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Transforming Workplace Mental Health with OLLY · Responsibly Different™

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: It is Olli's mission to champion well-being for all and take the stigma out of people that are seeking mental health support, because there is still a lot of stigma around mental health.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Responsibly Different, brought to you by Campfire Consulting.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: In this space, we kindle the stories, insights and dialogues at the heart of conscious consumerism and impactful business practices.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Each episode is a journey into the essence of making decisions and investments that nurture positive change.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Join our impact strategist, brittany Angelo, as she dives into the narratives of leaders and visionaries who are reshaping what it means to live and work with intention and purpose.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: In today's episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Hanneke Vinnenberg, the CEO of OLLI.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Hanneke hails from the Netherlands and now resides in San Francisco Bay Area with her family.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: She holds an MBA in business management, marketing and related support services from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: She brings extensive experience to OLLI from her roles at Unilever.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Since joining OLLI as the first CEO in 2021, hanukkah has been passionately driving the company's mission to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: In this episode, we talk about OLLI's groundbreaking initiatives around workplace mental health and their commitment to innovative packaging.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Join us as Hanukkah shares insights on leading a purpose-driven company in today's ever-evolving market.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Welcome everybody to Responsibly Different.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: I am so excited to have Hanukkah here with me today.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: So just to get us started, hanukkah, do you want to tell us a little bit about your journey?
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: You're the CEO at OLLI.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: I'm curious what initially drew you to OLLI and what is it about the mission that you love?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Well, first of all, thanks for having me, brittany.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, a little bit about myself.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I was born in the Netherlands and I started my career at Unilever and as part of this career, I had the privilege to work across continent and across Unilever divisions and on my journey, I got to Vermont twice, once at Ben Jerry's and the second time around at Seven Generation, and it's in these purpose-driven companies that I really developed my love for benefit corporations.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: So, therefore, I was so happy to join Oli in 2021.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And I was drawn to Oli because, first of all, it's such an innovative company.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We're always working to push the boundaries into the VMS section, in which we operate.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: We make delightful products that really, really work and the company is doing really well, both from a business perspective and contributing to the society.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: All it was really a golden ticket to get an opportunity to join Oli in 2021.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: And it has been amazing journey ever since, you know, being a New Englander myself, and I have a huge love for Vermont.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: So that's exciting to hear that.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: You know you had the chance to come over to Vermont and obviously Ben Jerry's and Seventh Generation are some really, really great companies, so I'm glad that you brought those up.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: And then I will just say I'm a huge advocate of Ollie's.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: I know we're on a podcast so people can't see my hair, but my hair is the longest it's ever been because of my healthy hair vitamins.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: So you know, so excited to have Ollie on the podcast today.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: I think it's fun when I get to kind of talk with people that are working at companies that have products that I love and I support.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: So thank you for being here.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: So, hanukkah, I want to get right into it, and I think one thing that you and I both kind of connected on that I think our listeners are going to be excited to hear more about is this idea of mental health in the workplace.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: So we know that mental health is, like it's a critical issue today and businesses are starting to talk about it in a way that they haven't before.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: So I'm wondering if you can talk about and elaborate on Oli's mental health mission.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, I can.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And, firstly, so wonderful to hear that the hair Oli products are really working for you, brittany.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I can testify to the fact that your hair indeed looks very shiny and long, so it's amazing.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: But yes, it is Oli's mission to champion well-being for all and take the stigma out of people that are seeking mental health support, because there are still a lot of stigma around mental health and we are basically approaching our mission to three levers.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: First of all, it's about normalizing mental health conversation.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: As I said, there is so much stigma and the stigma gets into the way of people seeking help.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So at OLLI, we really use our voice to say it's okay to not be okay.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: That's the first layer.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: The second layer is around creating awareness and availability of resources.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Even when people are aware they need help, it's really really, really difficult in today's world to get the help you need, and that's even more so for people in historically marginalized groups.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: So we're putting our voice and our grants to create and expand awareness of resources.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And lastly, and also super importantly, we say that we want to practice what we preach right.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: You cannot preach and practice mental well-being in society while not doing the work internally.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: So, also at Oli, we are trying to transform the modern workplace.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: We believe that this mission starts with us, so we are committed to be a company that truly prioritizes mental health, or mostly for the people that work at.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Oli prioritizes mental health or mostly for the people that work at home.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: The first thing that you said was it's okay to not be okay.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: I really, really love that and I think oftentimes, especially in the business community and I guess, especially for me as a woman, I feel like I'm not really allowed to bring my emotions to work and if I'm having a bad day, I feel like it's not okay to be having a bad day in the workplace.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: So, you know, I think that line of it's okay to not be okay is really, really important and I love that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: That's where you started and where Ollie is starting with.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: This idea of mental health in the workplace is important, and sharing with your employees and just giving them that space to say it's okay to not be okay.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I imagine you see a lot of really transparent conversations that way and you get this idea of how are people doing and where are they at today, because they already feel really safe in the environment, would you say.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: All of that feels true.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: You're saying it exactly right, brittany, and thank you so much for taking the opportunity to share your personal experience with us, because I think that's just so important Right example that it's just difficult to communicate about mental well-being and not feeling okay.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Well, we all want to just plow on, but that's exactly what the issue is.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: In partnering with one of our partners, project Healthy Minds, we got some statistics about this, and what they provided us with is that globally, there are 615 million people that live with some sort of a mental health condition, but only 60 percent of people actually are getting the help they need.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And they're not getting the help they need because they don't either dare to seek help they need because it's seen as a weakness, or they don't have access to the resources.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And exactly what you're saying right If you're breaking your leg, you feel okay to go to a doctor, but if your mental health isn't okay, it's much more stigmatized in order to seek help, and the stigma is getting into the way, and hence us using our voice there.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: But what's also, I think, coming from the same partner, is that it takes people an average of 11 years before they get support.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine how long people are coping with issues before they're getting the support they need and, as you're rightly saying, as a woman, but as every sort of issue or crisis in the United States, I think the burden is always felt more by historically marginalized groups and therefore this is exactly where we're putting our efforts.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: This mission is important to people for different reasons and I'm wondering like what's your why?
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Why is this important to you?
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I firmly believe people cannot be well when they cannot be real, and showing up real is a big privilege that has been given to some, but not to everybody.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I as well, in my career, have had the feedback about you're too passionate and you're too emotional and you're too involved, only to figure out later that my passion and my emotion was not my weaknesses but one of my superpower, and the fact that I care so deeply is a superpower.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: It's not a weakness, but it has been misconstrued as a weakness in terms of how executives are supposed to show up in the workplace.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: So I think we're only going to get the best out of everybody when everybody feels the safe space to show up as themselves, not being tone, policed, not being set on what to say, how to write emails, how to communicate, but truly show up as the best version as themselves, and only then are we going to truly create a workplace that is inclusive and only then are we going to attract diverse talent, and we all know the science about the ability to have a diverse workplace right.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Diverse workplace have better outcomes than non-diverse companies, and so it all starts with creating a space that is safe, where people can be well by being real, and that is super close to my own heart as well.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So thank you for asking that, brittany.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oh, that's so true.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: I mean, like, how can you expect your employees to do their best work if they're not themselves, if they feel like, if they're not safe, if they're not real in the workplace?
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: So I love that.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: Thank you for sharing that.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Ok, so let's get into, like, the nitty gritties.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering is there a specific initiative that Oli has implemented that supports mental health in the workplace, and what can you share with us if so?
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, we want to be a company that really creates a culture where health is radically prioritized, and in order to do that, we developed what we call the mental health flower.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: This flower represents, at its core, our culture, because culture is really at the core of creating mental health in the workplace.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: But then there are different petals on the flower, like engagement, recognition, belonging, safety and autonomy, and what we are doing.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: We're looking at each of these petals and looking at what are the programs that we have in place in these battles, how we run our office, how our people are paid, what is our hybrid work model, and so we're really looking at it at a structured way to make sure that we have a full program in place that really helps people to radically prioritize their own mental well-being.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: That really helps people to radically prioritize their own mental well-being.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: And the reason why we think this is so important because we all spend so much time at work right, and so it better be a place where you can thrive and feel yourself because we're spending so much time on it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that's so, you know.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I think we often forget that work is not meant to be our everything, but it also has to be something that we enjoy, so ensuring that you know when we are at work for those 40 hours of the week, you're taking care of yourself while you're there, so I love that.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: The mental health flower in all of your pedals.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Thanks for sharing.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Maybe, maybe some people will will look into this and can adopt a mental health flower for themselves Hanukkah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering if you can share maybe a few of your success stories or a moment that really had an impact that highlights the effectiveness of these mental health issues that you're seeing in the workplace.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Let me talk about a couple of initiatives that we have really prioritized at OLLI in order to drive this, in order to drive this well-being for our employees.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: So just a couple of examples, brittany.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: One of them is my favorite, which is our Mental Health Fridays.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: So, once every month, we give everybody a Friday fully to themselves, and I love these mental health days because, you know, my husband goes to work, my kids go to school and at the morning of a mental health day, I can really ask myself what is it that I want to do today, instead of all of the other jobs that we all hold in life right, that we all hold in life right?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: We are giving people a lot of benefits, like ginger and headspace, and all of that fits within the engagement flower, within our mental health model.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: We work hybrid and flexibly.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: We have a lot of things that we have in place to help people plan their work week in the best they can Non-Friday meetings, work from home in the summer, work from home during winter month, but also creating deliberate days where we come all together Because, as I said, belonging is part of the flower as well.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So, very deliberately, also creating the space.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: When are we going to co-create?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: When are we going to work together?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: When are we going to co-create?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: When are we going to work together?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: When are we going to get the team together?
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: We're now preparing for our summer offsite, where we're going to have the whole OLLI ALL community together for two full days, and these are the things that we're driving deliberately to build our community and to build relations.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: We do a lot around recognition.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: We have our Above and Beyond Awards.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: We have employee resource groups that are really doing the work around the Jedi work with the Jedi Council.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: We do a lot of volunteering with the Kindness Crew.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: We have a lot of social events that are organized by the Fanatics and, last but not least and I think this is quite new in this space we also just launched our first mental health advisory council, which is made up of a couple of OLLI employees across every functional department, and this council, this mental health advisory council, is really there to inform the leadership of OLLI, but also the whole OLLI organization, to see what are we doing well, what's working, but also where do we still have gaps, because I want to really make sure that I approach this space with humbleness.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, we're working on it, we're recognizing how important it is, but we still have a lot of work to do, even while focusing on it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: So you're talking a lot about all of these like subgroups within OLLI and it's so interesting to hear that you have them.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: I'm curious the employees that are part of the subgroups is it part of their job description or is it something that, like, they're volunteering their time to be a part of?
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: They?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: definitely are volunteering their time to be part of these subgroups, but we do take that into consideration when we are building people's personal plans for the year, and so if you would be working at OLLI and you would be the quality assurance manager, but you would also have a place in the kindness crew, then in your personal goals for the year, the specificity of what you're going to contribute to the kindness crew is also part of your work framework and your targets, and therefore you're getting at the end of the year.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: You're getting evaluated not only on your basis of your job, but also your contributions to one of these councils or groups.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: I think exactly the way that, like you've kind of infused these, these subgroups, subchapters, like into the employee's workplace, that makes me feel like the employees will be engaged for a little bit longer than you know, feeling like maybe they'll get burnt out because it's an additional thing that they have to do.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: So I actually, I really like hearing that you know these, the kindness crew is a part of the goals for the year.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have to be doing that right.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: You have to make sure that people have time to prioritize these groups and these contribution.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I think what's also important, brittany, is that culture is not the job of the CEO, it's not the job of the leadership team.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Culture and creating a culture that is truly radically prioritizing mental health is a job of everybody in the company.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: So therefore, we also really sort of like stimulating and engaging for people to do their part, whatever it is in one of these subgroups or in other ways, on how they are going to be influencing the culture.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: And what I'm seeing at OLLI and that makes OLLI, I think, so incredibly unique is that there are a lot of people that are putting their hands up, willing to contribute, because they see the effect of it and they see that it's making for a wonderful workplace and therefore people are really keen to contribute.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: When we started this Mental Health Advisory Council, we immediately filled it.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: We immediately had enough volunteers, of people that put their hands up and say, yes, I would love to contribute because I believe that it's important, I believe I can help it make better.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a great testament on how people are ready to lean in.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, everything you're saying is spot on and I think that's so true.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: It's like when employees are more engaged in the culture, the culture is just, it's for everybody and it's not just top down.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: So thank you for sharing that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: So, moving beyond the workplace, I'm curious to understand how does OLLI's social mission extend to the broader community and what partnerships or programs are you particularly proud of that OLLI is participating in?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: We've been working with several partners on our mental health journey, both internally and externally.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Let me talk a little bit more about our external partners.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: A little bit more about our external partners.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So, as a not-for-profit company, we know that we have a megaphone, we know that we are accessing a lot of people and that megaphone is just so important in order to reduce the stigma where I talked about before.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Right, so the way I look at it is.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: For example, one of our NGO partner is Project Healthy Minds, and Project Healthy Minds is an amazing organization that helps connect people with support and resources that they need.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: So we are supporting Project Healthy Minds with a grant in order for them to be able to put in the resources.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: But, even more importantly, we use our only voice and our only megaphone in order to create awareness for Project Healthy Minds.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: So we talk about it in our social media with our advertising dollars and therefore we opening up quite a big megaphone.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: But then megaphone then gets even further amplified by our partnership with Walmart.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So can you imagine Project Healthy Minds has access to a group of people, then Odi has access to a group of people, but then you amplify that with the Walmart Make-A-Phone and obviously that is where you reach even so many more people.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And this partnership, how Walmart really really embraced the mission together, is just such a wonderful example.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: This year we increased the number of Walmart stores that participated with us in our mental health awareness journey.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: So we're putting out this place in store, we're doing education in store, we're doing sidewalk events outside of Walmart locations where we really talk about mental health, about reducing the stigma.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: We are applied dollars for this to Project Healthy Mind.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So that's where it really all comes together Our voice, our grants and the impact that we can make on the partners that we work with and how this is really really amplified even further by working with our retail partners as well, because if that channel and that megaphone is being used by reducing the stigma, it just has a reach that is unbelievable.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's so accurate.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: I think that's really cool that you work with Walmart, okay.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: So then I'm wondering you know you've talked a lot about different mental health journeys internally, externally.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering what does measurement look for you and what are you doing with the metrics that you gain or the feedback that you found, like how do you then implement it and improve or learn from it for the next year?
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: That is so important, brittany, and such an important question, because, the end of the day, every social impact strategy needs to be measured against what it returns into, and therefore, Olli is firstly, very proud to be a benefit corporation right, because we know that the B Corp is really holding companies accountable to measure and report on what they say they're going to do.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: But, with regard to mental health, a little bit more specifically, let me talk a little bit how we measure that.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: First of all, we measure our impact externally through the dollars that we're contributing.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: As I said, we're contributing dollars to reduce the stigma, but we're also contributing dollars to put in the resources, because the problem is really twofold People are not getting the resources because there's so much stigma, but even if they're ready to seek out support, it's really difficult to find and hence we have been committing 1.5 million between 2023 and 2025 to support organizations that are putting in the resources so people can get help, mostly focused on historically marginalized groups like Love, Lion Foundation, like Project Healthy Minds, the Jet Foundation and Seeker, and all these organizations are putting their dollars to create resource access, dollars to create resource access.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So that's the first thing on how we're measuring our impact through the grant dollars that we can put in.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: And all of that is obviously also related to our business success, because we're putting in the percentages of our revenue.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Secondly, our volunteerism.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Secondly, our volunteerism.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Every employee can take time off every year and we measure how many hours people are putting in.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: But we're also doing company-wide service days.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I talked about the Oli's summer offsite that we're going to have really soon.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: One of these days we're going to really focus on us as a business and our culture and what we need to do in order to drive all of that.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But the second day we're going to do a full company-wide volunteering event in order for everybody to be able to contribute.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And last but not least, but this is more, on our internal journey, we really really measure the impact that we're making within our own community.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: So we are doing a biannual happiness meter where we get quantitative and qualitative feedback from our whole community and based upon that, we're making plans in order to optimize.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: But not only do we do that, we also have an annual specific mental health survey.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Also have an annual specific mental health survey because you know you need to really practice and measure the progress that we're making against our internal mental health plan, and what we learned this year is basically two things.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: One is that people at OLLI are really happy with the trainings that we provided around mental health and the ability for them to feel that they are better equipped to have a conversation about it, both with people that works in their teams and with their line managers.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: But what's also true is that Oli is a fast-growing business and there's just a lot of work.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I said we're very innovative, we always come up with new ideas and people are really excited to take on more and more and more, which is wonderful on one hand, but it also means that we're still coping to find a truly right balance between workload and personal.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Time was saying before, even though we're putting in the efforts, it's not that we're completely there, but we measure our impact against our plan every year and, based upon that, we're making new plans and we use, as I said, the mental health flower in order to then define what the plan should look like.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: It is magical what an anonymous survey will tell you and what you can learn from it, so I I I love a good survey.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it's also what's also super important that once you say you want to radically prioritize mental health and once you measure the output that you want to have, everybody's going to hold you up to a different standard Rightly so, and I think that's an important acknowledgement as well.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And what I said to all these is when I declared to the beginning of the year that I was going to eat only whole foods and much better, and I declared that to my kids.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Since then, if I don't eat something healthy, everybody is wagging their finger to me and they're saying Mama, you declared that you were going to eat healthy.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Everybody is wagging their finger to me and they're saying mama, you declared that you were going to eat healthy, right, that's exactly the same.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: When you're saying internally, we want to radically prioritize mental health, people will rightly so hold you to a different standard.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: That's the standard we want to be held accountable to and therefore getting anonymous feedback on what we're doing well, by lowering the stigma, having the conversations, providing the training, putting in the benefits, all of the things that we're doing that people see, that people appreciate.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: But they also will not hold back in winging their fingers if we're not completely there yet, when the workload is too high, when we're trying to do too many things at the same time, and that's fantastic, because only if you're getting that real, real feedback, you will be able to improve your plans even more.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: So that's exactly what we're doing.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: We're doing the mental health survey, then we're going to go away as a leadership team and really look at what is the plan for the next year that we want to put together, and then we're getting the input on that plan for the full community and specifically also from this newly formed mental health council, and then we present that plan and what we call our only family lunch.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: So everybody is knowing what we're going to be doing and how to hold each other accountable for the training, the benefits, the initiatives, the prioritization, the recognition all of the things that we're going to do.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: That is going to further amplify the work.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think having that time where you go and you think about it, you strategize, and then you know, re-communicating that to the team, is really important.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: So it sounds like you have a good strategy, a good leader within you and within your company.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: So love it, hanukkah.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking that we switch topics now from mental health to sustainability and packaging.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: What do you say?
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: Perfect, yeah, let's do that.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: Awesome, okay.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: So, changing topics, I think sustainability and packaging is really important when it comes to a product-based company like yourself.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering if you can give me a little bit of an overview of you know?
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: What sustainable efforts are you focused on at OLLI?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: OLLI is a B Corporation, so we are held against the tight standard that the B Corporation set and I'm really really proud of that, because I think the B Corp organization is definitely the most important out there.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: That is, truly holding companies accountable, and not only measuring what we're doing on our mental health journey, but measuring our impact to society all across how we make our products, how we manufacture our products, our transportation, the alternative, packaging, our waste, livelihood, how we treat people, not only at OLLI but also at our co-men.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: So it's really a holistic assessment.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: One of the big things that we did in 2023, and obviously an important part of our B Corporation tracking, and also, honestly, an area where we had a little bit of a weakness historically is our carbon footprint.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: So we had never really measured the baseline of our carbon emission and in 2023, we did the full baseline assessment and also we committed to our science-based targets.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And so, all in all, we're really focusing on three things in order to keep within the 1.5 Celsius decline that we committed to by 2030.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: We will be focusing on heavily reducing our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030 in line with the 1.5 Celsius that we have set ourselves to.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: We have a very aggressive plastic and waste roadmap that we will be implementing.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: And, last but not least, we will continue to really make sure that we do whatever we can to improve livelihoods for everybody that we touch directly, but also indirectly.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Obviously, that is where Oli historically had a huge strength already, and we also had a strength in our waste and packaging agenda.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Where we really needed to step up our efforts is in measuring and reducing our carbon footprint.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I'm really happy to report that we did that work of baselining in 2023.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: And we are committed to publish our targets this year.
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: That's exciting to know that you're publishing your targets too.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: You just shared so much about sustainability, and you mentioned that plastics in your packaging is a significant aspect of your future sustainability goals.
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: So what is Ollie's philosophy on sustainable packaging and how is it evolving over time?
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Plastics is a significant aspect of our sustainability journey, and I'm happy you're asking about our philosophy, because I think that's exactly the most important thing.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: On how you're looking at going after the reductions and at Olli, I think, and in many other companies too, we're looking at that through three lenses One, how we're going to get to better plastics.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Two, how we're going to get to less plastics.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: And three, how we're going to get to no plastics at all.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: So let me give an example in each of these areas.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: One, better plastics.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: In 2023, we switched to 100% post-consumer recycled material, so we're not using any virgin plastics in our bottles anymore, which is important, but it's only one part of the dual-edged sword, right, because we also need to make sure that the recycling systems in the United States and how people recycling and recycle gets updated.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The secondly is about less plastic.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: We're doing a lot of work to be lightweighting our bottles to make sure that they're fully optimized so that they're obviously not going to collapse when you put them on the pallet, but there's also no plastics in there that we do not need, and those one and two initiatives only in last year has already eliminated 3.5 million pounds of plastics virgin plastics every year.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: So these things matter specifically for a company as big as Olli.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: And then, lastly, no plastics.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: One of the things that we're experimenting with is our Olli Joy Jar.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It is a glass bottle that you can then refill, and we have pouches that are far less packaging intense, so people can buy the pouches online and refill their JoyDar at home.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And the combination of all of our effort made sure that we have become Target Zero certified, which is an important thing for us.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It's really joining a collection of products from consumer-based favorite brands that are designed to reduce waste and make it easier for people to shop sustainable labels.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: So we're really happy how Target has been putting in this zero waste certificate for products, and we're obviously very proud that Oli is identified like that.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: So we're always thinking ahead about how can we do better, what are other alternative materials?
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: How can we continue our journey?
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: What is important to note as well is that, because we sell vitamins supplements, we need to make sure that our products are child safe and child locked, and that sometimes makes our sustainable packaging journey a little bit more complicated, because you still have to design for that functionality in order to make sure that we can serve everybody safely.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: And, as I said, like PCR, is only one side of the solve right.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Us not buying virgin plastic anymore for our bottles is obviously super important, but we all know that the amount of packaging that gets recycled in the United States is very minimum.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: For Oli to participate in things on how to recycle, labeling, helping recycling facilities to educate them on how to best recycle our products so that we're going beyond I think what is now being indicated of only 9% of plastics that are actually recyclable are making it back in the recycling stream, so that is definitely a job for all of us not only to use more PCR so there becomes a demand for it, but also making sure that people are putting in the work in order to recycle, that the recycling facilities are actually recycling the products best, so that we can really close the circle on plastic better.
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: I hear that you have two very big goals before.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: Your third goal of no plastics, and I agree.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: I think you know right now where we are in our product culture.
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: We are still using plastic, so we have to reduce that plastic first.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: But I'm mostly interested in this third goal that you have of actually reducing it down to no plastics at all.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: So I'm wondering if you can talk about this joy jar a little bit more and your future goals of what packaging really looks like in terms of sustainability.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: for Ollie that's an important question, brittany, and absolutely the right question to ask, because the way I always look at this is as a faucet right, we have a huge waste problem and a huge plastic problem.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: The best way to solve that problem is to turn off the faucet and to not create any more plastic waste, right?
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: But we also have to be mindful, at the same point in time, that plastic is serving a big role.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: It's serving a big role in terms of the safety of products, the fact that we can extend the lifecycle of products.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Imagine that the food waste we would have in society if we wouldn't use plastic.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: So plastic is not all bad.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: We need to make sure that we're not using virgin plastic first of all, and we need to work our hardest in order to come up with a sustainable alternative and making sure that we still serve consumers in a safe way.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: As I said, child lock for us is really important.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: We need to make sure that children cannot access adult melatonin sleep gummies, for example, but we are looking at breast-free solutions for sure.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: We just this year launched lollipops brainy lollipops for kids.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: They are amazing.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Go check them out.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: There are nootropics.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: That is really helping kids to suck on a lolly and doing their homework in a more concentrated manner, and these we pack in carton.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: So we have initiatives of innovations where we use that other packaging.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: And you mentioned the JoyDar.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: We launched the JoyDar in April of 2022.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: The JoyDar we launched the JoyDar in April of 2022.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: It's available on ollycom and people can order it, get their JoyDar at home and then refill with the pouches that we sell.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: So that's definitely a very effective way to reduce the plastic significant and, as I said, we have put in a lot of effort to reduce virgin plastics.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: We are putting in looking at solutions to get to non-plastic material in our packaging.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: There's more work to be done in all of the levers right the better plastic, the no plastic, but also the less plastic and we're super committed to continue because obviously we are selling a lot of Oli bottles and obviously we need to be part of the solutions of the problem that as an industry that we're creating.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you for sharing all of that with us.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: I think my final question for you is just going to be related to your B Corp certification.
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: So I know it sounds like through this conversation.
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: You know Ollie's extremely excited to be a B Corp and the B Corp community is extremely lucky to have Ollie.
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: You know I'm interested just to learn more about where you are in your journey.
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: What led to you all becoming a B Corp?
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: Are you looking at recertification?
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: What are you excited about within the community, olly?
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: firstly became a B Corp in 2017.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: So when we were two years old and we have been very committed since ever then we recertified in 2021.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: And we're now in the process of recertification again Between 2021.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Now we really had a big work stream in place to see where do we have weaknesses in our recertification and, as I said, one of the big weaknesses that we have was in measuring and putting in targets against our carbon and putting in targets against our carbon.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: So we are in the process of now doing a recertification before year end and in our all company targets the bonus framework that Oli gets remunerated on at the end of the year, we put in an explicit target to increase our benefit corporation score with at least 10% and I cannot say yet about what the scoring is because it hasn't been published yet, but I do think we're going to be hitting that part of our bonus framework and I really feel good about that.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I think companies that are really serious about their environmental impact are treating their environmental impact as seriously as their financial deliverables in the bonus framework for their employees.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: So that is part of our bonus this year and I think it's really, really good to see that we're tracking.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't because we just got it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: It was because we put in a significant amount of work in order to make sure that we are moving the needle on the B Corp measuring.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: So we've been investing a ton of resources in this since 2021.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And what I really like about B Corp creation is this is not something that your ops department can do, or what we call our people and culture department.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: The effort about recertifying is really across the whole company and therefore everybody has an incentive to lean in, to participate and to improve their part of their contribution and truly creating a culture of sustainability within Oli, and I am so happy, as I said, to look at the progress that we're making.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: We wouldn't have been making these programs if it wasn't for the whole Oli company truly leaning in and doubling down on the efforts in order to make sure that we improve every point that we could improve on.
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you bring up a really important part there.
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: I think we need to change a little bit of the community in the conversation of like, in between certifications, companies should be tracking and working towards goals and improving upon their score.
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: And I think what actually happens in reality and I know from a lot of the clients that I work with they take their certification, they get their score, they're psyched about it and then they just celebrate for two years and they don't look at the recertification and the assessment again until it's time to recertify.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: And in between the certifications, b Corps are meant to be working towards increasing their score.
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: And you know, in between the certifications, b Corps are meant to be working towards increasing their score.
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: And I think oftentimes people you know they go oh crap, I forgot about that, I should have been working towards increasing my score.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: So it's exciting to hear that OLLI is on a path towards increasing your score and when it comes out we'll have to pay attention to what the increase was, because I'm sure you all have been working really hard towards that.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it's important that you're stating that, Brittany, because some of these scores you're also not going to be able to fix if you're only starting, 12 months ahead of your next recertification, Putting in science-based targets, committing to doing that baseline survey, developing our plastic roadmap All of that is work that takes time, that takes effort, that takes people, that takes resources.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So, yes, we've been working furiously in the last three years in order to get to a better outcome and I think it will show.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I also would be critical enough that if you don't do that work, at the end of the day you're not going to be able to keep your B Corp certification right, Because rightly so the standards are getting higher and higher.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So we have to put in the work in order to make sure that we continue to hit against the targets that we're setting for ourselves.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: And, as you said, measuring of this is just so important.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: And we really take a lot of effort to measure our mental health impact against our sustainability impact and our financial metrics equally and truly, making sure that we track progress and action plan against all of these things in equal ways.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: So we're putting in the work, we're measuring our successes and then we're putting in the work again in order to make it better and better and better.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: And not only do we do that work internally, it's also how we renumerate the whole of the organization.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Because I think only when you're ready to put in the metrics also in your bonus framework, you're really starting to show that you mean seriously about all these things.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: And yes, I think you're rightly saying Olly is a super proud B Corp.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: We love the B Corp movement.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: We really, really think that it's important that companies are practicing what they preach and that institutions like the B Corp is holding commitments to a wide standard but also holding the companies accountable to truly deliver their sustainability metrics, in the same way as companies are held accountable to deliver their financial metrics.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so beautifully stated.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: Hanneke, thank you so much for your time.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: We covered so much, from mental health to sustainability, to B Corp certification.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: I really appreciate you taking the hour to just chat with me.
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: I learned so much for having me Keep taking your amazing.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Oli Hair vitamins.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: And for all of the listeners yes, I really stand by the amazing products that we sell, and a good night of sleep or a good night of sex or some little stress release can just help people to be the best version of themselves.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: So a shout out to Oli, to the amazing people at Oli, but also a shout out to the amazing products that we sell.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: And if you haven't found us yet, go check us out at Olicom.
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on Responsibly Different a Campfire Consulting Initiative.
• 47:27
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• 47:38
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• 47:41
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• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Until next time, keep the fire of curiosity alive and embrace the power of being responsibly different.