Leading voices contextualize the discussions of the next two days by assessing progress in packaging sustainability, our fundamental business, regulatory and innovation challenges, and how they interconnect.

Join Virginie Helias, Chief Sustainability Officer at P&G, to learn how she’s leading the company’s sustainability strategy to unlock more worth from packaging materials long after their first use. From innovative solutions that solve consumer needs to cross-industry collaborations that help scale new packaging solutions, she’ll share how this strategy comes to life through best-in-class brand examples and why it’s important to improve the sustainability profile at every stage of the packaging process - not just at end of life. 

Will brands opt for greener packaging when consumer budgets are under pressure, and what’s the outlook for infrastructure investment when interest rates are rocketing? Industry is challenged with accelerating progress on environmental impacts at a time when some brands have acknowledged that they cannot meet their 2025 goals. In the face of economic headwinds, systemic barriers and preoccupation in some sectors with seismic mergers, we explore business perspectives on how to maintain and build momentum. 

The elephant in the room. Looming reporting requirements – associated with new regulation, EU taxonomy, and science-based targets – present a severe headache for business. In this session, we explain how data hygiene, harmonized standards, and common data sets are crucial to meeting obligations – and cleaning up your internal mess.

Tom Szaky, CEO & Founder of TerraCycle & Loop, will share insights and examples of how companies can create competitive advantage through business model innovations on waste and packaging end-of-life, particularity for hard-to-recycle package formats like flexible films, small items, and more. By naming and confronting the ‘elephants in the room’ which may be hindering progress towards achieving corporate commitments and meeting impending regulatory requirements, Tom will share practical tips for how the industry can make meaningful action on recycling, recycled content, and reuse.

This is a pivotal year. In Europe, questions surround how PPWR will unfold as we await the impact of elections in addition to a tsunami of secondary legislation that threatens to fragment regulatory demands and damage competitiveness. On the Strategy Stage we bring together business, regulators and EPR perspectives - with Nestlé’s Jodie Roussell, Wolfgang Trunk from the European Commission, EUROPEN’s Francesca Stevens, Joachim Quoden from EXPRA, and moderator Hans van Bochove (Heineken), to explore the challenges raised by regulation, from mandatory targets to reporting requirements, to identify the gaps, and define how we can respond. But we also propose viewing 2024 as an opportunity: if we can lay the strategic foundations for an ambitious path to meet science-based environmental targets, we have a chance to set the course for a decade of growth.

The ‘Nobel prize’ for packaging sustainability – the global Sustainability Awards – reaches its climax at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, with the winners announced and finalists celebrated at the awards and networking dinner on 12th November. This is an opportunity to get acquainted with most significant recent sustainable packaging innovations and initiatives, in the view of the expert international jury, to network with a diverse crowd of innovators and delegates, and relax over fine dining. 

A wake-up call to begin day 2 of the Summit. In Europe we have the upcoming PPWR which sets out the clear targets that need to be achieved. Meanwhile, we have a recycling industry in turmoil as the price of virgin is low and brand owners and retailers don’t want to pay those kinds of prices, which sets us on a course for Armageddon. Louis Lindenberg, who supports numerous international packaging sustainability initiatives after stepping down after over a decade as Unilever's global packaging sustainability director, argues that to avoid trouble, the whole value chain must pull together (without waiting until the regulations have been fully adopted): working backwards (creating a demand) and working forward (designing for recycling). In between, we need to develop collection and sorting, as well as mechanical – physical – chemical recycling, which can meet the market's requirements. We cannot afford to procrastinate!

On the backdrop of INC-5, the latest instalment of negotiations in the UN Plastics Treaty, we explore not just the global regulatory levers, but the practical actions that stakeholders can collectively take to help develop supply chains and markets for circular plastics.

Paper-based and bio-based alternatives are popular with consumers. We explore the environmental considerations around switching to a renewable packaging material, and the barriers and opportunities confronting the renewable-based businesses.

The gear-shift from innovation to bringing change at scale is crucial to achieving our sustainability goals and meeting our regulatory obligations. This applies especially to the context of reusable packaging, where we have seen many impressive pilot schemes, but volumes lag way behind the levels necessary to eliminate plastic waste. The Sustainable Packaging Summit will address this challenge with a strategic panel discussion exploring how we can create the conditions in which consortiums driving reuse can flourish. Featuring Holly Nelson (Unilever), Emmanuelle Bautista (CITEO), Amy Larkin (PR3), Feng Wang (UN Environment Programme), Mirjam Karmiggelt (GS1), and Noam Assael (Avery Dennison), we assess the respective roles that can be played by governance, international standards and EPR – as well as learnings from value chain collaborators on the keys to growth.

As the cross-value chain project HolyGrail 2.0 approaches its final stages of R&D testing, some of the stakeholders take a look at the achievements, and unveil the exciting initiatives and opportunities ahead.

Brands and retailers are under pressure to meet mandatory targets for recycled content in packaging materials – while also complying with regulation governing contact-sensitive applications. There’s an urgent need for pre-competitive alignment to identify and nurture scalable solutions. Holly Nelson (Unilever), Hannah Drew (Aldi South Group), Alexander-Christian Root (PreZero), Feliks Bezati (Mars) and Filipe Vieira de Castro (Veolia CIRCPACK) search for pathways to this goal.