Novolex

Ben Mascarello

Over the past year, safety became our customer’s #1 concern, born out of a desire to protect their own health and the health of those around them, and we responded. From producing plastic PPE gownsfor frontline workers to individual “bento” boxed meals for kids in schools, safe and sanitary packaging became our top priority March 2020 onward. Now, with the COVID vaccine widely available, and a return to a new normalcy on the horizon, sustainability is making its way back into the public’s consciousness in full force. More and more, large corporations—from Starbucks to Amazon to Walmart—are envisioning a future where safety and sustainability go hand in hand. For those of us in manufacturing, we too are innovating from within.And with these goals in mind, we are working to further embed circularity at the heart of business operations.

From therise of compostable products of every kind to my company’s own Bag-2-Bag program which has made a plastic bag recycling site accessible within 10 miles of most American homes, Novolex and the broader plastics industry are no strangers todeploying innovation to protect the environment. At our facilities, we’ve used our industrial material recycling capabilities to convert post-consumer waste, into reusable resin. But our ability as manufacturers to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic products in increasingly innovative ways relies critically on a solution under our very noses: our employee talent pool.

Part of ensuring that manufacturers stay up to date—or even ahead of the curve—in a rapidly evolving industry and consumer climate is identifying, developing and retaining our talent, especially from within. But even more than that, I strongly believe that it’s our people—critically thinking and forward-looking individuals throughout the business—that are key to providing the solutions and technologies to realize a greener tomorrow.

At Novolex, we view sustainability as three pillars in our operating strategy: our products, our operations and our people. Our best and brightest ideas—including the conversion of our food packaging lines to mass produce PPEearly in the pandemic —often come from facility employees. That’s why we make a point to provide a range of on-the-job training programs. Through initiatives like our Pay for Skills program, which offers skills-based pay incentives for employees looking to increase their knowledge and improve their technical expertise, we have successfully supported employees interested in innovation and sustainability, effectively increasing our retention of talented people and preparing our company for the future.

But our industry needsto not only retain and cultivate the workers who built this industry, we also need to attract fresh talent, especially as the manufacturing industry faces a potential shortage of 2.4 million workers in the coming decade. Many of the advances in recycling technologies and biodegradable materials that are being made every day are often led by the plastics industry itself, which is why the emerging, innovation-driven next generation of talent in the U.S. is a critical pool that can, and should, be drawn intoplastics manufacturing—an industry ripe for continuous pioneering. The manufacturing industry is sometimes viewed as antiquated and dull, yet we know that this is far from true. At Novolex, the continuous technological investments we’ve made have not only bolstered our operational practices but attracted a younger, tech-savvy talent pool which also recognizes the importance of diverse talent. As we’ve grown the business, we’ve also increased the percentage of women and people of color in mid-to-senior leadership positions to 40 percent, and we expect that number to grow.

"Our ability as manufacturers to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic products in increasingly innovative ways relies critically on a solution under our very noses: our employee talent pool"

Partnerships focused on education can alsoprovide a valuable channel between the industry and the next generation of talent, connecting skilled workers to high-paying jobs that are critical to our industry while providing our plants with a continuous stream of innovative and eager employees. For example,in our Richwood, Ky. facility, we’ve partnered with the Life Learning Center which is focused on helping people considered at-risk for a variety of reasons secure and sustain a better way of living through gainful employment. By working with this nonprofit, not only are our team members helping coach and counsel participants to find well-paying, stable jobs in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky community, but we are also cultivating a greater pool of talented individuals who are finding a career pathway in the manufacturing industry.

The solution for a greener tomorrow isn’t one solution at all—it’s many. As we look forward to a better tomorrow, it’ll be the people in our industry, from the front office to the production floor, who will develop those solutions and make that future a reality.