We've published a special report on diversity in the plastics industry for several years, and it's been difficult to get people to participate.
I imagine that's partly because our audience isn't all that diverse — most of our readers are company owners, C-suite executives and managers. If you attend any plastics trade shows or conferences, you may have noticed that most of the attendees are white men.
In the past, we've primarily profiled individuals for the diversity report, although we've mixed in a few companies, too. This year, we're making a slight shift to focus primarily on companies or plastics-oriented divisions of larger corporations. We'd like to recognize what goes into plastics companies' efforts to reach out to more people.
The deadline for submissions is Feb. 2, and we plan to run the profiles on Feb. 26.
One of my favorite PN diversity stories was an interview I did for our first diversity special report a few years ago with Allison Lin, a well-known plastics professional who's had a string of top jobs at both plastics processors and brand owners.
At the time, Lin was senior vice president of sustainability and market development at Westfall Technik Inc., a major injection molder and toolmaker. Today she's global VP of packaging sustainability at Mars Inc.
I asked her, "Do you feel welcome in the plastics and packaging sector?" Here's part of her answer:
"At the manufacturing level, the demographic is extremely white, male-dominated. I'm often both the only female and minority in the room.
"'Welcome' is a very ambiguous term. There's conscious and implicit bias going on constantly. There are many events planned around male-dominated activities. There's very much of a good-old-boys-club mentality in this industry, but I am seeing significantly more awareness and the want to do better. I am seeing my male colleagues reach out to understand and consciously try to be more inclusive."
Lin was happy to see signs of progress, with organizations like the Plastics Industry Association and the Society of Plastics Engineers putting an emphasis on diversity efforts.
Those organizations deserve credit for trying to make the plastics industry more inclusive. I know that they have heard predictable grumbling from some members.
After George Floyd's murder nearly four years ago, many U.S. companies responded by making diversity, equity and inclusion high priorities. Employers were under pressure to show that they were making progress.
Unfortunately, there was a backlash. At first I didn't really take the negative reaction seriously. I didn't think that the business community would back away from commitments that many were arguing were both ethically necessary and good for business.
It looks like I was wrong.
Today, I'm afraid that organizations are afraid to take a pro-diversity stance. You see why on social media, with people delighting in attacks on brands including Bud Light, Target and now Sports Illustrated. "Go woke, go broke," they say.
Opposition isn't just on Facebook and X/Twitter. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action also sparked a fierce debate over diversity in corporate America. Today there's a reluctance to call attention to diversity efforts, as well as environmental, social and corporate governance programs.
It's a shame because a more welcoming workplace helps companies attract workers, and a diverse workforce means business benefits from fresh perspectives on end markets or best practices on the manufacturing floor.
As Lin told me in 2021, consulting group McKinsey & Co. "has a whole series of reports on how diverse organizations outperform nondiverse ones, so this impacts the bottom line and the economic success for our industry. And it is not just about attracting a more diverse workforce. Companies need to create an inclusive environment to retain candidates and then develop them."
In the special report issue where we published Lin's interview, I also wrote a column about our own DEI efforts at Plastics News. I'm not afraid of the topic, even though I think we still have a long way to go.
In this year's report, I'm looking forward to hearing about diversity initiatives that other companies have taken, hurdles they've faced and best practices they've developed to become more inclusive. I hope we can all learn something from the project.
Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog. For more on our diversity special report, go to www.plasticsnews.com/diversity.