right to do it before the Tipping Point had come but
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food and a lot of ice cream, and eventually the ice cream took over. And as they became successful, you know, they wanted to make sure that the success of their business would be shared in terms of, you know, that prosperity. I came on
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there's there's a movement uh you know above and beyond any individual companies like Whole Foods or Ben and& Jerry's we've got the benefit Corporation movement or borp and uh a lot of companies I think now in 2013 we
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board. I had worked locally, actually in the news media back then, and came on board early as the PR person as the company was growing regionally and nationally. And, you know, the great thing at that time was we had just
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satisfy uh a certain amount of the criteria and it's it's rigorous and it's audited so uh it has a third party credibility and more and more companies are doing this they realize that really companies have a connection to
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written the three-part mission statement in 1988, which included a social mission alongside the product and economic mission. And nobody was writing this stuff in 1988 like this. And at the top of the mission, we talked about having a sustainable corporate
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environmental benefit and social benefit in the community it's going to make the community stronger and it's it's going to really present uh an economic model that's going to take us out into the future so we applaud companies in their
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concept of linked prosperity. Now you'll see people from Harvard and, you know, thinkology and academics and, you know, visionaries now, they're talking about shared equity, you know, shared prosperity. But back in 1988, Ben and Jerry and the leadership at that time
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value chain from the the seeds of cocoa and coffee which we we eventually use for flavoring to the dairy farms we've got a set of values and criteria that we use that we think is important like supporting small holder producers of
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knew that we wanted to have linked prosperity because the concept that they had was it's really a capitalistic concept, but it's this more thoughtful, caring form of capitalism that says, look, if everybody's sharing in the prosperity, then we're all participating
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provides the criteria to make sure that these Growers receive a fair price for their cocoa and coffee and vanilla and bananas and things like that which we all use in our ice cream and then for the Family Farms that uh have the dairy
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in the global economy. And, you know, if you look at what happened back in 2008 and 2009 when the global economy tanked, it was because of greed. You know, people were just trying to make money on money, and they weren't creating
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farms uh you know in in in communities uh really have a more sustainable approach from our point of view so we want to support that and we've got a very robust uh sustainable program with family dairy farms we call it carrying
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any value. That was the underpinning of the economy. And so the global economy went over the edge. And what Ben and Jerry are saying is, look, if we have an economy that includes people that links the prosperity so that all stakeholders
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able to design a whole program there that we work with the cooperatives that we're working with and the family farms in those cooperatives and we're seeing that as they apply this caring Dairy program we work together on it to
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are sharing in this, then we'll all be able to participate. And that's a much more sustainable, healthy way to do this. Now, I was doing public relations early on. I left the company to do some things that I had an opportunity to do right
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of our business to support them so that's you know fair trade ingredients for the flavorings and then uh the carrying Dairy program for the Dairy Farmers and then we we go all the way to the packaging and we we use FSC
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around the time that Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's, but I came back in 2006, and ever since then I've been the global director of social mission. And the good news is that partnership with Unilever has worked out
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Protection Agency to bring in uh cleaner Greener freezers into the US which up until we petitioned them were not allowed in the US and these freezers use 40% less energy and they use a Clos loop system that is clim neutral and uh so
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to the best aspirations of what that would look like. You know, Unilever wanted to have a progressive business in their portfolio and wanted to support Ben & Jerry's to be Ben & Jerry's. There was a period of time where we were trying to
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can make business decisions that produce some sort of additional benefit in the way we make those decisions and the way we execute them through the whole supply chain so you're telling me and for our listeners and and of course Ben and
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figure that out early on, but now we are doing so many things. We're actually probably, I can say this, we are doing more things in terms of the social mission now than we really ever have in the company
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the promotion of caring dairies the promotion of all the things you're doing the whole supply chain uh gets touched and gets benefited because there's a boost in in in in terms of the use of their products and services that's the idea the idea is
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history. Ben & Jerry had the vision. The leadership at that time set the direction. We have the mission statement, which is still alive and vigorous, but now we're able to actually use all the resources
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as we you know spend our money make the products bring them to the marketplace and then people can enjoy them there's a complete Loop of prosperity in that where everybody's sharing in that all along that value chain for all listeners
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that we have with the partnership with Unilever, but also being Ben & Jerry's still managed from Vermont for the whole world. And we're able to do a lot of stuff. And so now we understand how it originated and explain now how it's being applied practically
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benjerry.com Rob let's you know in some of the historical pieces and even some of the more modern pieces I've seen in terms of business pieces and other things on Ben Jerry I've seen some of your your Founders and and and your
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in the 2013 environment where the world is sort of caught up with you. Rob, you know, this is the fascinating part. When the great owners of Whole Foods write a book called Conscious Capitalism,
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um more controversial and political issues and how that affects your product and how that affects the as you say the greater world and all of our prosperity well you know in the country right now there's a big movement for
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you were, and everyone realizes this for the most part, you guys were practicing that back when, like you said, before it was cool to do it, before it was right to do it, before the tipping point had come. But
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foods and we've actually always been a a company that has been a proponent of non-GMO uh Agriculture and ingredients and so uh what's been happening now is that uh state by state a lot of state legislator are looking at
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now that it's here and the world has caught up to you, how are you guys now practically applying your social mission in new ways?
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they need to have the information to be able to make that choice so we realize that over the years we've been really a proponent of that uh in the early days recombinant bovine growth hormone uh which is you know a growth hormone shot
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Well, you know, it's great that a lot of companies are doing this, and actually there's a movement, you know, above and beyond any individual companies like Whole Foods or Ben & Jerry's. We've got the benefit corporation movement, or B Corp, and a lot of companies. I think now in 2013 we
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and with the GMO thing we got a little bit behind the pack but we said you know what we're going to get back out in front we're going to support state-by-state legislation we actually would support a national framework as
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have over 700 companies that have actually gone through the certification, which is kind of a rigorous assessment that companies would take with a nonprofit called B Lab, which administers this criteria assessment. And you can become a certified B Corp if you
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often times that's what'll happen at the state level first so we're supporting uh right now there's an initiative in Washington State uh there's one in Vermont our home state uh Connecticut is looking at uh an initiative and then
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satisfy a certain amount of the criteria, and it's rigorous and it's audited, so it has third-party credibility. And more and more companies are doing this. They realize that really companies have a connection to
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agriculture uh you know a lot of the Corn and soy and sugar beets in this country in the US have really gotten into just genetically modified seeds and it's becoming the predominant way of Agriculture and we're saying that we
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the community, and they have a lot of power because they've got money, they've got the resources of people and their innovations and their creative thinking. And if companies operate in a way that provides economic benefit but also
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organic they're already uh in the non-GMO category or genetically modified organisms is uh or genetically engineered is another way people uh refer to it so we think that in the middle there in the conventional ground there is a lot of Agriculture still
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environmental benefit and social benefit in the community, it's going to make the community stronger, and it's going to really present an economic model that's going to take us out into the future. So we applaud companies in their
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and so we're also uh spearheading an effort uh to create more demand in US agriculture for conventional non-gm corn and soy and sugar beads so that people can rely on having ingredients and foods that they can purchase at the
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approach to how this can work for their own companies. Now, for Ben & Jerry's, the way we do this is we really kind of work our way through the pint. We try to figure out through the entire
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can know and they can make their choice you know you know Rob we're down to the last three minutes or so and I want you to share you're doing so much with what you just laid out for us with regards to
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value chain from the seeds of cocoa and coffee, which we eventually use for flavoring, to the dairy farms. We've got a set of values and criteria that we use that we think is important, like supporting smallholder producers of
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give us you know since sustainability is truly a process and a journey what's now on your radar for the future from 2013 and Beyond uh for Ben and Jerry's what's next ahead what we want to figure out next is how to measure what good does
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cocoa and coffee and vanilla, making sure that those people in the emerging and developing world make a sustainable living. And so we source ingredients like that through fair trade certification. And Fair Trade is a model, right, that
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see where the promise of all these things are and to identify any gaps like in the fair trade model if there are gaps there how can we participate in you know bridging those gaps and really making these models strong and uh
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provides the criteria to make sure that these growers receive a fair price for their cocoa and coffee and vanilla and bananas and things like that, which we all use in our ice cream. And then for the family farms that have the dairy
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want to we just want to keep building on that but we also want to be able to measure and share that with uh with everybody we actually publish every year on our website a report it's called the social and environmental assessment
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cows, we want to make sure that family farms, and we are supporters of family farms and not these kind of mega-industrial farms. We actually have a point of view that we don't think that's sustainable, but we think that family
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to our show around the United States actually around the world and we get emails and and they ask us how can I be the next Rob mahalik well give can you give in 60 seconds or less some Pearls
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farms in communities really have a more sustainable approach from our point of view. So we want to support that, and we've got
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or product that they could provide that provides a benefit along with you know a nice sustainable profit that they should develop that and in as they go through school get you know get a good education but also you can start getting into
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courses now that talk about sustainable business and socially responsible business so uh that path can be a good one and we need those entrepreneurs we need good social entrepreneurs that are successful so uh encourage all the young people to follow that path oh that's
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that is awesome and Rob you're always welcome to come back on the green is good and share everything that you're doing at Ben and Jerry and Beyond and for our listeners out there continue to support Ben and Jerry's ice cream www.
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benjerry.com Rob mahalik the director of social Mission at Ben and Jerry's you're also an inspirational ambassador of Link prosperity and you are truly living proof that green is good thank you for coming on today thanks a real pleasure
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it's great to be with you
Topics:Ben & Jerry'sRob Michalaksocial missionlinked prosperitysustainabilityfair tradeconscious capitalismbenefit corporationsupply chainGreen is Good
