Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - With classes cancelled by Chancellor David Markee from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9, over 1,000 community members, students, faculty and staff from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville were in attendance for a presentation by Jerry Greenfield. Greenfield along with Ben Cohen are the co-founders of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Greenfield, the 2005 Distinguished Lecturer, attended a number of events on campus Wednesday including a press conference, book signing and luncheon with student leaders and administration.

Old friends since a seventh grade gym class, Greenfield and Cohen's original idea was to form UBS, United Bagel Service, providing fresh bagels and Sunday newspapers to people in Vermont. Due to major cost constraints, this idea became the homemade ice cream of Ben & Jerry's. The original shop is located in the rural college town of Burlington, Vt., the same place where the University of Vermont is located, and approximately 50 miles south of the Canadian border.

With a business plan ready to go, Greenfield and Cohen chose an abandoned gas station as the "perfect spot" to set up shop with their five gallon rock salt and ice, ice cream making machine. The doors opened in May of 1978, with the good days bringing warm weather and sellouts of over 50 gallons of ice cream per day. But when winter storms hit and temperatures dipped below -20 degrees Celsius, Greenfield and Cohen employed, "the best marketing tactic in the 25 year history of Ben & Jerry's," said Greenfield. "It was the Penny Off Per Celsius Degree Winter Extravaganza. This didn't last too long and we eventually started selling ice cream to local restaurants."

When discussing business strategy, Greenfield said, "Businesses take advantage of employees and communities and exploit the environment. Ben and I set out to change that idea. Business is a machine for making money and we wanted the community to be successful too. We created a new business definition where business is a combination of organized human energy and money which when added together equals power. We wanted to return to traditional values so instead of businesses versus community we have the businesses working with the community for the greater good of everyone." Questioning why businesses don't do more to help with the severe social problems in the country, Greenfield and Cohen redefined their bottom line measure of success to include not only profits, but also the amount that is given back to the community. By working with a nearby bakery that employed homeless, disabled or those with substance abuse problems, Ben & Jerry's discovered not only some of the best brownies, but used them to create one of their top ten sellers, Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

Greenfield and Cohen also work closely with the partnershops, owned by non-profit social service agencies providing job training and experience for handicapped, disabled and challenged people. Greenfield spends most of his time supporting the social and economic missions Ben & Jerry's started when they opened their doors including partnershops and flavors that focus on issues.

Commented Greenfield, "Ben & Jerry's has a sterling reputation as environmental leaders and supports many environmental issues. Ben was outraged by the deforestation of rainforests and wanted to raise the demand of rainforest products like Brazil Nuts. Rainforest Crunch was born and is a blend of Brazil Nuts, toffee candy and cashews. These and other high profile projects help us to make a difference."

For today's business world, and as advice to all entrepreneurs, Greenfield feels, "To be successful one needs to focus not only on excellent quality, product uniqueness or providing great service, but on involving the community in the business venture."

After Greenfield's presentation, audience members had the opportunity to choose between a personal sample of four flavors of ice cream, Vanilla, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and the ever-popular Cherry Garcia.

Contact: Amanda Halderson, CPR, (608) 342-1497,

Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,