Plastic Bottles & Summer Vacations – Ann Marie (Canela) Chock, Head of Niagara Cares, the Philanthropic Arm of Niagara Water, America’s Largest Water Bottler

“We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it’s about 27 grams of plastic. Our bottles, this year, I think they’re coming in at 6.6 grams …We’ve created label-less bottles so they’re easier to recycle. …We’re now running lines that are entirely recycled content. So we are very committed to creating bottles that that do not harm the planet, and also that allow for the most circular of products while we also think about what the bottle of the future might look like.” Ann Marie (Canela) Chock on Electric Ladies Podcast

Summer vacations tend to include a lot of plastic bottles – at the beach, in the car, at the airport. In 2025, people consumed an astonishing 500+ billion plastic bottles. That’s about1 million plastic bottles per minute! Drinking water is good for you, but how do we deal with all that plastic? What’s the responsibility of the bottling company for all that plastic?

Listen to Ann Marie (Canela) Chock, Head of Niagara Cares and Director of Corporate Giving at Niagara Water in this fascinating and candid conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson. (Note: This was recorded before she got married and changed her name to Chock.)

You’ll hear about:

● How bottled water gets to your local market,

● How Niagara Water dramatically reduced the plastic content of its bottles and is taking steps to improve recycling.

● Where corporate Philanthropy is focused at this tumultuous moment when so many government grants were abruptly cancelled.

● Plus, career advice, such as:

“I think the best thing you can do is define you first….what your values are at this time, and have been for probably since you were a child. And some definition to what your purpose is in the world….The second one I think is.…I would just encourage, especially midcareer women to think, ‘what if the things that were right for you, you knew they were right for you because they were easy, not hard?’ Because they came to you in a way that felt aligned versus you’re scrapping and fighting for them.…Hard work is a core of success, but it’s not the only way to get there.…So what if we considered things that came to us and were at our feet as the right path for us to go down?”

Ann Canela on Electric Ladies Podcast

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You’ll also like:

· Helping Communities Recycle More: Keefe Harrison, President of The Recycling Partnership

· America Recycles Day: Emily Tipaldo, U.S. Plastics Pact

· Solutions to Our Waste Problem: Melissa Modica, Waste Harmonics

· Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Movies & Television Productions: Emellie O’Brien, President of Earth Angel – who is taking a lot more than plastic bottles out of movie productions.

· Business Leaders Bridging The Gap – Women business leaders from The Earth Day Women’s Summit on the unique role of business in addressing the climate crisis.

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Joan Michelson Electric Ladies Podcast - Innovation, Energy, Climate, Careers

Joan Michelson, MBA is a highly accomplished business leader and award-winning strategic social impact and ESG – environment, social, governance – leader, who drove breakthrough results at Chrysler (in EVs), American Express and Deloitte, small businesses, and government agencies. She is an instructor on ESG issues to professionals, leaders and board members across industries. Her specialties include leveraging ESG solutions and partnerships strategically for maximum benefit, helping organizations recruit innovative, diverse women, and helping these women thrive in their careers. She is based in the Washington D.C. area.

Joan is also an accomplished journalist who has worked with top media organizations and hosts and produces the acclaimed Electric Ladies podcast (formerly known as Green Connections Radio), about innovation and leadership in energy-, climate- and sustainability-related issues across industries, featuring women experts.

She writes regularly for Forbes on these issues and has also been in the Harvard Business Review, HuffPost, TheAtlantic.com, Greenbiz, The New Economy magazine (distributed at the World Economic Forum), New Thinking magazine, regional business journals; and various other media. She coproduced segments with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” ABC News, and “The Crusaders,” and television specials on NBC.

Joan has spent her career working in energy-sustainability-climate-ESG issues and in marketing communications, including as head of communications and co-leader of the sales and marketing team of Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), driving “best year ever” growth and significantly accelerated the adoption of electric vehicles. Prior to GEM, she led marketing communications efforts to high-net-worth and high-visibility clients in management consulting-financial services companies Deloitte and American Express. She's a native of NYC and has a BA from UCLA, an MBA from Baruch College at City University of NY, and post-graduate studies at Harvard Business School, The New School and The Aspen Institute, among others. She has a Sustainability and ESG certification from Competent Boards.