All of Ben & Jerry’s decisions are guided by its three-part mission statement: to make the best products, to be financially successful and to stand up for social causes. From start to finish, these principles also drive the operations and the floor workers at the company’s ice cream factory in St. Albans, Vt.

In 1978, two guys named Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield forked over $5 to take a Penn State correspondence course on ice cream making. They then went on to invest $12,000, $4,000 of it borrowed, to open their first ice cream shop in a former gas station located in Burlington, Vt.