The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has announced the agenda for its annual Spring Meeting, which will feature leading packaging and sustainability speakers. The conference, open to all and with nearly 250 registered attendees to date, is recognized as the leading educational forum on the implementation of sustainable packaging solutions.
The agenda is framed by a review of the ambitious World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Vision 2050, which will be presented by Jessica McGlynn, Director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Devleopment U.S. Inc., and Robert Ewing, Director of Strategic Planning for the Weyerhaeuser Company. This session will set the stage for exploring a variety of packaging-specific topics over the course of the conference. Other sessions will focus on the tools and resources companies need to inform packaging design and development: global metrics to track corporate progress, choosing appropriate life cycle assessment data, assessing biodegradation claims, understanding how some companies approach material health for packaging, and updates on extended producer responsibility legislation.
Highlights of the conference include a look at the issue of marine debris with David Holst of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ocean Conservancy President and CEO Vikki Spruill, and Skye Morét-Ferguson of the Sea Education Association providing a science-based analysis of the situation and discussing some of the initiatives that are in place to address the issue. Laura Koss of the Federal Trade Commission will present on “The Green Guides: The Influence of Consumer Testing and Implications for Corporate Marketers,” and Judy Guo and Bruce MacGregor of IDEO will lead participants through an exercise on design thinking as an approach to innovation. They will outline the principles they use to influence positive transformation of the world and how they can be used to address sustainability issues articulated in the SPC Definition.
Pre-meeting workshops will be offered on “Life Cycle Assessment and the Earthster Tool” and the SPC’s Labeling for Recovery project, which will introduce a voluntary label for the recycleability of packages that is being piloted this summer. The full agenda is available online: http://sustainablepackaging.org/events/details.aspx?eventid=10018
Our Meeting Hosts
The SPC Spring Meeting is generously hosted by Amcor, Bemis Company, CHEP, and Clear Lam Packaging, Inc.
About the SPC Spring Meeting 2011
This will be the seventh annual SPC Spring Meeting, which brings together leading packaging professionals to collaborate on making packaging systems that encourage economic prosperity and a sustainable flow of materials.
About the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and GreenBlue
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of the nonprofit GreenBlue, is an industry working group of over 200 companies from across the packaging supply chain. www.sustainablepackaging.org
