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.

Voluntary product take-back schemes are an effective way for companies to reduce waste, engage consumers, reclaim valuable materials and establish a more circular supply chain. But once a company has successfully recovered a product at the end of its usable life, what next? Join reverse logistics and take-back experts from IKEA, I:CO and Best Buy for a conversation about how to determine the appropriate path for used products that keeps materials at their highest and best use, complies with health and safety regulations and also pencils out.

As more companies commit to innovative circular economy and sustainability strategies and investments, there is an increased need to learn the best practices for successfully communicating these decisions externally. Too often, we hear about what circular approaches companies are taking but not how they are communicating the relevance of those approaches. This session will explore how companies can most effectively communicate to their customers and stakeholders about their circular ambitions, products, and service offerings by focusing on circular solution(s) and the accompanying communications approaches they employed.

The circular economy holds immense potential benefits. But the ends need as much attention as the means.

Presently, not all circular innovations are created to maximize the end benefits. Better metrics are needed to put circular business models in perspective and drive the types of investments that have the greatest positive impacts on society, the economy, and the environment.

Join this session to review opportunities to better align circularity with sustainability. Help create a post-conference statement on the big picture objectives and metrics that will help track the progress and benefits of a transition to circular economies.

One of the compelling aspects of the circular economy is that it creates a clear business case, generating both financial value and environmental benefits. However, demonstrating that value often requires highly cross-functional work. This can make it difficult to get investment, since budgets and ROIs are often done in organizational siloes, and the functions that bear the costs (e.g., reverse logistics) may not directly generate the gains. Finance organizations therefore become a critical partner in finding solutions to successfully gain funding and demonstrate holistic circular economy ROI. This panel will be a practitioner discussion focusing on strategies to enable big, transformational circular investments.

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. 

Consumer goods companies and retailer members of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Initiative have committed to increase the recycled content of their packaging to an average of 25% by 2025, compared to the current global average of just 2%. Members of the American Chemistry Council committed to 100% of plastics packaging being recyclable or recoverable by 2030, and 100% of plastics packaging being reused, recycled, or recovered by 2040. Governing bodies around the world are mandating the reduction or elimination of single use plastics and committing to zero waste or circularity goals. Meanwhile, the recycling value chain is struggling to find footing quickly in light of China's ban on contaminated recyclables, and companies are challenged to locate sources of recycled content that meet their requirements in terms of volume, performance, and more. Join this discussion facilitated by UL circularity expert Dr. Bill Hoffman and special guest Andy Mangan from Pathway21, which is scaling the Materials Marketplace launched by the US Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2015, to discuss what is keeping you up at night, what you and other companies are doing to meet these emerging requirements, and how they are using standards, certifications, technology, and networks to find solutions to these pressing issues.

WBCSD is developing a Circular Metrics Framework for companies to consistently measure their circularity and identify the risks and opportunities to their business. Ahead of the draft framework for public comment to be launched just weeks later, WBCSD will share insights into the metric, how it’s calculated and how it informs business for better decision-making.

“Circular economies are most efficient when they can readily connect inputs to outputs, and the two elements that help that happen - density and infrastructure - are prominent characteristics of cities.” – The Well-Tempered City.

Circularity within cities involves creating regenerative dynamics which citizens, businesses and other public and private players can organize or reorganize around. The resulting virtuous cycles may be economic, ecologic, sociologic or a combination of these. By moving assertively toward creating productive circles in cities, we move from extractive, zero-sum models and replace them with regenerative ones where everyone wins. This session is an exploration of the state-of-the-art of circularity in cities. It will share and solicit examples of generative and re-generative circles at play in cities today. It will ask participants to share their observations and aspirations for the truly circular cities of tomorrow.

Longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. Expand your lifecycle thinking with a discussion about repair best practices, parts supply chains, and information requirements of the circular economy.

This roundtable will discuss how project finance and various other types of capital can be utilized to build the infrastructure required to enable the circular economy.

The world’s plastic pollution crisis can be fixed – but only with the power of business to catalyze solutions across the plastic material value chain. From product and supplier decision-making to influencing consumers, retailers and FMCG companies play an especially critical role in helping fix the pain points along the broken plastic system. But as large-scale problems call for large-scale actions, how do these companies tackle the problem in a way that’s consistent and reflects the systems-change we need to see?

Join the discussion led by World Wildlife Fund’s Erin Simon, who’s packaging engineer expertise and conservation-driven approach is helping companies answer this question and adapt practical approaches to one of the world’s most complex crises.

In nature, water is the ultimate circular resource. All the water that we’ll ever have already exists, and it is constantly moving through the hydrological cycle. In the last century, however, we’ve spent billions of dollars to make water fit our linear economy. We take water (usually from the ground) à treat it à use it à treat it again as “waste” water à dump it (usually into surface water). And now, the pipes we laid 100 years ago are crumbling beneath our feet. The EPA estimates we need $800 billion in investment in the next 20 years to keep the level of drinking water service we have today. But all that would get us are shiny new pipes in an old linear model, not designed for the realities of a changing climate. Meanwhile, in places as different as Amsterdam, Australia, Ghana, and India, new water service delivery models are cropping up that are far more efficient, cost effective, and most importantly, recognize the truly circular nature of water. In this panel discussion, we’ll explore different water service business models (such as community owned and decentralized treatment at the point of use); the rise of “smart” water technologies to optimize both energy and water use and recovery; and progress towards full water reuse in different sectors.

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.  

As the circular economy gains traction we navigate not only how to design new products and services, but also what enabling infrastructure needs to be in place for these new systems to work and scale. From clothing to electronics, food, transportation, and more; Most of the tools that we need to unlock a circular future exist, the question is how we will use them. Please join IDEO for an interactive session focused on co-designing key and enabling infrastructure required for a set of specific industry challenges to realize their circular potential.

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.

How do brands and retailers balance regional context with national and international footprints? Recycling systems are inherently local, influenced heavily by city and state-level ordinances and regulations, the proximity of end markets, cost of waste and existing infrastructure. At the same time, supply chains and manufacturing are increasingly global. Standardization is a commonly suggested solution, but where along the value-chain does that make sense? Join the discussion to hear from global retailers and mission-based non-profit recyclers to explore the challenges and opportunities of regional circularity. 

A widely untapped opportunity, remanufacturing offers companies the ability to extend the life of products and keep materials at their highest and best use for longer. But it's easier said than done. Companies must recover, dissasemble and repair components for resale, while maintaining performance, quality and specifications. Hear from industry experts on how to appraoch remanufacturing for your company, including a discussion of design, material health, consumer engagement and new business models. 

The e-commerce and returns goods market is rapidly expanding as The Wall Street Journal estimates post retail sales of returns at about $554 billion in 2016 and growing at about 7.5% per year. The returned goods market and logistics associated with the product movement and disposition has many facets, ranging from product liquidation and reuse, remanufacturing of products, traditional recycling, creating energy, as well as managing regulated items with hazardous characteristics that must be managed in compliant and environmentally responsible ways. This session will focus on how to turn the challenges of returned products into opportunities to become an industry leader.

Do you want to get more people buying into circular practices and products? Find out how to use storytelling and behavior change strategies to move your audiences to action — from employees and consumers, to suppliers and buyers. Join this session to learn best practices in storytelling and behavior change from those who’ve used these techniques to advance circularity, sustainability, and social impact for leading businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits. Case studies and research results, combined with dialogue and interactive exercises, will give you a foundation and practical next steps for framing for your story and designing your behavior change campaign.

The backlash against planned obsolescence has begun, and products makers of all types — from consumer electronics to industrial equipment — are waking up to a new world of design and service. Advocates of the “Right to Repair” movement are demanding that manufacturers prioritize the development of better maintenance paths for their products, through modular designs and broader availability of components that make repair simpler for the DIY set — and that extend product lives in the process. Policymakers are paying attention: as of early 2019, 20 states including California and Minnesota are actively considering legislation. What does this mean for makers of stuff? How does this philosophy play into circular models of production? Our expert panel weighs in on the implications for product design, maintenance plans, the availability of repair components, intellectual property and more.