Plastic Bank ends poverty and plastic pollution with Salesforce

Plastic is ubiquitous in our oceans. In fact, as we continue to create plastic waste, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. But it doesn’t have to be this way - we can all help to prevent more plastic from entering our oceans.

Plastic Bank’s collection communities have collected over 127 million kilograms of ocean-bound plastic since the social enterprise was founded in 2013 - the equivalent of more than 6.3 billion bottles exchanged by collection members for bonuses and social benefits, helping provide a path out of poverty. “Plastic pollution is a symptom of human poverty,” explained Taylor Leigh Cannizzaro, Chief Relationship Officer at Plastic Bank. “We’ve created a marketplace where collection members can exchange their collected plastic for secure income and social benefits, like health insurance, meal vouchers, and school supplies."

The organization’s plastic collection efforts is funded by corporate partners and individuals who offset their plastic footprint, creating a win-win for Plastic Bank’s partners and the communities in which it works. The collected plastic is processed and recycled into Social Plastic®™ feedstock, which is sold for use by manufacturers.

In addition to helping businesses reduce their plastic footprint, Plastic Bank also helps them comply with new legislation the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Already rolled out in the Philippines and soon to include Thailand and Europe, EPR requires a traceable, auditable supply chain for the plastic that packaging producers place on the market, which Plastic Bank offers as part of its services.

The organization has worked with Salesforce since day one to support its mission. Today, Plastic Bank uses Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud across many facets of its business to improve efficiency, increase visibility, and strengthen partner relationships.

Plastic Bank’s sales teams have hundreds of leads, opportunities, and accounts to track. With Sales Cloud, every partner interaction is captured so the sales and partner success teams can understand partner goals, why they joined up, check on program deliverables, and understand what’s next. “A combination of automation and prompts to more personal actions helps to ensure partners feel cared for, and means we can scale to manage hundreds of renewals without losing track,” revealed Cannizzaro.

Insights into the partner’s history and conversations help the sales team better answer inquiries and close deals faster, increasing Plastic Bank’s partner base and raising more funds to collect plastic and help communities.

The social enterprise also uses Sales Cloud to manage orders for its plastic offset programs. Salesforce syncs with Plastic Bank’s blockchain platform so in-country operations teams know how much plastic they need to collect to fulfill contracts.

“Salesforce helps us create a fully traceable supply chain, so we can verify the exact amount of plastic that each partner has stopped from entering the ocean,” explained Sharon McGowan, Salesforce Administrator at Plastic Bank. “The platform has also streamlined order management, which makes us more efficient and improves the level of service we can offer to our partners.”

Plastic Bank added Marketing Cloud in 2022 to help retain, support, and grow its partner base. They have built partner journeys in the platform for onboarding and renewals, and to capture customer satisfaction surveys at key milestones. They also use the marketing automation platform to send out newsletters and check click-through rates, so the team can identify which content resonates best with which partners. “With Marketing Cloud, we have cadence throughout the journey; it helps keep partners engaged and relationships active,” said McGowan.

As Plastic Bank develops its trade show strategy which includes both attending and running events Marketing Cloud will also help the team capture and qualify leads for pre-show and post-show outreach. 

The platform is vital in providing visibility of order management, planning, and forecasting, enabling Plastic Bank to plan collections and fulfill commitments to partners. With Salesforce dashboards at the heart of every meeting, nearly all business decisions are based on Salesforce data.

“Salesforce is the engine behind the business decisions that we make,” confirmed Cannizzaro. “The visibility it provides helps us identify gaps and where we can make improvements, like identifying dips in partner engagement. It drives our bottom line.”

With Plastic Bank’s 195 employees dispersed across the globe, strong collaboration is vital to ensuring everyone remains focused on the same goals. Whether an employee is based at the organization’s head office in Vancouver, a local office in Brazil or Egypt, or working remotely from home in London, with Salesforce they can stay connected across continents and time zones.

“With Salesforce, we have a single source of truth globally,” commented McGowan. “The platform also powers processes that run across different teams and geographies, for example, managing Social Plastic®™ samples. This is a particularly complex process, but we’re able to automate it in Salesforce to maximize efficiency.”

Following its success with the Salesforce platform, Plastic Bank works closely with the company to further optimize its implementation and identify its next investments. SMS messaging and AI-powered predictive analytics are already on the roadmap.

To further Plastic Bank’s vision of a wasteless and better world where everyone is a changemaker, the organization is looking into recycling different material types, such as cardboard/paper, glass and aluminum, and Salesforce will continue to provide the data foundation for these activities. “We’re with Salesforce for the long term,” confirmed Cannizzaro. “With Salesforce by our side, we have the agility, scalability, and insights to grow our partner base, collect more plastic, and help provide more communities with a path out of poverty.” 

Learn more about Plastic Bank’s mission and how you can champion sustainability with your business at plasticbank.com.