Section 3: Continued

Workplace Health & Safety Programs

Employee communication regarding safety is achieved through several methods:

• Safety meetings are held monthly at each site.
• Safety issues are discussed and resolution activities are scheduled.
• All workers are supplied with and have access to MSDS sheets and other hazardous chemical information at any time at Ben & Jerry’s.
• Each site has a safety bulletin board which displays facility inspection results, safety committee meeting minutes, and other items designed to improve safety awareness.
• A safety report is part of the company’s annual Social Mission Report.
• Ben & Jerry’s has focused on safety program development and engineering controls for identified hazards.
• Behavioral-Based Safety has been implemented at the Distribution Center.

Measures of Safety
INJURY SEVERITY
Ben & Jerry’s uses an insurance factor called the Experience Modification Rate to measure the severity of injuries sustained within the company. This rate is generated by comparing the company’s workers’ compensation losses to

similar industries throughout the United States. If a company is on par with others in its industry group, the EMR is 1.0. In 1999 Ben & Jerry’s reported an EMR of 1.15, just above the industry average*. No regulatory actions relating to worker safety were brought against Ben & Jerry’s in 1999.

INJURY INCIDENTS
No regulatory actions were brought against the company in 1999. In 1997 we began tracking a rolling 12-month average of the injury incidence rate which has proven to be a better trend indicator of incidents versus the absolute Injury Incident Rate. The absolute rate is somewhat biased toward larger employee groups than ours. While our trend is downward, we are still above industry averages for the broad category of the food processing industry. We have not been able to set a benchmark for ice cream manufacturing.

OTHER MEASURES
Ben & Jerry’s uses other methods to target and measure activities that, if not controlled, will lead to loss and injury:

• Percentage of accidents with injuries
• Total events (near misses) with a goal of 20% or less
• Time frame within which safety issues are resolved
• Percentage of inspection schedules that are performed on time, with a goal of 100%
• Top three root causes of accidents per site are identified
• Lost-time cases and lost-time days are tracked