January 18, 2023 • 25 mins
A social enterprise might have the very best of intentions and even the very best ideas, but those intentions and ideas don't amount to much if the enterprise goes broke.
You’ll have a hard time making an impact when you’ve got a perfect solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
So, when is ‘good for the world’ also ‘good for business’?
OC Connections’ Steve Betinsky spent the first part of his career in the corporate world before making the move into not-for-profits.
His mix of expertise means he can see the huge opportunities for social enterprises that others often don’t, and he knows exactly what to do to make the most of them.
In this episode of Getting it Right, Steve tells host Craig Foster about the “sudden jolt” that shifted his career and how he applies his corporate business experience to not-for-profit sustainability.
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Getting it Right is a Jobsbank podcast, produced by Deadset Studios, hosted by Craig Foster.
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Episode Transcript
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Craig Foster (00:01):
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it right. The
show about hiring, buying and working with purpose, A social
enterprise is all about purpose, but where does profit come
into the equation profits?
Steve Betinsky (00:14):
Quite a dirty word, not for profit sector and
Craig Foster (00:18):
don't
Steve Betinsky (00:18):
call it profit, you heard me call it retained earnings
and there for reinvestment back into greater impact. And I
think when you start talking to people about that, you
realize that
if we're not sustainable, there is no impact.
Craig Foster (00:37):
Social enterprise might have the very best of intentions and
even the very best of ideas. But those intentions and
ideas don't amount to much if the enterprise goes broke, Steve Betinsky
knows this all too well having spent the first part
of his career in the corporate world. So what's he
bringing across and what's he leaving behind?
(01:03):
My name is Steve Betinsky , I'm the General
Steve Betinsky (01:05):
Manager of OC Enterprises.OC Enterprises is a disability service provider based
in southeast of Melbourne
Craig Foster (01:13):
and we
Steve Betinsky (01:14):
provide employment opportunities at the moment for around about 100
people who live with disability.
Craig Foster (01:19):
So, good to chat with you Steve really looking forward
to getting into the marvelous work that you're doing today.
Can we start by just going back, have you always
worked in? Not for profits?
Steve Betinsky (01:28):
No, no, I haven't. If you look at my resume,
people raises a few eyebrows. I spent most of my
earlier career in corporate banking and finance primarily. And
and then there's a sudden jolt about nine years ago
into not for profit. And whilst on paper that looks
like a jolt, the reality is that um in terms
(01:51):
of me and who I am, it was always there.
So even when I was in the corporate world, I
was participating in not for profit through volunteer opportunities. I
was on, on a couple of boards
and an opportunity came up nine years ago to leave
my current role in banking and finance. And I made
a pretty big decision at the time that I wanted
(02:13):
to make the four purpose aspect of my work the
mainstay and that's, that's where I then transitioned over into
not for profit. So being here now for nine years
and it's been an amazing journey. I've learned a hell
of a lot and
I have to say everything kind of comes around to
(02:33):
benefit you in the end and all that time that
I did spend in corporate has really given me some
fantastic tools that I've been able to hone and use
in the not for profit sector as well.
Craig Foster (02:46):
OC Enterprises started many, many decades ago around 72 years. I understand
the social view around
ability and disability at that time would have been very different.
Tell us about the beginnings.
Steve Betinsky (02:58):
Yes, spot on Craig. It was 72 years ago and
OC Enterprises actually has a very rich and important history in
the local community. So it's started by a group of
families in the South East Melbourne suburb vocally who at
the time
Really felt that there had to be better options available
than the current institutionalized settings for supporting and caring of
(03:23):
their Children at the time. And so they actually started,
what was the Oakley Center at the time. So 72
years ago, we continue to operate
To this day and we have grown significantly. So back
72 years ago, it was primarily around day services and accommodation.
And around about 40 odd years ago we added the
(03:46):
employment side. So where we would provide supported employment as
it's called at the moment to local people who experience
or live with disability, largely intellectual disability
in our case. And you're right, if you look at,
you go back to the stereotypical view that people had
(04:09):
of employment, you can picture, you know, a whole bunch
of people with disability in a congregate sort of setting.
It's a it's a factory or warehouse type setting. People
are wearing high vis doing,
you know, kind of for want of better terms, quite
menial work. And if you have a look at where
we are today, we have a suite of social enterprises
(04:30):
that caters for a whole range of employment opportunities. The
idea being giving people agency choice and control around not
just the type of work that they'd like to do,
but the settings in which that occurs and, you know,
the reality of that is
it's basically
doing what we would do for everyone else, like for
(04:51):
you and I, we have the ability to make choices
in our vocation and that should be absolutely the case
for people living with disability as well. So that's a
core part of where we are today. And that will see,
as I said, we've got social enterprises that work in
office based setting, doing document management, document digitization work for
(05:12):
people who like to work outdoors. We've got fleet cleaning businesses,
we've just started up a whole new enterprise with an
eco products line and we continue to do, we do
light manufacturing and we do do packaging and packing work
as well. We've got people
Craig who have been with the organization in its various
(05:33):
forms now for over 50 years, it's incredible.
Craig Foster (05:37):
It really is. So you're a leader in Australia when
it comes to social enterprises. What precisely are you trying
to achieve with this, to tell us about this move
into it and particularly around the outcomes that you're seeking.
Steve Betinsky (05:52):
So I joined OC Connections three years ago and at the
time we were doing largely what everyone was doing that
as described, that congregate based sort of setting warehouse, factory
packing and we put in place a transformation to move
us to more of a job focused social enterprise model.
(06:12):
And that meant that not only did we need to
look at
work types that were suitable for people and aligned with
the goals and aspirations and the careers and I like
to use that word, by the way, careers rather than
jobs people do seek careers
regardless of their level of ability. And so the challenge
(06:34):
with social enterprise really is, it's those two words, it's
social and enterprise is an impact model and it's a
business model and you cannot deliver meaningful scalable sustainable impact
if you don't have a viable business model. So that's
where the benefit of all those years in corporate and
(06:54):
in business and institutional settings
really helped me to understand and identify and work with
others around bringing together the impact bottle and the business model.
So we were creating work that was good work, meaningful work,
decent work for people and we were able to find
commercial opportunities where we could actively compete on the open
(07:19):
market and so that's not just with other social enterprises
that is with us
commercial businesses. And our goal was here in victoria's to
start with was to focus on the opportunities under the
victorian social procurement framework, which for those that know 3%
(07:39):
of government funded state government funded contracts must go towards 3%
of the
total value, must go towards unlocking social value from that contract.
So whether that's employing people directly from the identified marginalized
or disadvantaged backgrounds which includes disability or procuring goods or
(07:59):
services from a social enterprise, social traders, certified social enterprise,
which is what all of our enterprises are
Craig Foster (08:07):
and how successful would you say their social procurement framework is. 3%
doesn't sound like a lot,
Steve Betinsky (08:13):
it doesn't sound like a lot craig, but I'll throw
a couple of numbers at you. So under Big Bill
project 165 projects totaling around about $91 billion worth 3%
of that quick mass is about 240 odd million dollars.
240 odd million dollars going towards
employment, employment opportunities for marginalized and disadvantaged Victorians is pretty decent.
Craig Foster (08:41):
Tell us a little bit about the triple bottom line strategy.
Steve Betinsky (08:45):
Yeah, that is a very deliberate part craig of what
we when we did our transformation and we looked at
our new enterprise opportunities. Not only did we want to
be able to create ongoing and meaningful
and sustainable work for our participants, which is people living
with disability,
(09:05):
but we also recognized because we were working to target
opportunities under the state Government procurement social procurement framework. Sorry.
Um
it was more than just being able to provide work
to people. There was there was the environmental overlays, there's
there's very good policy settings around recycle first, there's policy
(09:28):
settings around local jobs and how we can stimulate local
economy and circular economy models and all of this stuff
is really starting to mature now and so when we
looked at it,
what we really wanted to be able to do was
hit on all three of those aspects, so unlock social value,
(09:50):
deliver on environmental imperatives and create circular models which stimulate
which use and stimulate local economy and local supply chain
partners and if we can do that,
what we're doing is we're solving multiple problems with the
delivery of one particular product or service and that makes
(10:14):
life easier for the customer.
So a lot of these state government contract operators have
to report, for example, and what they sent to landfill.
So if you're developing products or services that provide green
options that reduce landfill and in the process create work
for your beneficiaries and you're not importing those goods. Those
(10:36):
products are actually manufacturing locally tick tick tick. And I
think if we can do that then we're onto a
real
Craig Foster (10:45):
winner.
You've now turned your attention to one of the most
wasteful products in the construction industry. Tell us about that project.
Steve Betinsky (10:55):
If you notice on any major roadwork or construction area,
you'll see a lot of witches hats, traffic bollards and
traffic bollards of the taller orange poles if you like.
They've got a reflective strip on them
and they're used to delineate traffic and manage traffic flow
(11:19):
and pedestrian flow through high risk environments. So this is
a great example craig of exactly what I was talking about.
So
Each one of those bollards weighs 960 g just under
a kilo.
They are all at the moment imported from overseas, largely
from china or Taiwan and all made from virgin plastic materials.
(11:43):
They have very short lifespans. They live in high impact environments,
they get knocked around a fair bit and once they're
broken um that's it. They're done, our research indicated that
if you've got 12 months out of one of those,
you've done really well, there's no easy way to recycle
these things. So they end up dumped at the back
(12:04):
of a depot and eventually into holes in the ground.
And if you think about some numbers around that quickly,
10,000 of those going into a hole, that's 10 ton
of Virgin plastics going into a hole. And
and there are very, they take up a lot of
space there along their cylindrical, they're hollow in the middle.
So it's a lot of space taken up and a
(12:26):
lot of urgent plastic going in the ground very, very quickly.
And then what happens is they will just order new
bollards and the cycle continues or the straight line continues
from production consumption waste and for a very, very short lifespan.
(12:46):
So this was one of those opportunities in our transformation
craig where we did identify, we worked very, very closely
with industry, we engaged the consultancy of another social enterprise,
social outcome solutions and it was a real deep dive
into having a look through where they spend their money,
(13:09):
what goods and services are they procuring and what problems
do they have
because what you don't want to be is a product
or a service,
looking for a solution, looking for a problem
and then even worse, a solution looking for a problem
that doesn't have a budget line yet. So what we
wanted to do was identify where we could deliver triple
(13:32):
bottom line outcomes and pivot and existing commercial spend to
a social spend. So the bollard was one of five
opportunities that came up through that process. We put them through,
did a fair bit of modeling and a lot of
due diligence and out of the five. As I said,
the bollard was the one that popped up that was
two years ago. So this has been nearly two years
(13:52):
in the making
and it launches. As you mentioned, it's a couple of
weeks now, so mid october it should be in the market.
So what we do is this
at no cost to the contractor. We will collect those
old bollards to save them, put him in the ground.
So that does two things straight off the bat. First
(14:15):
thing it does is it reduces that virgin plastic going
into landfill.
We then so our guys will do that collection sorting
and pre pre recycled processing work. So that's where it
creates the first bit of work for our guys. So
we pick up those bollards, we take off the old strips,
we sort them into the different plastic types and then
(14:37):
they're ready to go
ready to go to a local supply chain partner. Polymer
processors is a part of our supply chain based family owned
business based in South East Melbourne. They then recycle those
old bollards, turn them into a pelletised input material to
be used to make new bollards. So we OC Connections
(14:58):
Enterprises developed, built um
a blow mold tool that we own and we then
give that to another second local supply chain partner. Garden
City Plastics who use that blow multi tool under license.
So what we've done there in stimulating local economy is
that its job creation at both those organizations and that's
money staying within the local economy,
(15:21):
Those bollards then come off the new bollards, come off
the production line at Garden City plastics and that's where
the second bit of work comes in for our guys.
So our guys will then finish the product so that's
where adding on the retro reflective strip and then it's
a package packaging them up and getting them out to customers.
So we do production runs of about 20,000.
(15:44):
So let me give you some numbers around that. There's
about 1000 hours of work creation in the resource recovery
aspect of that, there's 930 odd hours in the finishing.
So almost 2000 hours worth of work created for people
with disability from each production run.
Um if you are manufacturing 2,020,000 units call it 20
(16:05):
ton 20 ton less
virgin plastics being created. It takes 1.75 kg of fossil
fuels to manufacture one kg of high density polyethylene. So
do the math on saving of that, you're saving 2020
nearly 20 ton of virgin plastics going into landfill because
(16:26):
we're taking those out to produce the new bollards and
then that cycle craig can continue in perpetuity. So when
our eco T top bollard
gets run over by a truck, like a lot of
them do, it doesn't go into a hole in the ground,
we take that back and it goes into our circular
economy model where we will recycle those. We encourage users
(16:49):
of the bollards to try and repair them and reuse them.
So if a strip comes off, pop the strip back on,
but if they end up all squashed and damaged, we
will then recycle those and they can continue to use
those over and over and over again. So we've hit
those triple bottom lines of social outcomes, decent work for
(17:09):
our guys. Environmental outcomes, reported diversion of virgin plastics from
landfill and stimulating local economy using local supply chain partners
and creating local
Craig Foster (17:20):
jobs.
It's extraordinary project Steve it sounds as though you've inverted
the process and that your social enterprise, if you like,
is now starting to take your own control of where
the opportunities are you investing your own resources in that aspect.
(17:42):
I guess your commercial background must have been pretty helpful
here
Steve Betinsky (17:45):
that you've really picked up on a really important point.
That is that is exactly what we've done here and
we are now able to because we have invested
that time that I. P. Into. And as I said
it's been two years and we have learned amazing a
lot in those two years. And what that has enabled
(18:10):
us to do is see
future opportunities very very clearly. And so if we just
stick with plastics for example we can collect potentially more
bollards than what we can use in a manufacturing process.
Those plastics don't go to waste. We can put them
(18:30):
into products two and three. So we're already looking at
what products two and three are and as you've absolutely
just landed on
we have flipped it over and we're now in the
driver's seat so we we've got the supply chains in place.
We can leverage that now we can scale that up.
We've got the relationships with customers with the government agencies,
(18:54):
with the intermediaries like social traders etcetera, the runs are
on the board and when we prove our delivery around
that
and we can bring that product to market and it
has to be at market so it's great that we
do all of that. But if someone has to pay
double for that they're not going to do it craig.
So you still have to be at market and be
(19:16):
competitive and we've been able to do that and the
more we can scale it up the better we'll get
at that. So we can now see a clear pathway
to as you say taking control of getting in the
driver's seat from a commercial point of view
and the beauty of that is is unlike a commercial business,
we will now be able to reinvest any retained earnings
(19:41):
from that into developing products to products three, and come
up with something that allows us to actually self fund
that model and grow that model and reinvest in that model.
And
when I talked to a lot of other social enterprises
and even when I joined profits, quite a dirty word
(20:01):
in the not for profit sector and I don't call
it profit, you heard me call it retained earnings and
there for reinvestment back into greater impact. And I think
when you start talking to people about that, you realize
that
um if we're not sustainable, there is no impact. You
Craig Foster (20:20):
talk about hard for people head for business, let's just
a turn to the people and please just take us
through what the impact is on those people who are
your employees, who you're providing with dignified work. I
Steve Betinsky (20:36):
think we just talk about people in general and what
does work mean and work for someone with a disability
is this, it's work for what work represents to you
and what work represents to me is exactly what it
represents to someone else of that may have a different
(20:59):
ability to us and,
you know, people's thoughts, feelings goals, aspirations, emotions are all
still there. And so it's just so much harder for
people in our context. So people with disabilities who we
primarily support and that's people primarily with intellectual disabilities. And,
(21:25):
you know, a lot of them have been on hiding
nothing to try and get ongoing meaningful sustainable work and
the sad part of that craig is
some of the talent, some of the work ethic, some
of the attributes that people bring to that work,
you'd have them in your in your team, in any
(21:45):
team in a heartbeat. And the really hard thing for
me is
and the frustrating thing is people not seeing that opportunity.
And so one of the things I'm really now committed
to doing is how do we, how do we crack
that nut? How do we, how do we bridge that
(22:05):
gap and move away from the fear and lack of
understanding to seeing the opportunity? So too often,
you know, I'll use this example
when I,
when you interview for a role, what are we looking for?
We're looking for what people can do, what they can
(22:28):
bring to the role.
Now a big shift happens and it's an unspoken one
when you're interviewing a person with a disability or considering
someone with a disability for a role
the subconscious is or what you're trying to find out
is what are their limitations, what can't they do? And
by default, what you're doing is completely and straight off
the bat from the beginning,
(22:48):
not focusing and not taking into account and not thinking
about what someone can bring to a role can bring
to your organization, can bring to your culture
and
I've got to say that again, there's been under the
Social Procurement Framework as well. We're starting to see some
(23:10):
fantastic opportunities and we've now got, we just put two people,
for example, who had goals of open employment into head
office roles with bunning's. They are fantastic, we've got four
people out
who will be buying our bollards by the way, but
also they have roles going in administration, office based administration roles,
(23:31):
project Database administration roles and quite willing to sit down
with us and
not focus on what people can't do, but co design
work roles that actually bring out people's strengths and focus
on what people can do. And I think if we
(23:52):
do that all of a sudden people
thrive because that is great work. People feel confident and
are successful in that work and then that creates this
positive cycle of development, both in the individual and then
the organization and they go, oh wow, look what look
what Steve can do, this is fantastic. What else can
(24:13):
we have a look out here
Craig Foster (24:15):
Steve, I love what you're doing, I wish you the
best of success and thank you for your time. Thanks Craig,
Thanks for listening to Getting it right. If you haven't
listened to the previous episodes, make sure you scroll back
through your podcast app and check them out, there's plenty
of inspiring stories about hiring, buying and working with purpose
(24:38):
that you don't want to miss and to make sure
you don't miss the upcoming episodes hit follow in your
podcast app while you're there.
Getting it right is a Jobsbank podcast produced by Deadet Studios.
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it right. The
show about hiring, buying and working with purpose, A social
enterprise is all about purpose, but where does profit come
into the equation profits?
Steve Betinsky (00:14):
Quite a dirty word, not for profit sector and
Craig Foster (00:18):
don't
Steve Betinsky (00:18):
call it profit, you heard me call it retained earnings
and there for reinvestment back into greater impact. And I
think when you start talking to people about that, you
realize that
if we're not sustainable, there is no impact.
Craig Foster (00:37):
Social enterprise might have the very best of intentions and
even the very best of ideas. But those intentions and
ideas don't amount to much if the enterprise goes broke, Steve Betinsky
knows this all too well having spent the first part
of his career in the corporate world. So what's he
bringing across and what's he leaving behind?
(01:03):
My name is Steve Betinsky , I'm the General
Steve Betinsky (01:05):
Manager of OC Enterprises.OC Enterprises is a disability service provider based
in southeast of Melbourne
Craig Foster (01:13):
and we
Steve Betinsky (01:14):
provide employment opportunities at the moment for around about 100
people who live with disability.
Craig Foster (01:19):
So, good to chat with you Steve really looking forward
to getting into the marvelous work that you're doing today.
Can we start by just going back, have you always
worked in? Not for profits?
Steve Betinsky (01:28):
No, no, I haven't. If you look at my resume,
people raises a few eyebrows. I spent most of my
earlier career in corporate banking and finance primarily. And
and then there's a sudden jolt about nine years ago
into not for profit. And whilst on paper that looks
like a jolt, the reality is that um in terms
(01:51):
of me and who I am, it was always there.
So even when I was in the corporate world, I
was participating in not for profit through volunteer opportunities. I
was on, on a couple of boards
and an opportunity came up nine years ago to leave
my current role in banking and finance. And I made
a pretty big decision at the time that I wanted
(02:13):
to make the four purpose aspect of my work the
mainstay and that's, that's where I then transitioned over into
not for profit. So being here now for nine years
and it's been an amazing journey. I've learned a hell
of a lot and
I have to say everything kind of comes around to
(02:33):
benefit you in the end and all that time that
I did spend in corporate has really given me some
fantastic tools that I've been able to hone and use
in the not for profit sector as well.
Craig Foster (02:46):
OC Enterprises started many, many decades ago around 72 years. I understand
the social view around
ability and disability at that time would have been very different.
Tell us about the beginnings.
Steve Betinsky (02:58):
Yes, spot on Craig. It was 72 years ago and
OC Enterprises actually has a very rich and important history in
the local community. So it's started by a group of
families in the South East Melbourne suburb vocally who at
the time
Really felt that there had to be better options available
than the current institutionalized settings for supporting and caring of
(03:23):
their Children at the time. And so they actually started,
what was the Oakley Center at the time. So 72
years ago, we continue to operate
To this day and we have grown significantly. So back
72 years ago, it was primarily around day services and accommodation.
And around about 40 odd years ago we added the
(03:46):
employment side. So where we would provide supported employment as
it's called at the moment to local people who experience
or live with disability, largely intellectual disability
in our case. And you're right, if you look at,
you go back to the stereotypical view that people had
(04:09):
of employment, you can picture, you know, a whole bunch
of people with disability in a congregate sort of setting.
It's a it's a factory or warehouse type setting. People
are wearing high vis doing,
you know, kind of for want of better terms, quite
menial work. And if you have a look at where
we are today, we have a suite of social enterprises
(04:30):
that caters for a whole range of employment opportunities. The
idea being giving people agency choice and control around not
just the type of work that they'd like to do,
but the settings in which that occurs and, you know,
the reality of that is
it's basically
doing what we would do for everyone else, like for
(04:51):
you and I, we have the ability to make choices
in our vocation and that should be absolutely the case
for people living with disability as well. So that's a
core part of where we are today. And that will see,
as I said, we've got social enterprises that work in
office based setting, doing document management, document digitization work for
(05:12):
people who like to work outdoors. We've got fleet cleaning businesses,
we've just started up a whole new enterprise with an
eco products line and we continue to do, we do
light manufacturing and we do do packaging and packing work
as well. We've got people
Craig who have been with the organization in its various
(05:33):
forms now for over 50 years, it's incredible.
Craig Foster (05:37):
It really is. So you're a leader in Australia when
it comes to social enterprises. What precisely are you trying
to achieve with this, to tell us about this move
into it and particularly around the outcomes that you're seeking.
Steve Betinsky (05:52):
So I joined OC Connections three years ago and at the
time we were doing largely what everyone was doing that
as described, that congregate based sort of setting warehouse, factory
packing and we put in place a transformation to move
us to more of a job focused social enterprise model.
(06:12):
And that meant that not only did we need to
look at
work types that were suitable for people and aligned with
the goals and aspirations and the careers and I like
to use that word, by the way, careers rather than
jobs people do seek careers
regardless of their level of ability. And so the challenge
(06:34):
with social enterprise really is, it's those two words, it's
social and enterprise is an impact model and it's a
business model and you cannot deliver meaningful scalable sustainable impact
if you don't have a viable business model. So that's
where the benefit of all those years in corporate and
(06:54):
in business and institutional settings
really helped me to understand and identify and work with
others around bringing together the impact bottle and the business model.
So we were creating work that was good work, meaningful work,
decent work for people and we were able to find
commercial opportunities where we could actively compete on the open
(07:19):
market and so that's not just with other social enterprises
that is with us
commercial businesses. And our goal was here in victoria's to
start with was to focus on the opportunities under the
victorian social procurement framework, which for those that know 3%
(07:39):
of government funded state government funded contracts must go towards 3%
of the
total value, must go towards unlocking social value from that contract.
So whether that's employing people directly from the identified marginalized
or disadvantaged backgrounds which includes disability or procuring goods or
(07:59):
services from a social enterprise, social traders, certified social enterprise,
which is what all of our enterprises are
Craig Foster (08:07):
and how successful would you say their social procurement framework is. 3%
doesn't sound like a lot,
Steve Betinsky (08:13):
it doesn't sound like a lot craig, but I'll throw
a couple of numbers at you. So under Big Bill
project 165 projects totaling around about $91 billion worth 3%
of that quick mass is about 240 odd million dollars.
240 odd million dollars going towards
employment, employment opportunities for marginalized and disadvantaged Victorians is pretty decent.
Craig Foster (08:41):
Tell us a little bit about the triple bottom line strategy.
Steve Betinsky (08:45):
Yeah, that is a very deliberate part craig of what
we when we did our transformation and we looked at
our new enterprise opportunities. Not only did we want to
be able to create ongoing and meaningful
and sustainable work for our participants, which is people living
with disability,
(09:05):
but we also recognized because we were working to target
opportunities under the state Government procurement social procurement framework. Sorry.
Um
it was more than just being able to provide work
to people. There was there was the environmental overlays, there's
there's very good policy settings around recycle first, there's policy
(09:28):
settings around local jobs and how we can stimulate local
economy and circular economy models and all of this stuff
is really starting to mature now and so when we
looked at it,
what we really wanted to be able to do was
hit on all three of those aspects, so unlock social value,
(09:50):
deliver on environmental imperatives and create circular models which stimulate
which use and stimulate local economy and local supply chain
partners and if we can do that,
what we're doing is we're solving multiple problems with the
delivery of one particular product or service and that makes
(10:14):
life easier for the customer.
So a lot of these state government contract operators have
to report, for example, and what they sent to landfill.
So if you're developing products or services that provide green
options that reduce landfill and in the process create work
for your beneficiaries and you're not importing those goods. Those
(10:36):
products are actually manufacturing locally tick tick tick. And I
think if we can do that then we're onto a
real
Craig Foster (10:45):
winner.
You've now turned your attention to one of the most
wasteful products in the construction industry. Tell us about that project.
Steve Betinsky (10:55):
If you notice on any major roadwork or construction area,
you'll see a lot of witches hats, traffic bollards and
traffic bollards of the taller orange poles if you like.
They've got a reflective strip on them
and they're used to delineate traffic and manage traffic flow
(11:19):
and pedestrian flow through high risk environments. So this is
a great example craig of exactly what I was talking about.
So
Each one of those bollards weighs 960 g just under
a kilo.
They are all at the moment imported from overseas, largely
from china or Taiwan and all made from virgin plastic materials.
(11:43):
They have very short lifespans. They live in high impact environments,
they get knocked around a fair bit and once they're
broken um that's it. They're done, our research indicated that
if you've got 12 months out of one of those,
you've done really well, there's no easy way to recycle
these things. So they end up dumped at the back
(12:04):
of a depot and eventually into holes in the ground.
And if you think about some numbers around that quickly,
10,000 of those going into a hole, that's 10 ton
of Virgin plastics going into a hole. And
and there are very, they take up a lot of
space there along their cylindrical, they're hollow in the middle.
So it's a lot of space taken up and a
(12:26):
lot of urgent plastic going in the ground very, very quickly.
And then what happens is they will just order new
bollards and the cycle continues or the straight line continues
from production consumption waste and for a very, very short lifespan.
(12:46):
So this was one of those opportunities in our transformation
craig where we did identify, we worked very, very closely
with industry, we engaged the consultancy of another social enterprise,
social outcome solutions and it was a real deep dive
into having a look through where they spend their money,
(13:09):
what goods and services are they procuring and what problems
do they have
because what you don't want to be is a product
or a service,
looking for a solution, looking for a problem
and then even worse, a solution looking for a problem
that doesn't have a budget line yet. So what we
wanted to do was identify where we could deliver triple
(13:32):
bottom line outcomes and pivot and existing commercial spend to
a social spend. So the bollard was one of five
opportunities that came up through that process. We put them through,
did a fair bit of modeling and a lot of
due diligence and out of the five. As I said,
the bollard was the one that popped up that was
two years ago. So this has been nearly two years
(13:52):
in the making
and it launches. As you mentioned, it's a couple of
weeks now, so mid october it should be in the market.
So what we do is this
at no cost to the contractor. We will collect those
old bollards to save them, put him in the ground.
So that does two things straight off the bat. First
(14:15):
thing it does is it reduces that virgin plastic going
into landfill.
We then so our guys will do that collection sorting
and pre pre recycled processing work. So that's where it
creates the first bit of work for our guys. So
we pick up those bollards, we take off the old strips,
we sort them into the different plastic types and then
(14:37):
they're ready to go
ready to go to a local supply chain partner. Polymer
processors is a part of our supply chain based family owned
business based in South East Melbourne. They then recycle those
old bollards, turn them into a pelletised input material to
be used to make new bollards. So we OC Connections
(14:58):
Enterprises developed, built um
a blow mold tool that we own and we then
give that to another second local supply chain partner. Garden
City Plastics who use that blow multi tool under license.
So what we've done there in stimulating local economy is
that its job creation at both those organizations and that's
money staying within the local economy,
(15:21):
Those bollards then come off the new bollards, come off
the production line at Garden City plastics and that's where
the second bit of work comes in for our guys.
So our guys will then finish the product so that's
where adding on the retro reflective strip and then it's
a package packaging them up and getting them out to customers.
So we do production runs of about 20,000.
(15:44):
So let me give you some numbers around that. There's
about 1000 hours of work creation in the resource recovery
aspect of that, there's 930 odd hours in the finishing.
So almost 2000 hours worth of work created for people
with disability from each production run.
Um if you are manufacturing 2,020,000 units call it 20
(16:05):
ton 20 ton less
virgin plastics being created. It takes 1.75 kg of fossil
fuels to manufacture one kg of high density polyethylene. So
do the math on saving of that, you're saving 2020
nearly 20 ton of virgin plastics going into landfill because
(16:26):
we're taking those out to produce the new bollards and
then that cycle craig can continue in perpetuity. So when
our eco T top bollard
gets run over by a truck, like a lot of
them do, it doesn't go into a hole in the ground,
we take that back and it goes into our circular
economy model where we will recycle those. We encourage users
(16:49):
of the bollards to try and repair them and reuse them.
So if a strip comes off, pop the strip back on,
but if they end up all squashed and damaged, we
will then recycle those and they can continue to use
those over and over and over again. So we've hit
those triple bottom lines of social outcomes, decent work for
(17:09):
our guys. Environmental outcomes, reported diversion of virgin plastics from
landfill and stimulating local economy using local supply chain partners
and creating local
Craig Foster (17:20):
jobs.
It's extraordinary project Steve it sounds as though you've inverted
the process and that your social enterprise, if you like,
is now starting to take your own control of where
the opportunities are you investing your own resources in that aspect.
(17:42):
I guess your commercial background must have been pretty helpful
here
Steve Betinsky (17:45):
that you've really picked up on a really important point.
That is that is exactly what we've done here and
we are now able to because we have invested
that time that I. P. Into. And as I said
it's been two years and we have learned amazing a
lot in those two years. And what that has enabled
(18:10):
us to do is see
future opportunities very very clearly. And so if we just
stick with plastics for example we can collect potentially more
bollards than what we can use in a manufacturing process.
Those plastics don't go to waste. We can put them
(18:30):
into products two and three. So we're already looking at
what products two and three are and as you've absolutely
just landed on
we have flipped it over and we're now in the
driver's seat so we we've got the supply chains in place.
We can leverage that now we can scale that up.
We've got the relationships with customers with the government agencies,
(18:54):
with the intermediaries like social traders etcetera, the runs are
on the board and when we prove our delivery around
that
and we can bring that product to market and it
has to be at market so it's great that we
do all of that. But if someone has to pay
double for that they're not going to do it craig.
So you still have to be at market and be
(19:16):
competitive and we've been able to do that and the
more we can scale it up the better we'll get
at that. So we can now see a clear pathway
to as you say taking control of getting in the
driver's seat from a commercial point of view
and the beauty of that is is unlike a commercial business,
we will now be able to reinvest any retained earnings
(19:41):
from that into developing products to products three, and come
up with something that allows us to actually self fund
that model and grow that model and reinvest in that model.
And
when I talked to a lot of other social enterprises
and even when I joined profits, quite a dirty word
(20:01):
in the not for profit sector and I don't call
it profit, you heard me call it retained earnings and
there for reinvestment back into greater impact. And I think
when you start talking to people about that, you realize
that
um if we're not sustainable, there is no impact. You
Craig Foster (20:20):
talk about hard for people head for business, let's just
a turn to the people and please just take us
through what the impact is on those people who are
your employees, who you're providing with dignified work. I
Steve Betinsky (20:36):
think we just talk about people in general and what
does work mean and work for someone with a disability
is this, it's work for what work represents to you
and what work represents to me is exactly what it
represents to someone else of that may have a different
(20:59):
ability to us and,
you know, people's thoughts, feelings goals, aspirations, emotions are all
still there. And so it's just so much harder for
people in our context. So people with disabilities who we
primarily support and that's people primarily with intellectual disabilities. And,
(21:25):
you know, a lot of them have been on hiding
nothing to try and get ongoing meaningful sustainable work and
the sad part of that craig is
some of the talent, some of the work ethic, some
of the attributes that people bring to that work,
you'd have them in your in your team, in any
(21:45):
team in a heartbeat. And the really hard thing for
me is
and the frustrating thing is people not seeing that opportunity.
And so one of the things I'm really now committed
to doing is how do we, how do we crack
that nut? How do we, how do we bridge that
(22:05):
gap and move away from the fear and lack of
understanding to seeing the opportunity? So too often,
you know, I'll use this example
when I,
when you interview for a role, what are we looking for?
We're looking for what people can do, what they can
(22:28):
bring to the role.
Now a big shift happens and it's an unspoken one
when you're interviewing a person with a disability or considering
someone with a disability for a role
the subconscious is or what you're trying to find out
is what are their limitations, what can't they do? And
by default, what you're doing is completely and straight off
the bat from the beginning,
(22:48):
not focusing and not taking into account and not thinking
about what someone can bring to a role can bring
to your organization, can bring to your culture
and
I've got to say that again, there's been under the
Social Procurement Framework as well. We're starting to see some
(23:10):
fantastic opportunities and we've now got, we just put two people,
for example, who had goals of open employment into head
office roles with bunning's. They are fantastic, we've got four
people out
who will be buying our bollards by the way, but
also they have roles going in administration, office based administration roles,
(23:31):
project Database administration roles and quite willing to sit down
with us and
not focus on what people can't do, but co design
work roles that actually bring out people's strengths and focus
on what people can do. And I think if we
(23:52):
do that all of a sudden people
thrive because that is great work. People feel confident and
are successful in that work and then that creates this
positive cycle of development, both in the individual and then
the organization and they go, oh wow, look what look
what Steve can do, this is fantastic. What else can
(24:13):
we have a look out here
Craig Foster (24:15):
Steve, I love what you're doing, I wish you the
best of success and thank you for your time. Thanks Craig,
Thanks for listening to Getting it right. If you haven't
listened to the previous episodes, make sure you scroll back
through your podcast app and check them out, there's plenty
of inspiring stories about hiring, buying and working with purpose
(24:38):
that you don't want to miss and to make sure
you don't miss the upcoming episodes hit follow in your
podcast app while you're there.
Getting it right is a Jobsbank podcast produced by Deadet Studios.
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