Welcome to the Sustainable Packaging Summit 2025.

Circularity visionary Willemijn Peeters looks to push the conversation much further. So much of the packaging industry is focused on specific materials—paper, flexibles, metal—and trying to keep up with compliance. And while that’s understandable, it’s not in their long-term interest. What we really need is a bold rethink of packaging itself: its role, its form, and how it fits into business models of the future. Instead of just making single-use packaging slightly better, why not design durable, modular, multi-use systems that actually make regulation redundant? This isn’t wishful thinking either - I’ll be sharing real-world projects that prove it’s possible. These innovations cut waste, cut emissions, and cut costs. They show that when you lead with smart, ambitious design, you don’t have to scramble to meet regulations—they become irrelevant because you’re already doing better. “Beyond ticking boxes” captures what I think is missing right now: a visionary, design-led approach that goes beyond incremental improvements. My talk will offer a practical yet forward-thinking roadmap for leaders who are ready to set a new standard—one that’s proactive rather than reactive. So, if we want to truly shift the system, let’s stop treating compliance as the finish line. Let’s make innovation our baseline.

The value chain is preoccupied with meeting a range of pledges, and binding targets within the EU, before the end of this decade. But 2030 is just a stepping stone. In this panel, we take a step back to consider a bigger picture, and larger ambitions: what’s the end point of our sustainability journey? How can we work back from that to inform the decisions we make today in order to face the future with strategic certainty? And what competencies does your company need in order to meet the demands of the next twenty years?

Europe’s PPWR has set challenging targets for recycling levels and PCR content, but the circular economy is currently falling well short of the volumes required to meet them. Could harmonization in collection help us accelerate recycling rates? What regulatory levers and EPR approaches are available to support this journey? And what lessons are there in Europe’s experience that other regions can learn?

Packaging is full of back roads, sudden turns, and hidden secrets. The processes used, the paths it takes, the materials available, and the experience of the consumer all present roads to uncover gems of efficiency. In packaging, there are a lot of things we cannot control. Things like production sites, the protection a product needs, and material compatibility. We can use these constraints and requirements to unlock a chance for innovative thinking and solutions. Serial innovator Brent Lindberg will be your guide, navigating through the intersection between sustainability and packaging. Using his six-part framework, you’ll learn where to find hidden sustainability opportunities across the entire value chain.

These are particularly volatile times: geopolitically, macroeconomically and in trade. Decades of globalization have stalled and perhaps reversed. Cooperation and harmonization encounter new forces of fragmentation and isolationism. Meanwhile, as much of the world looks to Europe for leadership in transformation of manufacturing, the Draghi report outlined a stark warning of deindustrialization. Is business and political leadership as committed to sustainable development as it appeared two or three years ago? In what ways does protectionism impact the green revolution? How does industrial policy fit into this picture?  Senior FMCG business leaders and Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for the Environment, explore the strategic landscape that contains and constrains our packaging sustainability community.

Innovation is both pushing the functional boundaries of fibre-based packaging and addressing the environmental footprint of the production of paper and board. In this panel we explore the direction and impact of R&D in paper for packaging.

Consumer enthusiasm and regulatory pressure on plastics are pushing global brands to migrate from plastic to paper packaging materials across many product categories. What is the impact of the paperization trend on availability of feedstocks, and does the forestry industry have the resilience to keep up with demand without negative environmental impacts? Should packaging embrace a broader range of fibre sources, and what are the challenges and implications of this?

BASF had worked with the top 15 universities for 10 years to develop a biodegradable UV filter. The result was disappointing as all university teams claimed "It's impossible!" and not a single team brought testable samples at any point. CTO Martin Brudermüller could not accept the "it's impossible" part and made the bold move to engage seven novel teams of post-docs from universities BASF had never worked with before. The R&D managers reporting to him were shocked with his decision, because they knew that a UV filter could either protect against UV or biodegrade, but not do both. Brudermüller took external support to find and engage the unusual suspects - professors and post-docs who had never worked on UV filters before. These teams cocreated UV filters with higher sun protection factor than anything seen before AND they were biodegradable. Team Rioja used biomimicry to replicate the molecules in the skin of a grape to transform UV into glucose. Team Copenhagen used the science of organic solar panels to transform the UV into electricity. All solutions were prototyped thanks to Team University College Dublin. Sigvald Harryson, Professor of Disruptive Innovation and founder of iKNOW-WHO, will share how this happened and how you can replicate the success.

Hear from R&D leaders, VCs & incubators about the state and trajectory of sustainable packaging innovation today – and meet their curated selection of what they consider to be the most exciting start-ups around the world that are poised to become a feature of our packaging landscape.

Tim Sykes assembles thought leaders to reflect, interactively with the whole sustainable packaging community assembled in Utrecht on what we have learned from each other over these three packed days, and on concrete steps we can take, as individuals, businesses and collaborators, to transform concepts into impact.