Skip to main content
Circularity 21 Home

Main menu

  • Home
  • ProgramToggle submenu for Program
    • Schedule
  • Speakers
  • Special ProgramsToggle submenu for Special Programs
    • Accelerate
    • Emerging Leaders
  • AboutToggle submenu for About
    • Sponsor
    • Sustainability Programs
  • Hopin 101Toggle submenu for Hopin 101
    • Troubleshooting Tips
  • Subscribe

Program

  • Tuesday
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
Filter by Track: 

Next-Gen Products & Packaging

Sponsored by: 
Dow - Track Page

All sessions listed below are in Pacific Time (PT).  View the Schedule summary here.

Tuesday, June 15th, 2021
10:30am to 11:00am
More Details

Circular Apparel: Designing for Next Life and New Models

Breakout

What design criteria must be considered and prioritized when designing apparel for reuse, repair, rental or recycling?

Innovators in the apparel industry are taking on the more than 13 million tons of textile waste produced globally by folding circular principles into the design process. From sustainable material selection — including recycled or bio-based fibers — to designing for disassembly, repair or reuse, there are thousands of intentional decisions in the design of each piece of circular apparel. Join this session to break down the considerations and guidelines needed to design apparel for next life and new models, and learn what it takes to implement these strategies in your own design process.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Alice Hartley
  • Laura Balmond
  • Jeannie Renne-Malone

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
11:00am to 11:30am
More Details

Circular Electronics: Designing for Next Life and New Models

Breakout

What design criteria must be considered and prioritized when designing electronics for reuse, repair, rental or recycling?

Innovators in the electronics industry are taking on the fastest growing waste stream: the more than 50 million tons of e-waste generated globally each year. Built for disassembly, repair, durability and reuse, circular electronics with an extended product life span can help reclaim the more than $57 billion in raw materials currently disposed of annually. To create these innovative products requires numerous intentional design choices that work within new business models and existing infrastructure. Join this session to break down the considerations and guidelines needed to design electronics for next life and new models.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Brendan Edgerton
  • Nirav Patel
  • Allison Ward
  • Ingrid Sinclair

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
12:00pm to 12:30pm
More Details

Reusable Packaging: From Pilot to Scale

Breakout

How can your company implement reusable packaging solutions across your supply chain, and what does it take to scale them beyond a pilot?

Recent business model innovations have seen a resurgence of reusable packaging services. Yet these operations often struggle to move beyond a pilot and into a scaled solution. There are dozens of  relationships and tools to reconsider: partnering with retailers, consumers and logistics providers, engaging consumers, calculating a life cycle assessment, redesigning packaging for different products and digitizing tracking systems, just to name a few. What are the challenges of launching and scaling reusable packaging systems? Join this session to learn from practitioners providing and scaling reusable packaging solutions across the value chain.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Annette Lendal
  • Ned Tomasevic
  • Tom Szaky
  • Olayinka Credle
  • Christopher Krohn

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Re-Make Good: The Case for Remanufacturing

Breakout

What is the opportunity for implementing remanufacturing initiatives, and what would it take for your company to embrace this model?

Manufacturing accounts for 25 percent energy consumption and 22 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States alone, not to mention the raw materials used to manufacture products. With that level of embedded energy and value, it makes good sense to keep products and equipment in use as long as possible through remanufacturing. While remanufacturing is commonplace for automotive parts and aircraft components, not all industries have tapped into this opportunity. What financial, social and environmental benefits do these initiatives afford, and how can your company reap the rewards? What are the critical design decisions for products and equipment to be remanufactured? Join this session to dive into these questions with leaders and innovators in remanufacturing

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Peter Fadoul
  • Deborah Dull
  • Mayealie Adams
  • Joseph Tabet

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

The Nexus of Public Health and Plastics

Breakout

What are the health implications of plastics on both people and the planet?

Plastics are one of the most pervasive materials on the planet, finding their way into remote ecosystems, air and waterways and even our food and bodies. It is estimated that the average person consumes 2,000 microplastics in a week, roughly the weight of one credit card. Beyond this, from fossil fuel extraction to chemical refinement, the environmental impact of plastic production is often felt most directly by marginalized communities. And yet the impact of plastics on human health — both through indirect environmental exposure and direct exposure in the manufacturing of plastics — are relatively unknown. With toxic chemicals embedded in their structure and released in their production, some plastics have been linked to neurological, reproductive and developmental issues, among other health risks. Join this session to understand the impact of plastics both in the environment and in our bodies, as well as the role your company can play in waste reduction, toxic chemical elimination and advancing safe, circular materials.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Imari Walker
  • Boma Brown-West
  • Deonna Anderson

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
10:30am to 11:00am
More Details

How to Set 2025 Packaging Goals

Breakout

How can your company establish ambitious, holistic packaging goals?

Packaging goals have been making headlines, but not all companies have signed on to 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025. With a need for collective action across industry, the time for ambitious commitments is now. What does it take to establish and launch a holistic packaging strategy that is not just financially viable, but environmentally impactful? What considerations must be balanced to meet the needs of both your customers and internal stakeholders? Which packaging solution is right for your company, and what strategic implications should you deliberate when establishing your goals? Join this session to hear from brands and practitioners who have navigated these complex decisions.

 

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Nina Goodrich
  • Luana Pinheiro
  • David Tulauskas

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
11:00am to 11:30am
More Details

How to Achieve 2025 Packaging Goals: Roadmaps & Resources

Breakout

What will it take to achieve your company’s 2025 packaging commitments?

Compostable, recyclable, renewable, reusable or made from recycled content. From fashion to F&B to CPG and beyond, diverse sectors have announced 2025 packaging goals with these commitments front and center. Now comes the hard part. Many of these commitments require significant internal action not to mention functioning external circular systems, like reliable sources of recycled content or composting and recycling infrastructure at scale. What will it take to accomplish your company’s goals?

Join this session to learn about the newest tools, research reports and roadmaps that can help keep your company on target for 2025. 

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Sarah Dearman
  • Emily Tipaldo
  • Mike Werner
  • Suz Okie

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
12:00pm to 12:30pm
More Details

Connected Goods: Technology Enabled Circular Systems

Breakout

How can tracking and traceability enable a more circular system, and how should your company leverage these technologies?

There is a growing number of tools and innovations to help companies track materials, goods and services. These technologies include RFID, QR codes, IoT and blockchain, and enable a host of benefits: more transparent supply chains; simplified take-back and reverse logistics; a frictionless user experience;  and more efficient management of materials and products at the end of their useful life. Is the wide-spread adoption of these technologies key to an effective circular economy, and if so what value can they unlock for your company, customers and the planet? Join this session to hear from practitioners leveraging these technologies to build more circular, sustainable ecosystems for their products.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Natasha Franck
  • Jesper Danielsson
  • Matthew Benjamin
  • Heather Clancy

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

How to Achieve 2025 Packaging Goals: Lessons from the Field

Breakout

How can your company think holistically and prioritize reduction and elimination when setting packaging goals?

Compostable, recyclable, renewable, reusable or made from recycled content. From fashion to F&B to CPG and beyond, diverse sectors have announced 2025 packaging goals with these commitments front and center. Now comes the hard part. Many of these commitments require significant internal action not to mention functioning external circular systems, like reliable sources of recycled content or composting and recycling infrastructure at scale. What will it take to accomplish your company’s goals?

Join this breakout to hear from brands on how they’ve navigated trade-offs, generated buy-in, developed new partnerships and made progress towards 2025 packaging goals

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Jeff Greene
  • Charlie Schwarze
  • Taylor Price
  • Emily Tipaldo

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
12:30pm to 1:15pm
More Details

Interactive: Circular Fashion in North America

Networking

Connect with like-minded participants in this interactive virtual discussion around a hard question or hot topic within the circular economy. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion led by a moderator. The group will then be split into breakouts — allowing for deeper conversation around the topic you care about most. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Interactive Demo: Plastic IQ

Networking

Join an in-depth demo of The Recycling Partnership & SYSTEMIQ's Plastic IQ.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Interactive: Ensuring Robust Recycling Infrastructure

Networking

Connect with like-minded participants in this interactive virtual discussion around a hard question or hot topic within the circular economy. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion led by a moderator. The group will then be split into breakouts — allowing for deeper conversation around the topic you care about most. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Interactive Demo: Cradle to Cradle's Product Standard

Networking

Join an in-depth demo of Cradle-to-Cradle's Product Standard.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
Thursday, June 17th, 2021
10:30am to 11:00am
More Details

Biomimicry: Leveraging Nature’s Genius

Breakout

How can biomimicry help your company design more efficient, sustainable and circular products?

A perfectly circular system — one without waste, non-renewable inputs or inefficiencies — already exists in nature. Of course, it’s not that simple for humans. With capital flows on top of material flows, industry on top of ecosystems, our system isn’t quite as perfectly designed. But why start a design from scratch when you can learn from the 3.8 billion years of evolution that has taken place on Earth? Biomimicry, the practice of looking to nature for inspired ideas, can speed up the circular design process by borrowing from the elegance and efficiency of nature to solve complex human problems. Join this session to learn about the practice of biomimetic design, and how it can help unlock more sustainable outcomes.

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Michelle Graves
  • Alex Greenhalgh
  • Simon Isaksson
  • Jean-Michel Scheuren

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
11:00am to 11:30am
More Details

The New Luxury: The Case for Durability and Repair in Apparel

Breakout

What are the strategic incentives for product life extension, and how can your company deliver durable, repairable products at a premium?

In an era of single-use disposables and planned obsolescence, durability and repairability may just be the new luxury. From the quality-conscious to eco-friendly to the value-seeker, product longevity is a desirable attribute, often worth the premium of a higher upfront or repair service cost. But when competing with lower production costs and repeat purchase revenue, durable and repairable may not add up to the financial value of disposable. How can you make a financial case for designing better products that are more durable and easily repairable? What design and service considerations should be considered when offering repair services and repairable products? How will your customer relationship evolve? This session will explore these questions as it builds the case for designing more durable, repairable products.

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Ian Rosenberger
  • Cynthia Power
  • Suz Okie
  • David Goubert

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
12:00pm to 12:30pm
More Details

Bioplastics: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Breakout

What are the different types of bioplastics? What are their benefits, drawbacks, appropriate applications and role in a sustainable materials management future?

In the scramble to swap single-use plastics for sustainable alternatives, some companies are turning to bioplastic as a seemingly ideal replacement. These plant-based alternatives promise the same functionality of petroleum-based plastics without a reliance on nonrenewable resources. Yet with nonexistent standards, limited regulation and a variety of biomass sources, bioplastics can lead to an increase in unsustainable farming practices like deforestation, monoculture agriculture and the use of petroleum-based fertilizers — not to mention confusion about end-of-life materials management and incompatibility with both organics and plastics recycling systems. Are bioplastics a net positive or negative in a sustainable packaging strategy? What does it take to sustainably source feedstocks for bioplastics? How, where and under what conditions can they be recycled or composted? In what context does it make sense to use bioplastics? This session will provide an overview of the family of bioplastics and their fit in the world of sustainable packaging — the good, the bad and the ugly.

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Hannah Friedman
  • Dan Leif
  • Alix Grabowski

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Understanding EPR

Breakout

What is the state of EPR legislation, what does this policy lever entail and how would an EPR policy impact your company and the recycling market?

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy lever intended to place end-of-life product management on the companies that create them, often placing the cost of recycling systems on producers in lieu of taxpayers. With recycling services across the nation faltering in the wake of COVID-19, many consider EPR an important if not critical tool in securing a functioning recycling system. Nearly a dozen EPR state bills for plastics and packaging are under consideration and various permutations are embedded in proposed federal legislation. What do these EPR bills contain, and how do they vary from the state to federal level? What will their implications on the industry be, and how critical is their passing? Is 2021 the year of EPR in the United States and beyond? Join this session to deep dive into the complexity of EPR legislation.

 

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Sara Wingstrand
  • Suz Okie
  • Sydney Harris

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Innovators Showcase: New Materials

Breakout

What are some of the most groundbreaking innovations in materials? 

The linear economy has relied upon a slew of wasteful, non-renewable and often toxic materials that are often incompatible with a circular system. Enter: a new class of innovators designing and developing new materials designed with function, next life and planetary boundaries in mind. From textiles made from food waste to biodegradable plastic alternatives, these companies are leveraging new technologies and unique, renewable or abundant resources to reduce waste and a reliance on toxic chemicals. Come learn about the materials of the future and be inspired by this showcase of material innovations.   

  • All-Access Pass Required

Speakers

  • Theanne Schiros
  • Jessica Vieira
  • Issac Nichelson
  • Ehab Sayed
  • Sherrie Totoki
  • Anne Schauer-Gimenez

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
12:30pm to 1:15pm
More Details

Interactive: Enabling and Ensuring Repair

Networking

Connect with like-minded participants in this interactive virtual discussion around a hard question or hot topic within the circular economy. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion led by a moderator. The group will then be split into breakouts — allowing for deeper conversation around the topic you care about most. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo
More Details

Interactive: Advancing Circular Plastics with Collaboration

Networking

Connect with like-minded participants in this interactive virtual discussion around a hard question or hot topic within the circular economy. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion led by a moderator. The group will then be split into breakouts — allowing for deeper conversation around the topic you care about most. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

  • All-Access Pass Required

Share

  • Twitter logo
  • Facebook logo
  • LinkedIn logo

Footer menu 1

  • Upcoming GreenBiz Events
  • VERGE 22
  • VERGE Net Zero
  • Code of Conduct

Footer menu 2

  • All Events
  • Executive Network
  • GreenBiz.com
  • Sustainability Jobs

Footer menu 3

  • About GreenBiz Group
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • VERGE is a registered trademark of GreenBiz Group
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
This site (RSS)
GreenBiz
© 2023 GreenBiz Group Inc. GREENBIZ® and GREENBIZ.COM® are registered trademarks of GreenBiz Group Inc.