What are the basic building blocks of the circular economy, and how can they help drive opportunity and innovation across roles and sectors?

How can your company implement a resale business model?

The resale of used, worn or simply returned consumer products, also known as recommerce, holds tremendous promise for the retail industry. Beyond diverting substantial landfill waste, resale represents a rapidly growing revenue opportunity with a market valued at $20 billion in the apparel industry alone. But despite clear environmental benefits and new financial opportunities, only a handful of companies are implementing secondary sales models. From reverse logistics, quality control, customer expectations and revenue cannibalization concerns, companies must overcome a multitude of considerations and complexities. Join this breakout to learn how organizations at the forefront of the recommerce industry are tackling these challenges, and what it took them to build an effective, lucrative resale business model.

How can companies engage informal waste economies, prevent marine debris, and incorporate ocean-bound plastics into their supply chains?

More than 86 million metric tons of plastic are in our ocean. With 8 million to 12 million tons of plastic waste flowing into the ocean each year, our ocean’s plastic is projected to outweigh its fish by 2050. With these staggering statistics and a tidal wave of public outcry, leading companies are leveraging disaster as opportunity by reframing ocean-bound plastics as an untapped resource. From apparel to packaging to household goods, diverse consumer products are manufactured in part or entirely by ocean-bound plastics, turning waste into value and outrage into a powerful brand narrative. This session will explore how leading brands have invested in informal waste economy infrastructure and integrated ocean-bound plastics into their products.

How should diverse corporate stakeholders —such as brands and packaging producers — help shape the U.S. policy landscape around plastics, recycling and solid waste management?

This two part policy session, organized in collaboration with the The Recycling Partnership, will focus on the role that brand and packaging producers can play in forging a stronger policy environment in the U.S. to create more circular outcomes.

The steady growth of public attention around plastics and packaging has led to a revitalized policy focus in the U.S. on recycling and solid waste management in 2020. Historically, brands and packaging producers have played an antagonistic role in the U.S. packaging policy landscape. However, the emergence of a circular economy opportunity and the urgency of science-based action are creating the conditions for value chain engagement and collective participation in the policymaking process.

How can companies navigate internal and external roadblocks in order to unlock circular advancement?

Fueled by consumer activism and investor demand, the transition from a linear to a circular economy is disrupting how the private sector conventionally positions its sustainability agenda. Traditionally siloed in a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), the infusion of circular economy into sustainability has provided companies a platform to unlock financial value and demonstrate ROI, while appealing to a broad range of diverse stakeholders. For many companies however, the rapid shift to a circular platform is causing tension in how a company prioritizes, partners and communicates sustainability and circular economy initiatives both internally and externally.

To ensure that companies are aligned on their sustainability, shared value and philanthropic initiatives, this session will help attendees to:

• Understand how to identify and overcome internal barriers that prohibit progress on circular economy goals.
• Unlock insights into the internal silos around sustainability/corporate responsibility that exist in the corporate space that stifle innovation, grow distrust and potentially can cause financial harm to the company.
• Learn best practices on integrating circular economy initiatives into the corporate ecosystem to drive internal alignment, innovation and external partnerships.
• Uncover internal corporate value chain biases (Finance, Sustainability, CSR and Corporate Foundation)
• Capture key insights on successful corporate and nonprofit circular partnerships.

What is the U.S. Plastics Pact and how are its signatories advancing a circular economy for plastics?

The U.S. Plastics Pact brings together businesses, government entities, NGOs, researchers, and other collaborators as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s network of Plastics Pacts around the world. The U.S. Pact will work collectively towards a common vision of a circular economy for plastics. By bringing together diverse stakeholders and driving collaborative action, the U.S. Pact will deliver a meaningful transition towards a circular economy for plastics, enabling U.S. companies, governments and NGOs to collectively meet impactful goals by 2025 that they could not meet on their own.

Join the U.S. Plastics Pact team to learn about the Pact's launch, targets, and what comes next. Hear from the Pact’s NGOs and companies on why they're spearheading a common vision for circularity, and the crucial role companies play in plastics recovery. 

We welcome others in the plastics value chain to join the U.S. Plastics Pact after its launch.

Hold the phone! Can waste be designed out of consumer electronics?

Building off of the established principles of the Responsible Business Alliance’s (RBA’s) previous session, this more in-depth series of case studies will explore how electronics companies are designing waste out of products and offerings, including easily repairable and modular consumer electronics. A discussion with the companies from both sessions, and attendees, will explore deeper nuances of the circular economy approaches to recycling electronics.

What emerging strategies have been employed to tackle food waste during the pandemic, and how can we scale these strategies in the future?

When the coronavirus pandemic first disrupted food supply chains earlier this year, huge amounts of animals and produce raised for human consumption were lost. But the food system sprang into action — adapting operations, overcoming barriers and scaling promising innovations to reduce the amount of waste. In this session, industry experts who have been leading efforts to tackle food waste during the pandemic will share what they have learned. Hear innovative thinking about scaling food-waste technologies, building more resilient donation systems and developing new supply chains that connect farmers with food recovery channels.

How can circular packaging solutions align with and advance carbon reduction goals, and how should companies balance these commitments?

With an uptick in consumer pressure and awareness, packaging companies, brands and retailers are making bold commitments to rethink their packaging material in pursuit of more circular outcomes. Meanwhile, carbon and GHG reduction commitments continue to make headlines across the corporate world. How can circular packaging initiatives, like reducing or reusing materials, aid companies on their journey towards carbon reduction? When do packaging and carbon commitments lead to conflicting priorities, and how should companies navigate the tradeoffs? This breakout will help your company balance and align your carbon commitments and circular packaging goals.