My sister and her family live in Hyde Park, Vermont. One of our favorite stops when we visit them is at the Ben & Jerry’s factory just north of Waterbury. We enjoy the terrific tasting ice cream and exploring the grounds.

In fact, my all-time favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is coconut almond fudge chip, which I can only find at their Vermont factory or scoop shops.

Today the company announced they’re opening their first-ever production facility outside of Vermont, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s going to be in my hometown of Henderson, Nevada.

Their reasoning: to save about 100 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Having a production facility in the west will help the company live up to its environmentally friendly mantra.

It’s telling that they chose Henderson and not Las Vegas. According to CEO Walt Freese:

"I think we'll stick to good company like Phish and avoid showgirls and blackjack dealers….We like to think of it as Ben & Jerry's taking its values to Vegas.”

Ben & Jerry’s purchased the Henderson plant from Unilever. They’ll use growth hormone-free milk from northern California dairy cows (no offense to Nevada cows). It’ll manufacture pints of ice cream for sale in supermarkets, grocery stores and other retailers but its products won’t be available at scoop shops.

Guess I’ll still have to hold-out for trips to the Vermont factory to enjoy my favorite flavor.