Page 16 - The HandPrint_March-April

Building a Sustainability Champion

By: SWOW Co-Leaders, Brittany Cogdeill, Sales—Canada & Beth
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Beddow, Learning & Development

Packaging Engineering Director Jonathan Johnson is always on the
lookout for a better way to do things. That’s why Sustainable Ways of
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Working – or SWOW – is such an important concept within the Packaging Team at GOJO. When
Jonathan began leading the team, he quickly saw a need to infuse SWOW into their daily practices.
Understanding that sustainability could be a tremendous competitive advantage, he sought to find a
way to bring it to our day-to-day processes.

The “a-ha” moment came when Jonathan realized that our annual PMP process could be leveraged to
help bring SWOW to the forefront of our work. In doing so, he found the solution – designate a
Sustainability Champion on his team to help develop new, better ways of working to add sustainable
value.

As Jonathan defines it, a Sustainability Champion is someone who is eager to learn all they can about
sustainability and how it can impact their daily work. This person researches trends, is responsible for
asking tough questions about our processes and practices, and finds new ways to incorporate SWOW
at the beginning of projects. They’re also responsible for asking tough questions:
• Is this shipper made from recycled content?
• Can we increase the amount of recycled content we use?

Jonathan’s team began using SWOW to change the way they look at their daily work and how they
were approaching projects. By looking at current processes, Jonathan’s team was able to increase the
amount of recycled content used in our packaging – helping promote sustainability and cost savings at
the same time.

Since integrating SWOW into his team’s work, Jonathan has seen a change in the way projects are
thought about from start to finish. Sustainability now factors into the planning stages, as well as the
execution phases. 2017 was the first year of the Sustainability Champion program, and following up
on the success of the past year, a new champion for 2018 has been named. The team is looking
forward to another strong year of SWOW changing the way we work for the better.

How will you infuse SWOW within your team’s processes and practices? Send us your ideas at
SWOW@GOJO.com.

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