Engaging for better glass recovery

The requirement

To provide solutions to the engagement problems facing an industry relying on a diverse mix of stakeholders.

The challenge

O-I NZ is New Zealand’s only glass manufacturer. Glass is a ‘circular resource’ – it can be recycled over and over back into glass. For O-I, the more waste glass that can be recycled into new glass, the more sustainable the process and the better off their customers are. But O-I relies on a whole range of organisations and communities – from councils to businesses, to beverage companies to community recycling networks and waste management companies – to work together to divert glass from landfill and get it back to O-I, in vast quantities and at good quality, so they can use it to make new glass containers. It has become more challenging over time, for O-I to influence all the players to do the right thing.

The approach

We met with O-I's senior leadership team and facilitated an exercise to define the problem and get their perspective on what success would look like. We developed a long-term engagement strategy with three distinct outcomes:

• Achieving O-I’s target for quality waste glass recovery.
• The right policy environment to support O-I’s business objectives.
• Public and political understanding and support; a growing consumer preference for glass and improved behaviour regarding the disposal and recovery of waste glass.
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  When we presented the strategy back to them:

1. We ‘replayed’ what we had heard them tell us – this way, we made sure we had their agreement to the problem definition.
2. Then we presented the solution (engagement strategy) – keeping it simple, engaging and compelling. We also ensured we linked the communications and engagement objectives
to tangible and measurable business outcomes and we designed specific timeframes over which those outcomes would be achieved (crucial to winning the hearts and minds of the CEO and the CFO). 

3. Finally, we looped back to the problem definition and checked back with them to make sure that each element of the strategy would address the specific challenges.

The outcome

For the decision-makers in the business, the process was involving, engaging and outcome-focussed. We’re now a trusted business partner, working alongside O-I’s sustainability manager to implement the strategy.