The month of July is designated as Plastic Free July, which is a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation to see a world free of plastic waste. That means it’s a fantastic time to consciously focus on being an ally to the environment. But what does that mean exactly?

It takes different shapes and forms, from individual awareness and behavior change to major initiatives, technological interventions, organizational support, and community outreach. One action that’s close to my heart is how Seabin™ is working to positively reduce the impact of plastic waste in water, which is aligned to BMC’s sustainability practices based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

It Starts With Me

As a leader at BMC, and also as a member of my coastal community, I am an ally to the environment through my local volunteerism doing clean ups at my beloved beach in Portugal where I grew up, my personal practices, and my work as a sustainability advocate in the company. During my clean-up work, it’s always astounding to me how many pieces of litter and debris we collect. Even further, it’s alarming how much that amount has increased over time.

That’s why I have changed my behavior to be more conscientious about my personal contributions to plastic and other waste. For example, I avoid purchasing many individual-use products such as wipes and sandwich bags. Instead, I find ways to use materials that are reusable, such as cloths for cleaning or wax paper wraps for packing food.

Additionally, as much as possible, I limit my use of bottled water by consistently carrying a refillable water container so that I can stay hydrated without creating waste. I also watch how often I order take-away food from restaurants, and I bring my own shopping bags to the grocery store. Lastly, I choose to invest in the things I need and will use regularly, making every effort to not overconsume—from only buying the food I need to prevent waste and spoilage to wearing my clothes and accessories longer. I also practice a minimalist aesthetic in my home.

At BMC, the Customer Success Organization that I lead partners with Seabin, an organization dedicated to understanding the human impact on our oceans and waterways and providing education and critical impact data through its technology. You can read more about our partnership in our previous blogs here.

BMC has committed to continuing our partnership with Seabin for two more years, and is already contributing to clean up efforts in Sydney Harbour, Australia and Marina Del Rey, California through the sponsorship of Seabin units that remove litter and debris from the water. As you can see in these first impact reports for Q1 of this year, the results of our two bins are compelling.

Educating Through Data

In addition to capturing waste in marinas and ports, the data yielded from Seabin’s collections support research and behavior change. Seabin compiles an annual report on the impact its bins have had on Sydney Harbour and shares out that data to create awareness around the need to reduce single-use plastic and improve other marine related behaviors. From 2020 to 2022, the bins have filtered 15 billion liters of water and collected more than 100 tons of litter. Every day, 1,101 soft plastic items are captured in Sydney, at an approximate rate of one plastic item every six seconds.

The data also shows how regulatory changes can have a positive impact. In June 2022, a state law was passed in Sydney to ban businesses from giving out lightweight plastic bags. Since the ban, Seabin has measured a 70 percent reduction in plastic shopping bags collected by the 34 Seabin units installed around Sydney Harbour. With more data like this, Seabin can demonstrate the impact of community action.

Seabin also uses the data to determine how debris may have ended up in the water, i.e., from deliberate littering, being blown out of bins by the wind, or garbage falling out of overfilled receptacles, which helps educate the public on how their behavior can make a difference. This awareness can also be used to advise corporations on the merits of designing better, more sustainable, and even biodegradable packaging for consumer goods like candy bar and potato chip wrappers that make up a significant portion of waste captured by Seabin units.

As you can see, there are many ways to be an ally to the environment. I’m proud to work for an organization like BMC that is taking action to help the environment and giving me the opportunity to raise awareness and support Seabin’s mission for cleaner oceans and waterways.

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When I joined BMC, I was excited to learn about the partnership we have with Seabin™ because the ocean has been a consistent part of my life since I was very young. From growing up in Lisbon, Portugal, to moving around the globe, and currently residing in Boston, MA, I have lived within a few miles of the beach for most of my life. I love the water and its diverse ecosystem of plants, animals, and sea life that never cease to fill me with awe.

Sadly, I’ve also observed the significant changes to the many shorelines and waterways that I had previously enjoyed because of the encroaching volumes of trash and other pollutants reducing the water quality and impacting the beauty of those areas. As someone who has participated in ocean clean ups since childhood, including efforts to preserve the beach in Lisbon where I have a home, I’m thrilled to celebrate World Oceans Day by sharing how BMC’s partnership with Seabin is having a positive impact on ocean health.

Year one impact

As part of our Smart City Unit Sponsorship of two Seabins in Sydney Harbor, Australia, from March 2022 through February 2023, our sponsored Seabin units have generated the following impact statistics:

• 491 million liters of water filtered
• 1,685 kgs² estimated total marine litter captured
• 81,124 estimated number of plastic items captured (all plastic items including microplastics)
• 44,362 estimated number of microplastics captured (only microplastics)

These results concretely demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and our adherence to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for building a better and more sustainable future. You can read more about all our activities to give back in our annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

From the start, BMC—especially our Professional Services group—wanted to find a tangible way to improve the health of our oceans and waterways. Our partnership with Seabin gives us the opportunity to directly help the environment through the organization’s technology, its Smart City programs, and the data reporting that displays the quantifiable evidence that we’re making a difference. Even further, the data shows that the Smart City program in Sydney has a Seabin capturing one plastic item per minute.

While it’s disappointing that the volume is so high, during the two years that the program has been active, every Seabin combined has filtered 13.57 billion liters of water, the equivalent of 5,429 Olympic swimming pools. All of the Seabins in the area have captured 100 tons of marine litter and an estimated 4,391,542 of plastic items. It’s very inspiring to be part of an impact that significant.

For our second year as a unit sponsor, we decided to broaden our reach.

Going global

As we received our quarterly impact reports and participated in last year’s World Oceans Day events with Seabin in Australia, we wanted to find a way to have more of a global impact. Through a presentation that Seabin did in July 2022 for our One Earth employee resource group (ERG), we learned that its next Smart City would debut in Los Angeles, CA, in October 2022. We met as a Customer Success leadership team last fall and decided we’d like to go global by expanding our partnership to Los Angeles to align to our reach as a company that serves 86 percent of the Forbes Global 50.

It gives me great pleasure to share that our Seabin went in the water in Los Angeles this March and is already contributing to the new Smart City program location. It has yielded an incredible capture rate in its first few months—filtering 1.009 billion liters and capturing 2.185 tons of marine litter, which includes an estimated 3,396,734 plastic items. Leveraging its own technology and data capture measurements, Seabin has determined that every four seconds, a Seabin in Marina Del Rey collects one plastic item. The data is compelling, and the hope is that it will lead to more mindful human practices around protecting oceans and waterways, from making smarter decisions on the disposal of purchased items to reconsidering purchases based on their impact on the environment.

Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski was recently interviewed on the various aspects of improving ocean health and said that by listening, you can do your part in learning about the various aspects of improving marine environments. He also discussed how Seabin is taking a data-driven approach to helping transform the world’s relationship with consumer goods and preserving the world around us.

This World Oceans Day

This World Oceans Day—June 8, I will be taking time to pay back the water environments that bring so much joy and peace to my life. BMC will be participating in Seabin’s outreach activities, both in-person and leveraging our social platforms and employees, to share the message that we must care for our oceans and waterways not only today, but always. Additionally, our BMC Cares employee volunteer program encourages our global workforce to get involved in cleaning up not just around water, but in all areas, because litter on land often ends up in the water if it is not disposed of properly.

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At BMC, two of our guiding principles are Do the Right Thing and Prioritize People. It’s something we adhere to internally for our workforce and externally for our customers and partners. August is National Civility Month and a great reminder to revisit some of the concepts of civility.

Civility also ties into customer centricity, which Gartner defines as “the ability of people in an organization to understand customers’ situations, perceptions, and expectations. Customer centricity demands that the customer is the focal point of all decisions related to delivering products, services, and experiences to create customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.”

At the end of the day, it’s a concept tied to our humanity. We’re humans first, workers second. We gain a better understanding of our customers and each other when we lead with our humanity, and the Platinum Rule (discussed in a previous blog on allyship), which is about treating people the way they want to be treated. In an increasingly digital-first world and workplace, humanity, civility, and customer centricity mean taking extra steps to listen, learn, and understand our employees, colleagues, and customers, and their expectations and preferences.

The business impact of customer centricity and civility

As companies continue to adapt in the face of change, many are beginning their evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise (ADE), which is grounded in actionable insights, business agility, and customer centricity. One of the tenets of the ADE is delivering a Transcendent Customer Experience, which is something I’m passionate about in my role as Chief Customer Officer.

Customers make or break a business, and PwC’s new Customer Loyalty Survey reveals that in the last year, a quarter of customers stopped using or buying from a business that delivered a bad product, service, or customer service experience. And even in a digital-first world, humanity, and by association, civility, matter. One-third to one-half of respondents said human interaction is important to their loyalty.

The impact of customer service—and especially, poor customer service—was significant among those surveyed. According to PwC, “55 percent of respondents said they would stop buying from a company that they otherwise liked after several bad experiences, and eight percent said they would stop after just one bad experience. While eight percent may not seem like much, it is when you’re talking about a market-leading company with millions of customers…And it doesn’t just have to be ‘bad’ experiences for some to leave: 32 percent said they’d drop a company if it provided inconsistent experiences.”

Customer centricity and civility in the workplace

In the workplace, and especially across a globally distributed and increasingly remote workforce, we’re working more closely with colleagues and managers who, by nature of culture or region, have different behavioral expectations and preferences. When we take the time to understand those, it can help deepen and enrich our relationships.

What do I mean by this? Take the ever-present Teams or Zoom meeting. Are you a “jump on the call and get right to the point” person or a “take a minute to break the ice first before we dive in” person? When you’re on a call with several people, the tone is usually set by the person who initiated the meeting, or the first one to dial in. Regardless of the tone, it’s still a good exercise in civility to say hello, good morning or afternoon, and ask how everyone is (see above re: humanity).

In her blog on transitioning from the military to the civilian workforce, my colleague, Jannelle Allong-Diakabana, discussed the importance of civility in the workplace because it “sets the tone and shows teammates and stakeholders we’re rowing in the same direction.”

When you’re having a smaller meeting, or engaging with colleagues for the first time, ask their preferences, and take their verbal, and if onscreen, physical, cues. If you open with pleasantries and they don’t respond in kind, then take the hint and get on with your agenda. If they do respond in kind, take a few moments to have an engaged conversation before you talk shop. And be mindful of including everyone in the conversation. Our unconscious bias checklist for self-aware leaders is here.

Everyone has a limited amount of time in the day, so being present is also very important. Whether meeting in person or virtually, show up on time and give each speaker your full attention. Turn off your notifications so texts and emails don’t ding in the background; review any materials supplied ahead of time; and be ready to respond if you’re likely to be asked questions.

The adage about “this meeting could have been an email” has a point. Don’t take time out of people’s day for a conversation that could have been handled over email or a Teams chat. Be mindful of others’ schedules. If you only need 20 minutes or 45 minutes, only schedule that much time. Give people that ten or 15 minutes back in their day.

And about those email communications. Civility also comes into play, there, too. If you need more time to formulate an answer, say so. If a deadline is untenable, say so and offer an alternative. Ask for what you need, and accept the same boundary-setting from others. Also, read the whole email, including embedded emails. Take the time to understand the conversation and what’s being asked of you, and then respond accordingly.

Don’t just take my word for it, Christine Porath has a short TED Talk dedicated to the business benefits of workplace civility called “Why being respectful to your coworkers is good for business.”

Civility as part of DEI

Civility is part of the larger discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which we champion at BMC, and write about in our ongoing blog series.

Building an inclusive workforce that truly includes everyone—no exceptions—ensures civility across the board. And that means being mindful of words and actions, from the point of hiring and throughout the employment tenure. It’s something I take very seriously.

At BMC, we conduct a Voice of Our People survey to see how our employees are feeling and learn what’s working and what we could be doing better. To help my team continue their professional development, I established an inclusive leadership journey of the six LinkedIn Learning courses below, which are open to everyone with a LinkedIn Learning account.

Each of the courses is dedicated to learning behaviors that encourage civility. I asked my direct reports and their teams to take one class a week for six weeks, have constructive conversations about the coursework, and implement the best practices they learned in their work and personal lives.

• Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
• Leading with Emotional Intelligence
• Developing Self-Awareness
• Teaching Civility in the Workplace
• Developing Executive Presence
• Bill George on Self-Awareness, Authenticity, and Leadership

As BMC strives to build an Autonomous Digital Enterprise that includes everyone, everything we do begins and ends with people. Our employees, customers, and partners are the heart of our business, and setting a standard for civility raises us all up. To learn more about civility, check out the resources at The Muhammed Ali Center on Civility and Compassion, an organization that BMC is proud to sponsor.