NEW 3M Sustainable Innovations with Julianne Strunk

https://www.3m.com/sustainablepackaging

Connect With Julianne Strunk to learn about the latest from 3M in sustainable packaging 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliannestrunk/

This podcast is sponsored by 3M 

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This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

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Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. today's guest is my friend Julianne Strunk. She is the portfolio marketer for 3M Packaging. Welcome, Julianne. Hi, Corey. Thanks for having me. It's an honor to have you on. we've worked together for many months and, I would say even years, I think. Yeah. and I've enjoyed watching you rise through the ranks of 3M and, get promoted time and time again, but congratulations on your new role and, really looking forward to talking about the new sustainable, products that you have to offer. Yeah, I am as well. No, thank you so much. It's been really exciting and I'm glad I get to work with you in this new capacity. That's great. And you've got a history in marketing, a history in, management, all kinds of things. do you want to tell us a little bit about your current role at the, AT 3M? Yeah. Yeah. So for a little bit of background, like you said. So I graduated from India and University's Kelley School of Business. and I studied marketing and international business there. I actually am graduating this month with my master's, so go Tommy's. super excited about that as well. Thanks. but no, I'm really excited about this new role. So I have just taken over, quite a few of our packaging portfolios for 3M. So I now am going to be owning our sustainable packaging portfolio, which obviously we will focus on today, as well as our three matic case listing machines, our custom packaging, solutions, as well as our custom printed tapes, which I know I've ta talked to you about before. Those are also near and dear to my heart. But yeah, we're really excited at 3M to continue focusing on sustainable packaging to continue growing that portfolio. And in this new role, I'm excited I get to really be a bigger part of that, a bigger part of our new products that are coming out of learning from our customers. Really hearing, voice of customer, what they're wanting to see in the market and what trends are happening. That's excellent and amazing, and I was so excited to get to go to your facility in Minnesota, a few months ago and take some videos and do some great things. you work in a place that is enviable to most in the packaging industry because you have all the tools there at your disposal. And I think that's one of the greatest parts about working with a good company like 3M is you, You have all the things that you could possibly dream up. it's almost like a, a fairytale of packaging there, and all the history. Well, it's nice. I can just head over from our HQ and head over to the training area and if I need to grab a roll of custom printed tape or I wanna see how something runs on a three Matic, it's really fun being able to have everything there. And it's. Fun having you, having our customers there to be able to see a lot of these innovations. even the PACR machine that you saw at Pack Expo. Being able to have that in our training facility so that whenever we have people visiting, we can show them that, just huge innovation. it's amazing. Our stuff is brilliant and, kudos to your team for innovating that, had a lot of really positive responses about that. it's a new sustainable initiative. but let's talk about this backpack that you sent me. Yeah. I'm very envious of your sales team. They, they each get one of these. That you do. Sounds like you put it together. Yeah. And, we're gonna go over it today, but, the first thing that I really saw was purpose-driven performance. And I think that's your the 3M way. And, let's talk about that a little bit. Exactly. No. 3M purpose driven performance is our new slogan, basically our new tagline for our sustainable packaging portfolio. And so if you were to go to 3m.com/sustainable packaging, you're gonna see that saying, said quite a lot throughout there. And I really take that to heart. At 3M we have always had very high performing products. they're known in the industry for their quality and for their long lasting, value. But we really wanted to be able to take that the next. Step and make more sustainable products. And I think we see that as a trend. about 75% I think it is recently of companies now have made, commitments to sustainability. But when you look into the B2B space, it's actually hovering at around 65% or less. So in the B2B industrial space, we're a little bit behind. And so 3M wants to make sure that we're really providing those solutions to our customers. Because I think what happens is we have these ways of doing things, whether it's tabletop dispensers, whether it's. Our specific equipment that we've been using, where a lot of times in order to use a more sustainable product, you have to revamp your entire way of packaging or your entire facility. And so I think a lot of times that can be daunting. So companies either aren't making commitments or they make them, but very far out in the future. Right. And so I think where 3M is helping here is by providing not only a product, but a full system solution from. Product or tape itself, or the mailer itself, all the way through to the case sealing equipment or to the Packer machine, that'll actually help you to be able to optimize your production. So I think that as people start making those commitments and then seeing, oh gosh, I might actually have to change quite a bit, that's where 3M can come in and help and really say, we have the full solution. We're not just gonna sell you a tape and you have to find your own machine or vice versa. We've got that full end solution for you in the sustainable packaging space. And so purpose-driven performance is really something that we wanna stand behind. We are creating products that are driven with the purpose of cleaner greener, of being able to improve your efficiency and your production to help you, but to also help our planet. Yeah, well done. Amazing innovations. Amazing, easily installed innovations. I might say, I think that, like you said, people, don't always have $5 million or, a million dollars or even 50,000 for a new tape machine. they wanna be able to run the more sustainable option on the current machine that they have. maybe with a simple switch to a new tape head, or whatever the case is, that you're offering. It's really impressive and, it's exciting. So let's talk about these, innovations in the back. yeah. do you want me to start pulling one out one at a time? Let's do it. Let's do it. let's go over 'em all. Okay. so here's the bag that I received. It's a beautiful backpack, just 3M packaging on it. And. First things that I saw were tapes other than yes, other than the, beautiful water bottle. So we've got rbo. Yeah, you wanna talk about that. And so inside there you'll see rbopp and then the other clear roll there, that is our original material. So the purpose of these is I gave these out to all of our sales reps, all of our, channel reps so that they can really demo hey. Like we showed you, what's the difference between these two tapes? Can you tell a difference? And the great thing is these are both 3 71 plus. The only difference is that one of them has 60% recycled content, recycled backing. So that polypropylene backing now has that recycled material. Really excited to say that all of the new orders coming with that will have it for 3 71 plus. And I think, again, that's where we stand behind purpose driven performance because you can use the same machines. It runs on three matic, it runs in hand dispensers, and on top of that, it's going to be the same skew. I think that's something else that's so hard. I, in this digital age, it amazes me that it is still so hard oftentimes for us to syndicate data, to update a new sku, to add in something different. or a lot of companies are saying, Hey, here's this sku, but here's the more sustainable option. It's a little more expensive. It's a different SKU number. Just set it up. But it's not as simple as that. It's not as simple as flipping a switch. So what we said is, you know what, Hey, we wanna make as little work for our customers for distributors as we can. We just wanna make it a better product. And so in that backpack, we have all of our reps equipped with the old product, the new product. The great thing is you shouldn't be able to tell a difference, but one of them has that sustainable message, and you can, like I said, put it in to the machines that you already have. it's exciting because, you can't tell the difference. And it's one of those things that's gonna help people achieve their, their sustainability goals, without anybody even having to make any major differences. You've done all the work for the consumer. Or for the customer. And that's something else is I think that when we talk about the companies who have made that commitment to sustainability, a lot of times they'll make the commitment, but they're not ready to take off that huge leap. They need a bite-sized chunk. They need one small thing that they can change now with plans to change more in the future. So I think that's where it's really great because you look like broad. Spectrum. And on the far left here, we have our bp, so the recycled backing tape that you're looking at. And that would be like the most basic change, just something we're giving you. We're not asking you to do anything yourself. And then for those who are ready for more change, we have paper tape. We have the padded automatable, curbside recyclable mailer. And so it's nice because this way you can take it in as big of a chunk as your company feels ready for at that time. Exactly. And it still runs on the, even thinking smaller. It runs on the same tape gun, it runs on the same dispensers or machine grade or whatever the case may be. And then same with this, awesome paper tape. yeah, the five 70 I believe, if I recall. Yep. Scotch five 70 performance paper tape. And, it's, so easy to use. Even you, I think what I like about it the most, and this is maybe be, something that's abnormal to think about, but I have watched so many people try to use a roll of tape without a dispenser. I. And this is something that you can use in a pinch. yeah, or in a micro environment where, oh, I don't have a tape gun, but I need to roll a tape. This tape you can easily use without an A dispenser, which is really cool. Yeah. And it's totally recyclable, right? Exactly. With the box. With the box. no, we're super excited about this one. The nice thing about this one, like I said, it's a step farther, Hey, I'm already using a polypropylene backing tape, but now I've really decided I wanna take it a step further and use paper or maybe, Hey, I'm using a water activated tape and it's a mess. Our tabletop dispensers are so gunky, or we have a giant automated machine, and I really wanna switch to something that's gonna be cleaner, that's gonna have the sustainability message. And so that's where we really came in with five 70. And yeah, like you said, you can use it on its own. A hand dispenser, a tabletop dispenser, a three amatic machine, it can be recycled with the box. I think that as we talk about companies taking off bigger bites. This is definitely gonna be something new for a lot of people. A lot of people are used to working with a polypropylene tape, paper tape. When nicked doesn't pop, it doesn't, propagate that tear the way that a polypropylene tape does. So a paper tape, you have to cut all the way through. You have to make sure your tape heads are adjusted the correct way. it's gonna be a little bit of a learning curve as people jump into sustainability, but I think that when we open that up and we embrace it, and at 3M we have so many specialists. So that's where I'm really excited is when I have a customer say, Hey. I'm using this paper tape. It's operating a little bit differently than what I'm used to. Can I have a specialist come out? We at 3M have experts who can help you, our packaging experts, our application engineers, and so it's been really fun for me, in this new role. I've been getting to work with our application engineers a lot more and just learning about the differences, between a paper tape and a poly tape and, the same strong adhesive, but. Differences in the way you handle a tape, differences in how you might wanna adjust tension or tape heads. And so it's great that a company can start with a dispenser and then say they wanna move it into automated and they wanna put it in tabletop, or they wanna put it onto a three amatic. They can learn that we can have people out to train them. And then it's really seamless. you saw it operating at PAC Expo. We had this running on a three amatic for I think four days straight with no issues on our machine at all. So that I think is a testament to this tape. It is a testament and it, and of, as a salesperson for the last 23 years, I've seen it run, thousands of times and helped install these machines and yeah, they're pretty bulletproof and, really exciting to be a part of that team. let's keep going here. We've got more stuff. Let's do it. So the next big thing here is a box. It is. So I have filled that box with a bunch of samples of our PACR material. So this is padded automatable, curbside recyclable mailer material. And so what we did here, I believe that the ones I sent you are sealed on three sides so that you can still open it up and see inside. But the great thing about this product as we look in the market is right now we currently have either a recyclable mailer that is a paper type material. That has no padding whatsoever. So you can send something in a box, but the box might get dinged up inside of there. I think about when I receive a package, a little thing of makeup or whatever it might be, a lot of times it's bent up, it's bent outta shape because it's not a padded mailer, or I receive a plastic padded mailer, and I'm getting at it with a knife. With scissors, they're hard to open. You can't recycle them. And so this is the first to the market that really combines both of those features, and it's really exciting to see. They're great, great material. the PACR machine is incredible to watch, and like you were saying, it's, you can make it any size you can. Yeah, you can, the waste gets reduced, in a massive amount and absolutely, totally curbside recyclable, padded on the inside. this one is sealed all four sides, so I don't, I can't open it, Hey, show me how it's, that's okay. Yeah. Can you get into it easily? Oh yeah, for sure. And it's nice, like you just proved, you can pull it apart at the heat seal. You can also just rip the material itself very easily. And I really like the example that I heard with this. you look at it and you go, I don't know. I just don't know if those are gonna protect my product super well. And you think about nails, you step on one nail, oh my gosh, it goes through your foot. It's an awful thing to imagine. But when you step on a bed of a thousand nails, your weight is distributed across and you can walk across them. So that's what we look at when we look at these. PACR Bubbles is that they distribute the weight of your package across them and they really do protect it from those falls, from those drops. this has been tested, in the lab that you actually came and visited, so really exciting seeing their different testing for that, throughout the weather throughout different shipping environments. And so just really exciting to see something that can marry up innovation with something that'll be really so relevant to customers. I agree. it's a brilliant new system that runs on existing equipment. so you didn't have to totally, revamp the system. and like you said, it's tested, it's proven, it works, and it's, It's an awesome, new innovation that can be recycled at the curbside, which is to me the gold standard. And, I think to many of our CU customers and consumers, I think this is one of the biggest complaints is, oh, I don't want to do store drop off, or I don't have that available in my area. Whereas paper is recyclable, so widely, that this system is. Brilliant. Yeah, and I think it's funny, we talk a lot about a company's vision for sustainability and how companies are making these commitments, but really it's more so something that consumers are demanding now. Sustainability is no longer just a trend or a hot button topic. It's something that we're seeing adopted into best practice, and it's not something that's gonna go away. So I think that as more and more consumers start receiving products from companies. That have a paper tape on them or that have a recyclable mailer, they're gonna start expecting that more. And so if your company is that odd one out that is sending plastic mailers or that is not using tape that can be recycled or not using tape that has any type of sustainability feature, consumers notice, that kind of thing. And so I think that in today's day and age, as we become more aware of what's being shipped to our house and what we're, contributing to the waste of the planet, it's really important that companies do that voice of consumer and understand this is important to them. I totally agree. I totally agree. And consumers are, demanding, cons, sustainable alternatives, in their packaging. And you're seeing it on social media where people are, celebrating the, the new innovations from 3M and they're saying, look at this. What a great idea. Who, why didn't we think of this before? Yeah. No, and it's exciting. I think it's an exciting time to be a part of packaging. it's so funny when someone asks you what you do and you say, oh, my job is marketing and packaging, and it doesn't sound exciting, but oh my gosh. When you see some of these innovations that are coming out, when you see some of these new products. The trends in sustainability. I think that finding the people who are passionate about it and being able to deliver that to a consumer is really something special. So it's exciting being able to find people like you to talk to about stuff like this. geek out a little bit over it. We are packaging geeks and that's okay. And it used to be one of those things, like you said, where you would say what you do for a living and people are like, what? I don't get it. And then, and now you can say like, the delivery you get at your house. Exactly. oh, okay. Yeah. Thank you. And can please stop doing this and can you do more of that and yeah. I support that totally. It's fun, fun to be a part of the solution. No, it definitely is. And so you probably didn't see it in the backpack. but we, I don't think that we actually have them in this version of the backpack. We also have carry handles as part of our sustainable portfolio. so 3M does a variety of different types of carry handles from, 15 pounds, 30 pounds, custom printed carry handles, whatever it might be. But the great thing about those as well is you use them in the grocery. the first thing people think of is, oh, that big thing of paper towels that I have that I don't wanna have to use a giant plastic bag for. So the nice thing about carry handles. Is that they're gonna be eliminating up to 75% of waste compared to those large plastic bags. So I'm just thinking ahead. That's something else I need to send out to my reps here. and then something that we talked about, we were in the facility as well, is custom printing. So with that 3 71 plus tape that we now have, the recycled polypropylene backing, we have the opportunity to custom print that as well. And so just as companies start looking at this, I think that. Many of them are excited about sustainability, but they don't wanna lose their brand. They don't wanna lose their voice. And so when we look at some of those solutions, whether it be custom printed, carry handles, custom printed tape, they're able to really still have that company brand while being sustainable and providing that message to their customers. Well said. And I love the fact that the way that you print the custom tape, you, you take this material and you print it on the inside. Exactly. Sandwich, so not top printed. Yeah. So that is, I think that was one of the most impressive things I learned while at your facility was that you, the consumer and going through the truck and as it gets abused through the system, it's not gonna, the print, the ink is not gonna come off of the tape. And your marketing will survive the process. That's just great. Yes. Which as a marketer, that's something I know is very important. And no, we're very excited. we're unique in that way. I think that, 3M is, one of, I'm sure a couple of other companies do it out there, but one of the few that I know of who does sandwich printing. And so that's been a really big benefit for a lot of our customers to be able to see. So I'm excited as I continue, in this role in portfolio marketing, we, have some more things up the pipeline, that we can't talk about yet. But just know we are working on a lot when it comes to sustainable packaging. It's something that we are committing to. It's not just gonna be a launch or two, or one or two products. We really wanna make sure that we are creating a full portfolio of solutions for our customers to be able to become more sustainable and join us on this journey. Yeah. Exciting to see, you taking the lead there. And, let's talk a little bit about how, people can order these products. So what's the best place to find them, or learn more? I. Yeah, absolutely. So I mentioned earlier we have a landing page for all of our sustainable packaging portfolio. It's 3m.com/sustainable packaging. you can also easily Google 3M five 70, which is our paper tape, or 3M packer, and that'll bring you to three m.com pages. And on there you can click where to buy. So that'll often show you different channel partners or distributors that you can purchase them from. or you can also reach out to a 3M packaging specialist. So if you're interested in the product, but you're not quite to the point where you wanna find a distributor to buy from, you just wanna learn more, feel free to reach out to any of our packaging experts at 3M. We would love to talk to you. we take even the most complex of questions. We have amazing application engineers, amazing packaging specialists. So if you think that your solution is too unique, I can promise you, we can probably find a way to, to get what you need. Yeah, exactly. as and as someone who's worked with your team at, at one of your channel partners, Veritiv, we are very excited to be a part of that, list of options. And, I can assure you that, That, that your team gets right on it and takes care of your customers right away. it's pretty impressive. Well done. And it's always exciting knowing that, you, yourself can be able to connect our customers to a 3M rep. So no, I'm very appreciative of that as well. Right. Well thank you so much, do the, appreciate it. And, we'll chat again soon. Yeah, that sounds great. Have a great day, Cory.