Sustainable Packaging Symposium 2012 took place April 3-5 with an all-star roster of presenters and a sold-out exhibitor space at the Hilton Americas in Houston, TX.

 

A highly-engaged audience shared their enthusiasm about the quality of speakers, topics and discussions at this year's Symposium, which were said to be "exceptionally informative," "thought-provoking" and "relevant to today's issues." This year's theme was "optimized packaging to advance sustainable supply chains." SPS program co-chair Meghan Stasz of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, commented that the conversation has shifted – to viewing packaging as both a positive input to the sustainable supply chain and as a key solution to the growing problem of product and food waste. Food & Consumer Products of Canada'sRachel Kagan was also a 2012 program co-chair.

 

 

Highlights from this year's Symposium include keynoter Dr. Bill Flanagan from GE Global Research on ecoassessment and the supply chain, which was followed by a panel discussion featuring candid insights from Ahold, Kroger and Johnson & Johnson on the topic of leadership and sustainability.

 

Burt's Bees and Dow-Executive-in-Residence at UC, Berkeley, Tony Kingsbury spoke about key attributes that define a sustainable package. Mr. Kingsbury's new carbon vs. old carbon discussion explained "why we should care," and offered a compelling example of the importance of scale – demonstrating the huge number of trees that would be saved by using renewable chopsticks.   The Food Marketing Institute offered a preview of their new "Packaging Brief for Category Managers" a resource that offers packaging and sustainability information for retail buyers.

 

Michael Hewett of Publix Super Markets captured the attention of the entire room using humor and stark statistics to focus on the realities of food waste, population growth and the challenges for us all.

 

A session on post-use optimization by presenters from Earth911, Columbia University, Third Oak Associates, Coalition for Resource Recovery (CORR) addressed a variety of issues including Waste-to-Energy, recycling and CORR's "on the ground" look at how the US's largest metropolitan area is addressing the future of waste management. Green Blue/Sustainable Packaging Coalition presented their Closing the Loop series, specifically the "Road Map for Effective Material Value Recovery."

 

Also presenting were representatives from Coca-Cola, Ice River Springs, AMERIPEN, EarthShift, SAVE FOOD, Bridges to Sustainability, and the Eyak Preservation Council among other leading organizations.

 

 

Look for additional details in upcoming reports from GreenerPackage.com and Packaging World. Editor Anne Marie Mohan reports on Day One at the SPS here.

 

Thank you to our sponsors, co-chairs, presenters and attendees for an exceptional second annual event! Stay tuned to learn about plans for 2013.