Ball Beverage Packaging president: Gender equality delivers innovation to tackle industry’s big challenges

13 Jul 2023 --- Aluminum packaging leader Ball attributes a part of its success to the diversity in its team. It calls creating a workplace that is both diverse and inclusive “vital” to retaining talent and innovating in the packaging industry.

As the industry rapidly expands its use of materials and resources, Carey Causey, president of Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA, speaks to Packaging Insights about why more women should be employed in engineering positions to create better packaging solutions. 

“We need all perspectives to respond to these challenges and support our customers. Women are and will continue to play a key role in designing the innovations that help our sector address the sustainability challenges of today,” she says. 

According to the report titled “Women Of Colour In The Engineering Workplace from 2020,” approximately one in four women leave the engineering profession within the first five years, a rate much higher than their male counterparts. This statistic is exacerbated when considering women of color, who are typically “held to stricter standards of competence than white women and are less likely to be recognized for their skills.”

“Manufacturing and engineering historically have been male-dominated. Therefore, companies must provide their employees with resources and education to identify and implement the strategies that retain women engineers and allow them to thrive. We aim to train, recruit and retain diverse female talent at all levels of our business,” explains Causey.

Ball has set goals to close the gender gap in the engineering industry. Education for equality
For Causey, improving the inclusion of female engineers begins with education. The Ball Foundation supports science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education with grants for programs, particularly for diverse and underrepresented groups.

“This initiative has helped us break down barriers for women wanting to make a career in engineering at Ball,” she says.

“For example, our recently opened manufacturing facility in Kettering in the UK has exceeded our gender targets, and women now represent 30% of our apprentices in Mont, France. It’s an exciting time for women to enter this industry.”

Regarding how gender diversity leads to innovation in the engineering industry, Causey says women have been at the forefront of some of the most significant advances in engineering. 

She names Mary W. Jackson, who was NASA’s first black female engineer, part of the team which succeeded in getting American astronauts into space. Maria Telkes invented the first solar-powered heating system, and Yvonne Brill was a rocket scientist.

“We all know that the best teams are complementary teams, diverse teams. Gender diversity at Ball is innovation.”

Women in packaging
On the packaging front, Causey explains that diversity in the workplace is necessary due to the industry’s changing landscape regarding the increasing use of refill and reusable packaging. She says introducing reuse packaging means the sector has to deliver more ideas and investments in deposit return schemes and other regulatory shifts. Causey suggests that employing female engineers unlocks the full potential of innovation

Employing female engineers and encouraging more women and girls into engineering roles is crucial to unlocking the full potential of design innovation in beverage packaging, according to Causey. 

“By promoting gender equality and inclusivity in engineering, we can harness both men’s and women’s diverse perspectives, experiences and talents, resulting in more innovative and creative solutions to today’s challenges.”

Last year, Ball’s women’s network division came up with the idea of creating a limited-edition beer produced 100% by women. It launched “Às Mulheres,” meaning “To women” in Portuguese. 

“From the ingredients to the design to the 20 women from Ball’s plant in Extrema, Brazil, who manufactured the can, it is undeniably a 100% female beer. Innovation in the engineering space depends upon various views, talents and people,” explains Causey.

Incentivizing inclusivity
Companies should showcase how important gender diversity is to them by setting ambitious goals to close the gender gap and be transparent about the work that needs to be done, the Ball president suggests. 

“There is much more to be done to address gender balance in manufacturing at Ball, and we are all working toward that objective,” she says.

“For 2025, our goals include improving gender balance in leadership roles, increasing female representation across our businesses, increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of our teams and ensuring 100% of our workforce participates in unconscious bias training, focusing on thinking, meeting and speaking inclusively.”

By Sabine Waldeck