SPC Impact 2018

SPC Member-Only Session

Open to all SPC members, you don’t have to have attended prior Industry Leadership Committee meetings.

The goal of the End Market Industry Leadership Committee is to help SPC members learn more about plastic end markets and potential solutions to the challenges end markets face, and to gather input from SPC members on how each player along the value chain can help increase the use of recycled content and help meet sustainability goals. At this meeting, committee members will discuss potential activities for the remainder of 2018.

Attendees must pre-register for this session. Please register here.

Retailers, state and local governments, and institutional purchasers are increasingly concerned about the potential impacts to human health and the environment from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in fiber-based foodservice ware products and other types of food packaging. NGOs have responded by testing products from leading brands for the presence of fluorine-based substances. This session will discuss the methodologies used for testing for PFAS in products, why influential purchasers are looking for safer alternatives, and how manufacturers are using transparency to market safer products to consumers.

Haptic: the study of how our sense of touch shapes what we think.

More than half the human brain is devoted to processing sensory experiences. Touch, in particular, is an important part of the communication process. The way we understand and interpret the world is fundamentally rooted in our physical bodies. How things feel drives our thoughts and behaviors, influences our comprehension and retention of information, and profoundly shapes our emotional connections.

A new publication, “Haptic Brain/Haptic Brand” by Sappi looks at communication through the lens of neuroscience, exploring how media shapes the brain and, consequently, the way a brand is perceived.  This session will give an overview of companies that have built deep emotional connections by integrating touchable media into branded communications. Haptic Brain/Haptic Brand offers inspiration and education to designers, marketers and brand owners, and shares guiding principles for all to use as touch points.

This session has limited capacity. Please register here.

Sustainable Storytelling: So you’re passionate about sustainability, and have some great ideas for your organization. Now what? OpenIDEO discusses their ongoing efforts to support internal change makers and how they work with companies to develop new initiatives. Together, we’ll work to craft your personal sustainability narrative and set you up with tools and resources to become a champion for your cause. During this session you will develop and refine your sustainability pitch, learn about prototyping as a tool for change, and build an actionable roadmap for implementation.

Our world is changing more rapidly than ever, due to technological advances and emergent consumer expectations. Design thinking begins with a deep understanding of what drives consumer choice, leading to unexpected insights, new product opportunities, and relevant communication strategies. Quotient Design Research has developed its approach to the design thinking process through years of teaching — and practice — at Stanford University, and will present a series of case studies to illustrate this 21st century process with a focus on designing sustainable systems.

This session has limited capacity. Please register here.

Electronics packaging faces unique challenges from peers in the fast moving consumer goods industry. This Industry Leadership Committee has been developed to discuss the unique challenges facing electronic packaging designers and to create a unique environment for collaboration and innovation in order to drive sustainability improvements. During this first in-person meeting of the committee, the group will review and identify a potential project scope to advance sustainable packaging within the electronics sector.

Sustainable goods and packaging have long been associated with a pared down and often austere aesthetic. Any quick search on the internet for “sustainable packaging” will turn up dozens of images dominated by brown corrugated cardboard, brown Kraft paper, and print in various shades of green. This aesthetic may be what is expected, but is it what today’s consumer wants?

During their research for Stuff in Flux (an exploration into the changing relationship between people and the physical things in their lives carried out over three continents in late 2016) Alice Labs Partners have uncovered a new set of opportunities around sustainability. These are opportunities where sensorial experience and even sensuality have essential roles to play. In this masterclass, Sharon Greene and Oskar Korkman will share some of the new needs and desires of consumers around sustainability and what these mean for packaging aesthetics.  

This session has limited capacity. Please register here.

WestRock has conducted extensive research focused on how consumers perceive packaging. The company has learned that when it comes to sustainability, packaging matters. In fact, packaging ranks as the most important thing a brand can do to show its commitment to sustainability.  But what are consumers expecting in a sustainable package?  Is it important that the product is recyclable? Compostable? Renewable? A recent study dives into the consumer mindset on package sustainability more deeply, and provides useful guidance on steps brands can take to improve perceptions of sustainability.

This session has limited capacity. Please register here.

Perceptions of forests, their multiple values, and the role of forest management have differed over time. There is a lack of agreement on how to fully describe the current state of forests and if forests are meeting all consumer expectations, including meeting our demands for products on the one hand and our desire for natural amenities on the other. To explore this tension, we will review recent public perception surveys of forestry activities and compare against publicly available timber supply and land use statistics.

This session has limited capacity. Please register here.

Expanding opportunities within planetary boundaries; how social, environmental and economic principles have evolved in sustainability; getting inspired by new ideas for a changing landscape; re-designing materials to create regenerative packaging; circularity, systems thinking and resilience will be some of the concepts we will start our conference with. We will hear from thinkers and doers on how they have approached these challenges and how did their journeys lead them to where they are today.

The opening keynote will focus on how entrepreneurs and innovators connect and integrate technological innovations with unmet societal and emotional needs to form strong bonds of loyalty and meaning with customers and ecosystem partners. Will will draw on his experiences as an entrepreneur (Republic of Tea), venture investor (Physic Ventures and Generation Investment Management), and as a gardener, cognizant and respectful of natural systems to provide best practice examples of how to design for business success while creating positive impact.

This presentation will introduce the concept of a regenerative living product, a product that gives back more to society and the environment more than it takes across its lifecycle. It will explore innovative case studies of companies pursuing the program and describe how packing is a key part of the Initiative. James will also introduce some new concepts about the future of materials with the potential to dramatically remake the packaging industry.

It started with one person picking up a single cigarette. Today the Litterati community has grown to 115 countries. See how Litterati’s technology and data are being used by brands, cities, and schools to create a litter-free world

We live in a fast-changing world, but often this change is presented in a fragmented way linked to one driver of change or another, like Millennial values for instance. But what about the structural components that link these many changes?

In 2016, Alice Lab Partners set out across 3 continents to identify the underlying shift that is happening in the relationship between people and the physical goods around them. They have found that sustainability will have an essential role to play across each of the opportunity areas identified.

Museums are places where many Americans learn about the world, especially about topics related to science, nature, and the environment. In fact, research indicates that the majority of science learning happens in informal settings like museums, aquariums, and parks. With a reach of more than 850 million people visiting museums every year in the U.S. alone — nearly three times the entire population of the country — museums are ideal places to begin conversations about sustainability.

The California Academy of Sciences’ PlanetVision presents a science-based plan to build a sustainable world where people and nature thrive together. The project includes an exhibit at the Academy, videos, a website, and a book authored by Executive Director Jon Foley. PlanetVision provides a detailed blueprint of how we can work together — as individuals and communities, businesses and nonprofits, governments and policymakers — to reimagine critical food, water, and energy systems and ensure a livable planet for future generations. Designed to be grounded in hope, PlanetVision focuses on implementing solutions rather than dwelling on problems, and shows how we can collaborate with one another to address our biggest challenges.

Cleanyst is on a mission to clean up the home, body, and planet by empowering consumers to easily mix their favorite household and personal care products with concentrates and tap water.  Their platform features a small appliance, concentrate-filled pouches and reusable bottles for mixing and dispensing products made with the system.  Reusable packaging is at the heart of the platform, which seeks to reduce packaging waste and the carbon footprint of home and body care products by over 50%. This talk will focus on their journey of innovation and some of the design and material selection dilemmas they faced.  Learn how they balanced the environmental trade-offs while overcoming major technical challenges.

Food waste continues to be a significant problem on a global and national level. One third of food produced gets lost or wasted worldwide. A 15% reduction in US food waste could feed approx 25 million people. Packaging’s role in food recovery and waste prevention is so significant that Sonoco and Clemson University have come together to develop a new industry collaboration to address future challenges in fresh food packaging and distribution. Hear more about this initiative whose focus is to discover new technologies and packaging forms to actively address the problem.

The primary goal of packaging for e-commerce is to protect the product while at the same time, preventing the sustainability repercussions of damage. The ecommerce landscape varies significantly from region to region; as well as frequency of shipments, quantity and type of products – in this session we will learn of the experience coming from other regions; how is e-commerce impacting brands and how the logistics infrastructure is evolving to accommodate this rapidly growing market.

Moderator: Derrick Lawrence, Director of Packaging Development, Seventh Generation

Optimizing Packaging for e-Commerce:  Research Insights at the 1st & 2nd Moments of Truth

Scott Young will share insights from his company’s recent studies to optimize packaging for e-commerce.  These studies include eye-tracking of e-commerce shopping experiences (on both desktop and mobile devices) and research regarding consumers’ perceptions of the pack delivery and opening experience.   Scott will discuss the role of packaging in e-commerce shopping, share best practices for optimizing packaging “thumbnails” and present learning regarding priorities (and disappointments) tied to fulfillment and delivery.   

The True Cost of Damage: Understanding the Sustainability Impact of E-Commerce Packaging

With more e-commerce packages showing up on doorsteps than ever before, consumers and retailers alike are demanding sustainable packaging solutions. But “greener” isn’t always better when it comes to protecting the items inside. Dan Healey will share the stark truth about the carbon impact of damaged goods in the modern e-commerce supply chain – and how retailers can measure the effect that damage is having on their sustainability goals (and their bottom line).

The Logistics of Sustainable Packaging

Moving more than 18 million packages around the world every day,  UPS has a first-hand view into how sustainable packaging, which was once considered an afterthought, has become a business imperative for retailers in the e-commerce era. With insights from more than a decade of running UPS’s Package Design and Test Lab, Quint Marini will share how he helps customers transform packaging into an asset that optimizes space, supply chain synergies, and sustainable business practices.

Achieving Sustainability in E-commerce Packaging Development & Production: Lessons from the European Market

In this presentation from French sporting goods retailer Decathlon, we will hear about how to go about achieving a sustainable packaging design process that does not compromise the consumer experience and satisfaction and the retailer’s profitability. Topics such as efficiencies through the supply chain and minimizing environmental impact in sourcing (forestry) and end of life (recyclability) will also be covered.

Mapping next steps in the Path to Sustainable eCommerce Packaging: SPC’s Value Innovation Process

Everyone knows that e-commerce is shaking up packaging sustainability, but how can we bring more clarity and contour to the challenges and opportunities in this new space? SPC has partnered with ISTA to undergo a creative exercise to answer this question, by leveraging the Value Innovation Process, a design and systems thinking framework pioneered by SPC Director Nina Goodrich. This presentation will outline the trends and drivers behind omnichannel consumption, and the influencers and entities along the value chain that professionals should keep in mind during packaging design. SPC members interested in leadership around these issues are encouraged to attend as we explore next steps the SPC will take on this topic.

Bioplastics have proven environmental benefits, from sourcing to end of life. In 2018, we want to evolve the conversation to focus on the users and developers perspective on renewable & biobased materials based on their performance, technical benefits and functionality and where do bioplastics fit in moving forward and ultimately, how can brands leverage their attributes and advantages in their products.

Many brands have goals to increase the use of recycled content in their plastic packaging, but inside the company, attitudes or traditions about the performance of recycled content or consumers’ perception of it can get in the way of brands using it more often.

What are the conventions in packaging design that get in the way of using more post-consumer recycled plastic? How did you convince your business to use PCR despite these challenges, perceived or real?

Cold chain packaging has evolved considerably to meet the needs of temperature-sensitive items like pharmaceutical products and fresh seafood. Now e-commerce is putting more cold chain packaging in the hands of consumers, and new questions are being asked of the sustainability of cold chain packaging. Explore how an established world of packaging has leapt  into the sustainability conversation and hear about efforts to meet the new demand for sustainable cold chain packaging.

• Moderator: Adam Gendell, Associate Director Sustainable Packaging Coalition, GreenBlue

When Sustainable Innovation Outpaces Understanding

The goal of cold-chain packaging is to temporarily keep a product at the desired temperature.  While many companies are finding sustainable alternatives to EPS (Styrofoam), emerging markets that never utilized traditional materials lack the experience to make informed decisions concerning alternatives, putting product safety and profits at risk. Cold-chain is about compromise — somewhere between a battery powered refrigerator and a paper bag is the perfect packaging solution, but which one works and is sustainable?

• Sean McCoy, Director of Marketing and Innovation, Thermal Shipping Solutions

Meal Delivery Kits – Less Food, More Packaging – Is it Sustainable?

Meal delivery service companies are upending the conventional wisdom that buying in bulk is best. They have answered needs many consumers didn’t even know they had – eliminating both measuring and leftovers. By re-engineering the supply chain, they claim to provide more sustainably sourced meal ingredients to harried households, while greatly reducing food waste. While the implications of food waste reduction are significant from a sustainability perspective, the perception of “over-packaging” and subsequent negative publicity is dogging this nascent industry. This presentation will analyze the scope of the problem, place it in context, and provide suggestions for improvement.

• Sandi Childs, Film and Flexible Programs Director, Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR)

The Least Sustainable Option

Striking the balance between product protection and sustainability can be a daunting task especially when product damage is the least sustainable packaging option.  A complete loss of both the product and packaging can be avoided however, when the correct design tools are leveraged.  Discover what tools are out there to optimize packaging and protect not only your product but brand image from the e-commerce supply chain distribution hazards. 

• Eric Hiser, VP Technical, ISTA

Evolution of Cold Chain Packaging Materials: an Effort to
Become More sustainable

David will present information on the various insulated package materials that FedEx is seeing customers shifting toward in their efforts to be more sustainable with the packaging. He will also talk about some of the inherent risks and performance issues as a result of those changes.

• David Nelson, Packaging Project Engineer, FedEx

In this session we will learn about reverse supply chains and their differences and challenges vs a forward supply chain. What role does packaging have in reverse supply chains? Can packaging help to streamline the process? What happens to packaging sent to return a product in ecommerce in a reverse supply chain and a return in a brick and mortar retail environment?

How can brick and mortar retailers have circular systems to recapture packaging? How is sustainability evolving in reverse supply chains? We will also hear from brands that have developed innovative uses of circular economy.

The Coming Revolution in Distribution: Managing Profitable Growth, Effective Reverse Supply Chains, and Enhanced Sustainability

Managing Profitable Growth – successfully and sustainably – goes far beyond simply increasing prices and decreasing product costs. In fact, our work accelerating the profitability of over $100 billion in client revenues demonstrates that maximizing gross margin is almost always unrelated to increasing net profits, and that in many cases increasing prices and reducing product costs actually reduces net profits. This is especially critical in light of the coming paradigmatic changes occurring now in distribution that will fundamentally reshape a company’s strategic opportunities and dangers.

This session will explain (1) how to develop and manage the most effective profit levers –  those having the strongest sustained positive impact on net profits – especially the critical profit levers related to effective reverse supply chains and enhanced sustainability; and (2) how to successfully implement a comprehensive program to manage profitable growth that produces sustained double-digit year-on-year profit increases by radically improving the performance of reverse supply chains, and enhancing sustainability. The session will feature several actual case studies of companies that have successfully created and implemented particularly effective programs.

• John Wass, CEO, Profit Isle

The Outdoor Retailer Strategies to Reduce waste to Landfill

• Work to eliminate incoming packaging while maintaining product quality
• Cross-industry (outdoor, apparel) work to develop end-of-life solutions for plastic film, etc.
• Influencing behavior in the store to maximize proper waste sorting
• Alternate business models to reduce waste (used gear platform, garage sales, donations)

Susan Long, Sustainability Initiative Manager, REI

At Amazon we obsess about customer experience and challenge each other every day to innovate, working ideas from the customer backwards. One of the primary components to the Amazon flywheel is having the greatest selection on earth, requiring our supply chain to have the capability to ship an incredible diversity of items through our fulfillment network.  In this masterclass, Brent Nelson and Vas Obeyesekere from the Amazon Packaging Sustainability team will review the ISTA6 Amazon test methods used to simulate our fulfillment process for difficult to ship products, an overview of our journey collaborating with the television industry to reduce and improve packaging and how we are driving innovation to improve the sustainability of packaging.

To kick-start organics collection programs in both residential and commercial contexts, policy is often discussed as a mission-critical tool. But policy is incredibly nuanced and used loosely, it can cause unintended consequences. Learn how cities, municipalities, and states along the West Coast have thoughtfully used policy to achieve precise interventions and motivate specific sectors in the past and how policy and Compostable Packaging will play roles in moving organics collection from ‘good’ to ‘great’.

The benefits of flexible and multi-material packaging include their resource efficiency and their low carbon footprint. How do we transition current flexible packaging to clean, dry, Store Drop-Off qualified materials? How do we move from choosing food waste prevention or end of life on multi-materials in packaging to achieving both?

In this session we will hear from flexible packaging end users and manufacturers as well as from Recycle BC on their progress on film recovery.

Moderator – David McLain, Market Development Manager, Printpack

Recycle BC Flexible Packaging Pilot

Recycle BC made a commitment in its original program plan to begin to collect all packaging materials by 2018.  This session will provide an overview of a pilot program Recycle BC has launched to collect flexible packaging at drop off depots with the aim to expand the program to the entire province in 2019.

Allen Langdon, Managing Director, Recycle BC

Discover the challenges at each stage of the recycling supply chain with an overview of the issues in Collection & Sorting, Reprocessing, the market dynamics at play and the initiatives brands have developed to produce near virgin quality polypropylene, polyethylene by mechanical means and the chemical recycling of PET.

Moderator:

• Dylan de Thomas, VP Industry Collaboration, The Recycling Partnership

Quality and Yield Challenges for Plastics Recycling

All material recycling streams (whether it be PET, HDPE, PP or films) face challenges, more specifically quality and yield.  It requires education, knowledge, continuous improvement, evaluation, and upgrades as the industry innovates and markets evolve.  As we all know innovation is a requirement for a business to survive.  This requires innovation to occur not only to redesign but every step the products touches such as its development, product production, consumer use, and then to recycle into a new application.  It is critical that the selection of materials and design of the innovation take this into consideration the markets for the recycle material.  The full value chain can all be successful if communication, verification and commitment exist for the bigger challenges.

Kristina Hansen, Technical Director, Plastics Forming Enterprises

Virgin-like PP via PureCyle Purification

Description:  Recovered polypropylene resin PCR is often highly colored and contains many additives.  This has severely limited the potential use of PCR PP in injection molding applications that require tight specifications of the resin material.  PureCycle, a PP purification technology developed by P&G, enables recovery of recycled PP with properties near those of virgin PP.

Brent Heist, R&D Packaging Sustainability and PackEdge, Procter & Gamble

Collaboration Across the Supply Chain for Better Recyclability

Work together with brand owners to design packaging with recyclability in mind and include the use of recycled content.

Jim Kulp, Operations Manager, Clean Tech, Inc.

Creating End Markets for Recycled Materials

Plastics are at the forefront of many consumer minds today, mainly driven by challenges surrounding land and marine litter, waste, and recycling. Sustainably managing plastics is essential as it is a valuable resource for society today. Given its unique properties, plastic packaging has played a critical role in protecting and preserving fresh food to deliver food safety and reduce food waste for generations. Packaging is very much designed to address global challenges, while providing many environmental benefits.

Radical innovation has resulted in plastic packaging being used again after the end of its ‘first life’, in fact, PET has distinctive attributes in that it can be recycled back into food-grade packaging over and over again. Maurizio will share the journey of how a PET bottle is produced and later recycled, in some cases upcycled into more food packaging.  But this process does not come without its challenges. The need for continuous monitoring and re-adjusting comes from externalities beyond their control that affect the stable supply of this valuable raw material.  

Recently, there has been talk within the recycling industry of moving away from weight-based measurements of solid waste management (think tons diverted from the landfill) toward measures that calculate the environmental footprint of our waste. Weight-based metrics have flaws – they can’t tell us about how much contamination is in our recycling. However, shifting to measures of environmental burden comes with its own pitfalls and finding a metric as simple and as easy to explain as tons diverted is not easy. What should recycling metrics look like in order to drive the behaviors we want? This session will explore alternatives to the traditional recycling rate and tons diverted, and how they can help us reach our goals. Speakers will discuss how recycling metrics can help us recycle more, better.

Moderator: Dylan de Thomas, VP Industry Collaboration, The Recycling Partnership

Headline grabbing bans on straws and use of expanded polystyrene to China’s National Sword bring to a broader public issues of EPR and domestic end markets. This session delves into the consequences and implications of these initiatives and mandates alongside other policy and regulatory trends that will impact the packaging supply chain.

Moderator: Nina Goodrich, Executive Director GreenBlue and Director, SPC

California Takes On The Packaging Paradox

Discarded packaging makes up about a quarter of the waste going to California landfills. CalRecycle will share an update on steps the department is taking to promote a more sustainable approach to packaging, now more than ever in light of the drop in the state’s recycling rate and changes in global commodity markets. Recognizing that no single policy or tool will achieve significant packaging reduction and recovery, CalRecycle has developed a set of recommendations to address this key segment of the waste stream and help move the state closer to its goal of recycling 75% of all discards.

Teresa Bui, Special Advisor to the Director, CalRecycle

Redesigning Curbside Recycling

An update from Recycle BC (British Columbia) about its ongoing efforts to improve and optimize the residential recycling systems within the context of shifting global markets and an increased emphasis on quality material.

Allen Langdon, Managing Director, Recycle BC

Seattle’s Food Service Packaging and Bag Regulations: An Update

Seattle continues to be a leader in local policy approaches to bags, food service packaging, and serviceware. Sego will discuss recent developments in Seattle, such as the Strawless in Seattle campaign by the Lonely Whale Foundation, and recent regulatory actions, including tinting requirements for bags and banning non-compostable plastic straws and service ware.

Sego Jackson, Strategic Advisor for Waste Prevention and Product Stewardship, Seattle Public Utilities

State Policy Trends Driving Sustainable Packaging

This session will provide an overview of state policy trends and issues that are driving the debate around packaging, recycling and sustainability.  Participants will get an on-the-ground perspective on how state policy decisions can and will shape packaging in the years to come.

Andrew Hackmann, Principal Lobbyist, AMERIPEN

The Evolving Effects of China’s National Sword

Chinese governmental actions announced last summer have led to turmoil and volatility in the global markets for recovered packaging.  As part of a large government effort to improve that nation’s environment — including the closure of 1,600 polluting plants which process recyclable fiber and plastics — Chinese officials have banned the import of mixed paper and some forms of recovered plastic packaging. They have also severely tightened bale quality standards. As a result, recycling systems in Europe, Japan, North America and elsewhere, which have relied heavily on Chinese demand in the past decade, are now scrambling to find new markets.  At the same time, the value of recovered packaging is fluctuating widely.  What does this mean for packaging recycling in the future?  A long time analyst and writer will provide a thorough update.

Jerry Powell, Executive Editor, Resource Recycling

SPC Impact 2018 attendees will have the opportunity to sit down for a group dinner with their colleagues to discuss various topics around sustainable packaging.

Led by industry leaders, Dinner & Dialogues are a great way to participate in a fruitful discussion, while enjoying some of San Francisco’s best restaurants!

Please note: The restaurants are a short walking distance away from the venue. Each attendee will pay for their own dinner and drinks at the restaurant. There are 7 seats available for each dinner.

Attendees must pre-register for a dinner. Please register here.

After SPC Impact 2018 concludes, grab drinks with fellow attendees and explore San Francisco on our pub crawl!

We will meet in the Hotel Lobby at 5:45 pm.

Please note: This year’s pub crawl has a capacity of 35 participants. We will visit the same locations as the Tuesday Night Pub Crawl.

Attendees must pre-register for the pub crawl. Please register here.