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The Circularity 19 Program is evolving and subject to change. Stay informed of changes by subscribing to our event updates.

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Next-Gen Packaging

Sponsored by: 
Dow
Tuesday, June 18th, 2019
8:00am to 12:15pm
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Circularity Summit: Packaging and Brand Integrity (Invite-Only)

Summit
Minnesota Room

A growing number of consumer brands are exploring new packaging types, whether in response to direct pressures or in pursuit of new business models and revenue streams. But doing so is not without peril. First and foremost, companies must maintain their brand integrity and value proposition while they tweak or transform one of their principal assets: their branded packaging. In this half-day, invitation-only event, representatives from the plastics and packaging value chains, along with leading packaged goods companies, will explore the promise and pitfalls for brands seeking to transition packaging to circular materials and models.

Request an invite to the summit here. 

  • All-Access Pass Required
  • Invitation Only
  • Sign-up Required

Speakers

  • Joel Makower
  • Shana Rappaport

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8:30am to 12:15pm
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Foundations of the Circular Economy

Tutorial
St. Croix 1

This half-day tutorial, designed for attendees from all sectors and backgrounds and presented by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, will provide a foundational understanding of the circular economy — a model that fundamentally reimagines the traditional “take-make-waste” linear industrial model in favor of a system that designs out waste and pollution, decouples economic growth from natural resource consumption, increases resource productivity and regenerates natural systems.

The first part of the tutorial session will tour through our circular economy journey to date. From theory through to action, The Foundation team will start by explaining the guiding principles and then take participants through a series of case study examples which illustrate circular design spanning products, business models, and system level innovations.

To some, the circular economy concept can feel academic and detached from reality. The second part of the session will take a more in depth look at how we can 'sell in' and convince stakeholders to invest in circular economy initiatives. Much of the work concentrating on the circular economy to date has centred on deep analysis of the broader economic opportunity. Translating the theory into practical opportunities for colleagues working at the coal-face of operations, or executives faced with competing priorities, can present a critical challenge.

Fortunately, the circular economy is a big idea with many entry points. Significant work has already been completed by many diverse organisations of all sizes to demonstrate that the theoretical upside can be translated to real commercial opportunities today. Some of these organisations are already taking giant leaps towards circular economy models.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • James George
  • Joe Murphy

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Circular Packaging 101

Tutorial
Wayzata Bay

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition will traverse the most important considerations around recovering packaging, ensuring packaging is recoverable, and using recovered materials as inputs for new packaging in the Circular Packaging 101 workshop. With a keen emphasis on the business case for sustainable packaging and consumer perceptions around sustainable packaging, we'll discuss best-in-class examples of strategies to optimize packaging for different channels, designing a package to be successfully recycled or composted, and best practices for sourcing virgin and recycled materials. To put it all in context, we'll explore challenges and opportunities around recycling and composting infrastructure, as well as what happens when waste escapes collection and becomes ocean pollution. Throughout the workshop, we'll touch on corporate goals around each topic and look at both incremental and radical approaches to reaching them.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Adam Gendell
  • Tristanne Davis

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The Amazing Race (to Circular Business Models): Insights from the Fashion Industry

Tutorial
St. Croix 2

There is race among apparel and footwear companies, with both new and established players vying to unlock the potential benefits of circular business models. The insights generated in the process can help inform broader innovation across many other industries in a transition to a circular economy.

Join this tutorial to learn how the fashion industry’s experience illustrates key elements in building a circular business model. Participants will be invited to take part in a fun, interactive competition to better understand the challenges and opportunities companies face when testing and scaling new models.

Facilitated by World Resources Institute (WRI) and QSA Partners, the session will review the innovations needed to overcome an “implementation gap” between talk and testing. WRI and QSA will share early insights on behalf of a group of organizations—supported by C&A Foundation’s Bridging the Gap initiative—working with fashion industry leaders to put circular economy ideas into action.

(No experience in the fashion industry necessary. Only shirts and shoes required.)

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Eliot Metzger
  • Austin Dickerson
  • Gerrard Fisher
  • Kristina Bull
  • Elizabeth Reichart

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8:30am to 10:00am
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Target Field Tour (Sign-up required)

Activity

Join us for a tour of Target Field! During your guided 90-minute tour of Target Field, you'll see areas of the ballpark many guests normally don't see. These spaces may include the Herb Carneal Press Box, clubhouse, dugout, suite level, Bat & Barrel, Delta SKY360 Club, Budweiser Roof Deck, and Thompson Reuters Champions Club. Guests will be exposed to the art work, displays of memorabilia, environmental and sustainability features of Target Field, as well as Twins history. Sign up for the tour here. 

  • All-Access Pass Required

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Wednesday, June 19th, 2019
8:30am to 9:30am
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Food Fight: Food Waste and Plastic Packaging

Breakout
Deer & Elk Room

The United States throws away 63 million tons of food annually. The financial impact translates into a loss of $218 billion — or 1.3 percent of the GDP — that is wasted from growing, processing, transporting and disposing of food that is never actually eaten. As more companies work to prevent food waste, however, they are faced with challenging trade-offs, sometimes swapping one problem for another. Enter plastic packaging. By both prolonging a product’s shelf life and by allowing customers to purchase only what they will consume, an increase in packaging offers a promising solution to combat food spoilage. But given the politically charged dialogue (and dogma) around plastics and plastic waste, navigating these trade-offs can be both contentious and counterintuitive.

Learn about how the dynamic tension between food waste and plastic waste, the cumulative impacts and systemic implications of each and understand how companies are navigating conflicting priorities in their journey towards circularity. 

Speakers

  • Jackie Suggitt
  • Merijn Dols
  • Laura Rowell
  • Lee Anderson

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1:30pm to 2:30pm
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The Promise and Perils of Reusable Packaging

Breakout
Deer & Elk Room

Circular delivery models will require not just innovation in packaging but a reimagination of supply chains, partnerships and the consumer experience. Learn about new approaches to reusing packaging and hear about the promise and pitfalls from experts in the field.  

Speakers

  • Sarah Golden
  • Mike Newman
  • Brian Bauer
  • John Moorhead

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2:45pm to 3:45pm
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Compostable Materials and the Circular Economy

Breakout
Deer & Elk Room

How can bioplastics and compostable materials be a part of a circular economy solution for plastics? This breakout session will hear from organizations that are actively working in the bioplastics and plastics supply chain and are involved in commercializing bioplastic resins, products and/or circular solutions for plastic pollution. The panelists will discuss the potential of bioplastics and why they believe compostable materials and organics recycling are a necessary component to unlocking a viable circular economy and a part of the solution to global plastic pollution. The audience would learn the basics of bioplastics - definitions of terms, differences between materials, current and future applications, end-of-life characteristics, challenges to greater market adoption, and failures/successes - as well as the challenges in developing, implementing and scaling circular solutions for the organics loop.

Speakers

  • Andrew Falcon
  • Kaj Johnson
  • Kelly Williams
  • Janice Tran
  • Jackie Suggitt

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4:15pm to 5:15pm
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A Successful Formula for Chemical Recycling

Breakout
Minnesota Room

What's the role of advanced recycling technologies in keeping materials circulating through our economy and creating circular plastics? 

There’s been a noticeable uptick lately in buzz around chemical recycling, and the promise of technologies that can fix the broken recycling system. However, the technologies, terminology and applications can be confusing and are not widely understood. This session will build on the findings from a recent report by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, and explore the landscape of transformational technologies that stop plastic waste, keep materials in play and grow markets. Speakers will discuss the state of the market and highlight the potential for transformational technologies to turn waste plastics back into new materials, decrease reliance on fossil fuels and curb the flow of plastics into marine environments.

 

Speakers

  • Gretchen Govoni
  • Nina Goodrich
  • Danielle Joseph
  • Julie Zaniewski

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Thursday, June 20th, 2019
8:30am to 9:30am
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Rethinking Packaging for E-Commerce

Breakout
Wayzata Bay

Difficult to ship. Large items. Fragile. Liquids. Over-packaged goods that cause consumer frustration. Complex logistics. All combined with a massive growth in e-Commerce. Damage to a product is a worst-case sustainability outcome, but at the same time, we want to use packaging materials sustainably. How do we evolve packaging to meet the performance needs of hard-to-ship items while also promoting sustainable, circular use of materials? This panel will explore sustainability trade offs, pressure points, and success strategies for the rapidly growing field of e-Commerce.

Speakers

  • Tristanne Davis
  • Kim Houchens
  • Nina Goodrich
  • Kris Getty

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