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My intent is to Educate, Celebrate and Elevate the Consumer Relations function in CPG (Consumer Product Goods) companies, especially for Brand Specialist and Analysts roles and responsibilities... !
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with your host, me, Denise Venneri. We'll be talking all things consumer relations with a focus on consumer product goods organizations and the brand specialist and analyst roles and responsibilities. So if you like CPGs, like I like CPGs, marketing, insights, and caring deeply for your consumers, well, take a listen.
Denise Venneri:Hello My curious colleagues, this week, I'm curious about getting green at home, at work, and in the contact center. And to help me do just that this week is my colleague, Nicole Nadeel, who is manager of client service and customer experience at Wiley, and who, in addition to that 9 to 5 gig, I should also add is the president-elect of SOCAP.
Denise Venneri:That's the acronym for the Society For Consumer Affairs Professionals that you always hear me talk about on, on the podcast. So with that, hello, Nicole, and welcome to the podcast.
Nicole Nutile:Hi, Denise. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I feel very honored, and I'm really excited to do this.
Denise Venneri:Oh my gosh. Same here. Same here. You've kinda opened up the idea of well, we'll get into it. ERGs, employee research resource groups, and the opportunities for for folks there, and talking about it.
Denise Venneri:Let's start with getting to know you a little bit. How did how did you get to this point in your career?
Nicole Nutile:Very interesting way. I had kids. So, no, I, I always worked in operations, and that's been from the contact center, and I transitioned over to, you know, the brand side and working and contributing to a team. And when I joined, Wiley, it was a great opportunity for me to connect with people while we were in that, you know, sort of virtual world. And, I had my son, and I was thinking that I can do everything, you know, really naturally and holistically and recycle everything.
Nicole Nutile:And very quickly, it was overwhelming, and it just went out the window. So I found, the employee resource group. It's the Wiley Green Group. And what I wanted to get out of that was just to understand what everyone in that organization was doing, what was important to them, and, learn in small bites how to make a change and really, you know, teach my kids. And it became, a passion.
Nicole Nutile:I started to volunteer more. I got involved over the last 3 years, and I just recently, only last month, took over as the global cochair for the Green Group for the Americas side of it because we have chairs all over. But it's it's great. It's it's something that is important for me to pass on to my kids. And even if it's small things, I just wanna make that difference.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Well, first, I should say congratulations on your path to being named a cochair of a global group. That's quite an accomplishment. Thank you. Very proud of you.
Denise Venneri:And, I, I need to sadly say, I don't know a lot about this topic. I wanna learn more, like I'll take the recycling out and I think, oh my God, that was an accomplishment just to pull that together from the week. So I am so open to learning more, and I know you've got tons of tips for us. So tell me what you've learned so far in the the green group.
Nicole Nutile:Well, it it's really interesting because I thought the same way. You know, you're thinking about you're taking the recycling out and you're separating your plastics, your containers, your sharps, and, you think that's kind of it. And, really, that's just, like, the very beginning of it. There's so much more that goes into it. We're really starting now in my house to, you know, reuse, repurpose, and then eventually when it's like, you can't do anything anymore, recycle.
Denise Venneri:Yeah.
Nicole Nutile:And there's a lot going on in the world that's supporting this. And, you know, we follow at Wiley the United Nations' 17 goals that they have. They're called the SDGs, sustainable development goals. And, you know, I try to focus on them the same way I, you know, at home, thinking about what we, focus on at work and what United Nations is trying to do. There's 15 goals in total.
Nicole Nutile:The top 5 are no poverty, 0 hunger, good health, well-being, quality education, and gender equality. And, I hope that I can share with your listeners the PDF. And it's so great just to read about what progress they've made over, you know, the years and what we still have to do. If you're looking to contribute, that's a great place to start.
Denise Venneri:So perhaps if you're interested in receiving that from, Nicole, you can DM her in LinkedIn or DM myself, and, we'll make sure to get that to you. I appreciate that that offer, Nicole, very much. Yeah. Tell
Nicole Nutile:me about the queen.
Nicole Nutile:So it's really, it's sort of a journey when you're thinking about getting green and how you can apply it to different parts of your life. It was really daunting at first.
Nicole Nutile:I started thinking, like, I'm gonna solve all the world's problems, and it was like I I couldn't. I couldn't even figure out how to not use shampoo and, in a single plastic use bottle. So I started to, learn from people who had much more expertise than I did. And this amazing, CEO, she's the founder of City by the Sea in, the United Kingdom. And she said to me well, she said in an interview kind of, pod not podcast, like, a meeting that we did.
Nicole Nutile:She said she was the queen of small achievables, and I thought that was amazing. And I realized we can't solve all the problems right now, you know, world hunger, the climate crisis, but we can make small changes to really make a difference. And I think that it's important. Right? We wanna stop plastic pollution.
Nicole Nutile:That's what her organization is dedicated to. That's one of, like, the hardest things to get away from in our world. Right? That's kinda that's what we do. We use so much plastic.
Nicole Nutile:But I think that's a good way to look at it. If you can take small bites out of it, you know, how to eat an elephant kind of thing, It's really a great way to start getting involved.
Denise Venneri:I like that. Any stats you wanna share with us?
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. Well, when you start really, like, learning about it, it's kind of, it's mind blowing. Right? We think about plastic and all the bottles, like, that we use every day. And even, like, women.
Nicole Nutile:Right? Like, our our menstrual products. You don't realize it, but it's like there's so much plastic in use and single use plastics that bottle caps. Right? When you think of, like, water bottles, they're found in animals and, you know, they're eating them.
Nicole Nutile:So, you know, they're in their digestive tract. And, it's 80% of plastic, right, that is Okay. On land is going into the ocean. That's, like, 12,000,000 tons. And right now, it's estimated that there could be a 199,000,000 tons in the oceans right now, because we don't even really know for, like, the depths of the ocean.
Nicole Nutile:But that's a lot of plastic, and it's really it's scary. It's in our, you know, our sea life, and it's getting into our water. And it's just you know, it's a scary fact. So I think it's also a motivator to make us want to do better and drink from our Stanley Cups and drink from our metal water bottles or refillable water bottles and use bar shampoo if you're not into, you know, completely getting rid of a shampoo bottle using, you know, a recyclable one, one that you can fill up. And Mhmm.
Nicole Nutile:Another fact that I thought this was really interesting when I first heard about only because I didn't realize people still smoke anymore. But people smoke cigarettes. And, when you think about it, right, globally, that's, you know but also here in the United States, there's 9,700,000,000 cigarette butts that are littered in the US every year. Every year, 9,700,000,000 cigarette butts. And they're chemical.
Nicole Nutile:Like, they're not good for you. And they're saying about 4 they're estimating about 4,000,000 of them are entering the waterways. So that's making up 20% of the litter, which is I think it's just crazy because that's a lot of cigarette butts and something so small, it's really making a a really terrible impact, you know, on our environment.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. And I think just sharing that knowledge, and the expansiveness of it really kinda brings the point home. Like, a lot of people don't know these these details. I appreciate you sharing sharing them. I know you had said couple tips, but we'll get we'll get back we'll get back to that.
Denise Venneri:Tell me about some of the events though that maybe is come that that are coming up that you've been working on that you're able to share with us.
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. We had a World Ocean Day event yesterday, which was really nice, and the global green group got together. We have, one of the she's a regional chapter leader, in the green group, and she is also, a marine biologist, which is amazing. And so she joined us and shared all of what she learned in her research when getting her masters and how, you know, different, techniques are used to make the water safer, better, how they're, you know, taking care of it in the bigger picture. We also had the Long Island Aquarium join us.
Nicole Nutile:They they came on virtually, which is really cool, and they did a tour of how they have these, you know, rehabilitation of animals, how they're taking care of animals, and we got to see them. You know, the fish, we were talking before, right, about, the Nemo and and clownfish, the dory fish. And they have a whole setup in how, like, the ecosystem works and anemones, and it was just so really nice to see. And then we saw, the penguins, like sea otters, and they were giving us the breakdown of what each animal is Yeah. Eating, what they're fed, how they're trained, how they're, you know, brought back to feeling better if they come in not feeling good.
Nicole Nutile:So it was a really great event. And, you know, World Ocean Day is one day, but we can celebrate, you know, the oceans all throughout the month of June. Let's see. In July, July is, free plastics, and that's a that's a really big one. Right?
Nicole Nutile:Because you know how important it is to start. We have to think about, you know, the plastic, usage in the world, and you can be part of the solution. There's great examples and links that I can share with you. And we try to do besides our monthly goals, we set, our monthly calls. We set goals for ourselves, what we can do to limit the use of plastics.
Nicole Nutile:Even if it's for the month, you find that you start to incorporate it into your lifestyle throughout the year. I stopped using regular shampoo, and I use bar shampoo now. I never thought that I would be like because I had those favorite brands, and I just thought that was the one. And, I said, you know, I'll try it for, you know, a plastic free July, and it just stuck. And and I was like, well, my kids have to use that, and they like it, and it's cool.
Nicole Nutile:You know? It's easy travel. So, really great ways to get out there and get involved. And even if it's just reading about it and trying to learn more, that's still a step in the right direction. Yeah. And we're hoping to do that with your PDF and the links.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Yeah.
Denise Venneri:And the websites that I went to that you shared with me, they're all bright and sunny and really easy to click on. It's not like this very at least the the 2 that I looked at, It's not this real serious, tone and jargon. So alright. You gave us some ideas for June, July. Something's happening in September.
Denise Venneri:What's going on there? Or what have you done in the past in September?
Nicole Nutile:Yes. September is a good one. We have, national cleanup day, national cleanup month in September. And for us, around the green groups in Wiley and the global Wiley green group, we usually organize, you know, teams that are near us, hybrid. You know, some people have moved during the pandemic and, you know, or some of our colleagues are on the other side of the globe, but we all find a way to get together and, you know, go and clean up something, whatever it is.
Nicole Nutile:A lot of places, like, where, our community is great. They list different ways that you can get involved in cleanup. I've been going to 1 for a few years, and we get the family involved. And we go, and we just make sure that we're cleaning up these waterways because we wanna try to keep it clean as it flows through to the ocean. But there are so many ways that you can do that.
Nicole Nutile:There's garbage in parks. There's pickers, and Wiley has been amazing at supporting this. They will make sure we have all of the things that we need. Family comes, you know, you have your gloves, your pickers, and you make a difference that day. When you see, you know, 20 bags of garbage, even if it's 5 bags of garbage, you know, that you've collected, it's something that's not getting into the water.
Nicole Nutile:It's not getting into, you know, what we're drinking, and I think that's really a powerful thing. And most people can do that if they have local, you know, volunteer options, they can check that out, like, in their recreational boards. Usually, they post stuff about it there in their communities. But, another link I'll share is for the National Cleanup website, and it has you could put your ZIP code in and find out if there's something going on near you.
Denise Venneri:Amazing. Amazing. How about some more of the ideas that that I could do right now? You mentioned the one that was the bar soaps, which I've heard about that a little like, somewhere along the line, somebody had a you know, maybe it was a face wash, but such a it seems like such a simple idea. So give us more.
Denise Venneri:What else can we do, like, right now?
Nicole Nutile:Well, for sure, we talked about the bar shampoo, bar conditioners. Those are a great way, using refillable water bottles, which everyone knows that. We're getting so much better at that. You see, places to fill your water, you know, in parks now. They're in the airport.
Nicole Nutile:It's it's great. We're trying to make it more accessible so more people do that. Refillable containers. Right? Those are fantastic if you're not going to do the bar shampoo, and I get it.
Nicole Nutile:It's like a but, I use a brand. It's called Kitsch. But if you're taking stuff on vacation, you don't wanna carry all of these bottles, especially if you're thinking about the ounces that you can travel with, you can get these travel size ones. They're usually, like, I think, the silicone, that soft material because you can refill them, then you can take them home and wash them out when you're done so you can use them again. But I put everything in there.
Nicole Nutile:My kids' Aquaphor, their suntan lotion, anything, aloe, whatever it is that I can squeeze out of a bag and put it into a bottle, it's better. Powering down electronics when they're not being used, really, a great way to conserve energy. When you're on the plane, putting it on airplane mode, right, or do not disturb, obviously. They tell us that when we take off to not interfere with the communications to the cockpit, but it's also great if you're just, you know, not using the technology. Powering down completely, obviously, is the best.
Nicole Nutile:But, I think about you know, we have little kids, and I'm downloading movies for them to watch so they're not so if I could sort of, you know, give one and take away from mine, I try to do that. And traveling greener, that's another really great one that people could get involved in sort of right away. Right? We don't want anyone to stop traveling. The aviation emissions are low in terms of what they're putting out when we think of, like, you know, planes flying and, but there are ways to travel greener.
Nicole Nutile:So and it's not just abroad. Right? It's domestic travel too. If you have a travel agent that you work with, you most likely can tell them, hey. I'm looking for some green options, and they have all of that.
Nicole Nutile:They'll help you with the sort of best practices in in green travel. And then there's other ways thinking about economy, how you're traveling. You know, it's all sort of, starting they're actually starting to lay it out more on the different travel websites. So if you see those options, you can go down that path. But I think it's, you know, even going to a hotel when you're visiting.
Nicole Nutile:We all like to have that moment of being pampered. But if you don't wash your towels every day while you're in you know, staying there and you hang them up and let them dry, less bedding being changed. You know, it's less of the, you know, machines running that, you know, constant cycle of, you know, water churning and microplastics, you know, getting into the water. It's just a it's a great way to make a small change.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Love that. There are some really excellent, yes, physical changes you could make, literal physical changes. How about, can you share some digital type footprint tips for us?
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. A lot of the, obviously, the the bigger names we know, they're they focus on on green. Right? They're they all have goals. I'm sure you watch commercials, and it's like, you know, promise to go green or whatever by 20 something.
Nicole Nutile:And Right. They're it's not just physical. Like you said, there are digital ways to our carbon footprint. We think about old electronic emails and storage that the servers have to support. Every day, the digital trash we create as individuals sits somewhere in a cloud, that sort of that cloud.
Nicole Nutile:And this cloud uses a considerable amount of electricity. So along with the web, all the systems that we need to host all of these things, we are producing about 900,000,000 tons of CO 2 emissions, and that's 4% of the global greenhouse emissions. So it's kind of almost equal to the aviation industry, which is crazy because it's just an email. It's these servers and data center. It's all, and it's equal to about, the aviation industry emissions.
Nicole Nutile:And, really, it's expected to increase, right, with all technology to more than 20% over the next 6 years, and that's a big impact. So we could do really great things just to make that less, and it's like digital cleanups. Those are a great way. They happen the 3rd Saturday in March, and doesn't mean you have to wait till that day. You can be conscious and and do it throughout the year.
Nicole Nutile:We are all, notorious, I think, for that reply all thank you, email. We can start thinking about not doing that. Right? And, old presentations or settings in your computer where you can say, if I haven't touched this file for a long time, you know, trash it. Something probably from maybe 6 years ago.
Nicole Nutile:I know we like to think we're gonna search it and find it, but that that file that's sitting there is is really making an impact on the world. So I tell people just to think consciously about what you're saving and what you can delete.
Denise Venneri:Nicole,
Denise Venneri:that digital emissions thing that you just shared, that was a real to me. Like, you don't even wanna look at my personal emails. At work, they're they're I'm totally compliant. But at home, I you know, I've got an AOL account that I've tried to shut down. I still have my g I don't even wanna tell you what else is going on, but that is such an I had no idea that that was con contributing.
Denise Venneri:You mentioned something, and it made me think about the contact center. Can you give us some more ideas to share with, you know, your contact center or maybe just like an internal team that you might be on?
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. I started thinking about how to do this. I know we're all familiar with customer service week in in October. Yeah. And a great way to incorporate something green there, especially if you have teams that are remote or celebrating virtually, globally, is to give them an electronic gift versus, you know, a lot of times people are sending gift cards or they're buying bulk gift cards and they're shipping them out or they're ordering, lunch in so many different locations.
Nicole Nutile:And, we encourage potlucks even and saying cook something at home, share that recipe. We'll create a sort of cookbook, right, out of it, and we'll be able to share that. But trying to do those things that Mhmm. Serving multiple locations without having to, you know, impact the world so much. I think that there's always gonna be the times that we have to do that, but I know people love electronic gift cards now.
Nicole Nutile:I mean, my kid is 5, and he's into it. I'm like because that's what they get for their birthday. They're like, it's better than going to CVS and buying a gift card. You know, they're getting it. It's like a link right on, you know, your phone, and you can get them something.
Nicole Nutile:You can get yourself something. And I I think it works, like, globally, right, when you have to transition, dollars or pounds, whatever it is. It works wonderful that way. We like the idea of repurpose, reuse, recycle, maybe even doing upcycling events if you're actually in the contact center. Some people have a hybrid, you know, world right now.
Nicole Nutile:Some people are in office. Some people do both. Some people just are remote. But there's still ways to contribute. If you know your team is doing something and they're recycling or upcycling or whatever, crocheting, maybe going to the food food shelter, trying to think of those things and doing them together even if you're in your own area.
Nicole Nutile:I think that's special. We also do incentives for, like, digital cleanups by measuring the before and after space used, and that becomes then a regular practice. And I think that's just a nice way to get something that is a need done, but also making it fun and exciting. Right? Because I'm sure you go back and you could be like, what's the oldest date email you found?
Nicole Nutile:And then you add a fun element of it to the, you know, customer service week kinda thing. Right. I think you can also share more that way. We were used to and and that's an amazing thing to do in office, these types of, you know, competitions or potluck parties. And I think that everyone should still continue to do that because it brings people together.
Nicole Nutile:It's community and culture. But I think when you're trying to think outside the box to do it virtually, those are great ways to do it. You can do award ceremonies virtually and create a fun presentation.
Denise Venneri:Mhmm. Great ideas. Great ideas. You have given us ideas now. Well, I added March because is March Earth Month?
Denise Venneri:Is that I think it's Earth Month. April. Oh, April is? Oh my gosh. So you've given us ideas for April, June, July, September, October with customer service week.
Denise Venneri:So that's, like, you know, 5 months. I don't even know what I just said exactly, But that's such a great a great start, and I I appreciate that. I know you're very passionate about this topic, and I'm wondering how else could people help, perhaps not necessarily in the form of, donation, something outside of that? Any ideas there?
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. I think, a lot of times, organizations have giving platforms, and you can look into that. I'm sure. But I think the most impact we get is from volunteering locally, getting involved on a global scale if you have that capacity, you know, what you're doing in your life right now. But also making changes, big thing.
Nicole Nutile:The resources that I have to share with you today, all of this is outlined, and I encourage anyone who's in New Jersey, and wants to get involved. And if you're interested in learning more to just ping me on LinkedIn, and I'm happy to do a cleanup with you, or you can join my cleanups, And we could just connect, and there's so much that you can learn in this space. We are all on a mission. And for the larger brands out there, I I challenge everyone to think about this. We all have our goals that we set and our organization sets.
Nicole Nutile:And I think we have to make sure we're mirroring that in what we're doing every day, but also think about our vendor partners. I know a lot of times, we we have, valued partners in the contact center space, in the technology space, and making sure that their sustainability goals are aligned with your organization's goals so that way you can work in tandem to achieve them is really going to make even you know, it's gonna double the effect that we have on on making this impact. So I think those are a few things that people might not realize, and it's it's a great way to get started.
Denise Venneri:Perfect. Sadly, we're wrapping up. But thank you so much for spending your afternoon with me, Nicole. I really, really appreciate it.
Nicole Nutile:Yeah. I'm so glad that you had me, and this was wonderful. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it and also just to chat with you.
Denise Venneri:Absolutely.
Denise Venneri:If you've learned even a kernel of an idea or was inspired by this episode, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to share out the hashtag CPGCX because CPGCX really and truly rocks.
Denise Venneri:You have been listening to the My Curious Colleague podcast with Denise Venneri. Thank you for your time.