With the Paris Climate Summit looming in December of 2015, Ben & Jerry’s is meeting the issue of climate change head on with a global campaign to activate fans and citizens around the world. The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 or CMP11 will be held in Paris, France at the Le Bourget from November 30 – December, 11 2015. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. This will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) since the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 11) since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
We live in a world where the effects of climate change are increasingly real; from melting ice caps to rampant forest fires, it can no longer be denied that man-made carbon pollution is affecting our fragile planet. The scientific evidence is settled; global warming is real and already impacting people around the world. The question now is, “What are we doing about it?”
It is more urgent than ever that we all collectively take steps to dramatically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions – and to do it in a way that equitably shares the burdens and risks of climate change among the nations of the world. Ultimately, we have to break the link between economic growth and development from natural resource extraction and depletion.
Ben & Jerry’s has a long history of fighting for climate justice and finding ways to reduce the environmental impact of our business. In 2002, the company launched a carbon offsets program for its Vermont manufacturing facilities. In 2007, they ran our first global warming advocacy campaign in partnership with the Dave Matthews Band. they’ve also invested early and often in efficiencies throughout their manufacturing facilities, supply chain, and Scoop Shops to increase energy efficiency and shrink their carbon footprint.
Nearly all businesses have greenhouse gas emissions associated with their operations, and that includes Ben & Jerry’s. they rely on agriculture for their main ingredients, especially dairy, as well as manufacturing to make the products, trucks to transport our finished products and freezers to keep the ice cream cold. Ben & Jerry’s know their carbon footprint, and are working throughout every operations to reduce it: working with their farmers to reduce methane emessions from farms, leading the change to a cleaner, greener freezer in the United States and building the Chunkinator at their Netherlands factory which helps power the factory from ice cream bi-products.
We also know what we’ve done is not nearly enough and we must do more. We make progress and report on this each year in our our Social and Environmental Assessment (SEAR) Report. Read more about the steps we’re taking to reduce our carbon footprint and our plan to get to 100% clean energy at all of their U.S. sites by 2020.
Join Avaaz, Ben & Jerry’s and millions of citizens from around the world who are calling on leaders of the developed nations and the United Nations to tackle climate change at the upcoming summit in Paris. The goal is for international leaders to work towards 100% Clean Energy by 2050. This ambitious goal is in line with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC’s) stated need for the elimination of all carbon pollution within the next 85 years. Learn more about the petition.
And what would a Ben & Jerry’s activism campaign be without a chunky, swirly, euphoric flavor of its own? Enter the new addition to the lineup: Save Our Swirled. With a bed of raspberry ice cream, swirled with rivers of marshmallow and raspberry, and white & dark fudge cone-shaped chunks, raising consciousness never tasted so good.
The new flavor is the latest and greatest contribution to the company’s Save Our Swirled campaign that is inspiring citizens across the globe to demand climate action. The international Save Our Swirled campaign kicked-off on the company’s Free Cone Day in April.
“This campaign is as important as any we’ve ever undertaken at Ben & Jerry’s and the time to act is now. We’re beginning to see that we can make an impact,” said Jostein Solheim, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s. “Ben & Jerry’s has committed to dramatically reducing our own carbon footprint in an effort to help keep warming below 2 degrees. With the Paris climate summit approaching at the end of the year, we are asking our fans to join us in calling on leaders around the world to support the transition to 100% clean energy now,” Solheim added.
At scoop shops, events, truck tours, and now freezer cases all around the world, Ben & Jerry’s is encouraging fans to stand up and take action to support the transition to 100% clean energy. The company is promoting Avaaz’s worldwide petition to world leaders calling for a transition to 100% clean energy. Avaaz, an international organization with over 40 million members worldwide and one of the primary organizers of the People’s Climate March, has had more than 2 million signatures on the petition so far, and that’s just the beginning.
“When you join Avaaz, you become an agent of change,” said Ben Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, “this issue is so important, people need to be willing to get into the streets.”
For more information about Ben & Jerry’s self-imposed carbon tax, or current climate justice campaign, visit www.benjerry.com/climate.
Filed under: Advocacy, Food Tagged: 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Ben & Jerry's, COP21, Meeting of the Parties (CMP 11), Paris Climate Summit, Save Our Swirled, The United Nations Climate Change Conference