Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield

Basecamp banned political discussions in the office. Ben & Jerry's cofounders say companies have a responsibility to get political and stand up for society.

What do ice cream and activism have in common? Ben & Jerry’s has long been committed to both. The company, founded in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield and acquired by Unilever in 2000, touts values such as human rights and economic justice as prominently as it introduces new flavors. Sometimes, it accomplishes both at the same time, such as when it rolled out its “Colin Kaepernick’s Change the Whirled” nondairy dessert, with a portion of proceeds going to the athlete’s Know Your Rights Camp organization to empower and support Black and brown communities.

In fact, it's widely seen as a way to do the opposite, and that has a lot to do with groundwork laid by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry's ...