We at Ben & Jerry's take our environmental hoofprint seriously - we've always been committed to making the best possible ice cream in the nicest possible way, which is why we're super delighted to be able to use a shiny new generation of cabinets that use less energy! Say hello to our "Lean & Green" freezers.

We've been working hard to make our ice cream cabinets more climate-friendly & energy efficient.  Together with our parent company, Unilever, we have made tremendous headway in the US to be leaders in the use of Natural Refrigerants, which includes hydrocarbon (HC) refrigeration (essentially propane).

In December 2011, our ship finally came in when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved our petition for the commercial use of hydrocarbon freezers in the U.S. The HC freezers are significantly more energy-efficient and use gases with lower global warming potential than standard freezers, so the EPA approval is good news for the environment. We've already got 250 of these HC freezers in a successful pilot test in the U.S., and we'll be bringing thousands more to the marketplace in the next several years. A side benefit: they're cheaper to run than the old HFC freezers because the newer technology is more energy efficient, so we have high hopes that other companies will fall right in line with our subversive plot to save the environment.  In Europe, HC freezers are already in widespread use, including many that contain Ben & Jerry's ice cream.