KEYNOTE MESSAGES

Peak Sustainability & The 5 Axioms of Sustainability
Richard Heinberg, Author, “Peak Everything”
Fellow, Post-Carbon Institute

The timeliness of this year’s Keynote Speaker, Richard Heinberg couldn’t be more appropriate.

Richard Heinberg, the author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time. In his most recent best-selling book, Peak Everything: Waking Up To A Century of Declines and as the featured keynoter as the Sustainbable Packaging Forum, Heinberg will address “Peak Sustainability & The 5 Axioms of Sustainability.”

He will enthrall the anticipated 500+ attendess at the Sustainable Packging Forum with his address on the cultural, psychological and practical changes – including those of the packaging and consumer packaged goods industries – that must be made as nature rapidly dictates our new limits.

Making An Emotional Consumer Connection
To Your Sustainability Message
Patti Temple-Rocks
The DOW Chemical Company

It is no longer enough for corporations to set and achieve goals for waste and energy reductions. And making extreme green marketing claims to increasingly sophisticated consumers that lack scientific basis risks alienating them. Companies must act boldly to tackle world challenges and must rely on new means of communicating their commitment.

To appeal to consumers bombarded by media hype, businesses must provide a sustainability message that is intellectually meaningful, graphically simple, and emotionally captivating. By bringing the human element to life, Dow has combined chemistry with humanity -- in effect placing the importance of people at the forefront of its branding effort.

Dow’s Patti Temple-Rocks will share with the Forum’s global audience its best-practice commitment to building a sustainability initiative that creates a sense of purpose and connection to the human element.

Dow is a U.S. EPA 2008 Energy Star Partner of the Year
for Excellence in Energy Management and GHG Emission Reductions

Networking & Refreshment Break

Networking Break

COMPASS Update:
An Industry Preview Exclusive!
Martha Leflar, COMPASS Project Director, GreenBlue

COMPASS SM (Comparative Packaging Assessment) is a software program that allows packaging designers and engineers to compare the human and environmental impacts of their designs.  

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has been developing COMPASS (formerly MERGE) since 2005.  Attendees will hear the industry’s first preview of COMPASS, set to launch in early 2009. The presentation will include an overview of the tool’s metrics, data methods, and user interface.

Responsible & Appropriate Uses of LCAs
John Heckman, Ph.D., Director, Five Winds International & PE Americas

Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have become hugely popular as a means to position one’s material, product, or process as being “more sustainable” than a competitor’s. However, that’s not entirely what an LCA was designed to reveal.

Carefully considered and well implemented LCAs can support competitive assertions, but it is difficult to translate these into simple, non-misleading marketing messages.  LCAs can be a highly valuable business tool when used for internal technology evaluation and improvement.

Learn in this session how to avoid these problems and create greater opportunity for your value chain partners by using an LCA as it was intended.

The (Dis)Connection Among Bio-based/Renewable Materials, Other ‘Easy’ Strategies, & Sustainable Packaging Innovation
Gerald Rebitzer, Director, Product Stewardship
Alcan Packaging Food Europe

With potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of new business at stake, the question “What is the most sustainable packaging solution?” is not trivial. While some advocate bio-based or biodegradable materials, others strongly focus on recyclability, and yet others focus on positive and negative material lists (as e.g. banning of PVC).

The answer which – if any – of these potential solutions will lead to “sustainable” packaging is “No,” because the focus on such prescriptive approaches will not produce measurable benefits.

This presentation – which will spark discussions that will continue long after the close of the Forum – will illustrate how best practice life cycle-based performance metrics can be leveraged to guide an effective innovation process, with a focus on facts and benefits rather than perceived sustainability.

The process and culture of managing product related sustainability aspects will be demonstrated from an organizational view, as well as related to tools and databases using ASSET™ -- the Alcan Sustainability Stewardship Evaluation Tool.

Networking & Refreshment Break

Responsible & Profitable: Best-In-Class Collaborative,
Commercial, Sustainable Packaging Innovation Case Studies
Moderated By Shanna Moore, Global Business Director, Sustainable Packaging, DuPont

The technologies and applications presented in this session have been successfully brought to market through collaboration among supply chain partners. Attendees will hear how these commercial, award-winning solutions were responsibly conceived, sourced, converted, and distributed.

Presentations will provide perspectives from raw materials suppliers, converters, brand-owners, and retailers. Each briefing will include an objective analysis by jury members for the 20 th DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation.

Collaboration Project 1 :Kraft 16oz Pourable Salad Dressing Bottle
Brand Owner: Angie Korzeniewski , Group Leader, Kraft Foods
Bottle Supplier: Kurt Wolschleger, Plastipak Packaging
Juror Observations: John Bernardo, Sustainable Innovations, Inc.
Criteria Focus: Source Reduction, Package Redesign, Resource & Energy Optimization

Daily Insights & Observations Summary: 15 Minutes of Key Takeaways Summarizing the '08 Forum
Phil McKiernan, Senior Associate, Global Sustainability Solutions, Inc.

The final 15 minutes of the 08 Forum will be spent quickly recapping the highlights from the 2 nd day’s presentations, as well as the top overarching themes to emerge from the entire event.

Several days after the close of the Forum, attendees will receive the notes from both days’ Summary sessions, to include highly actionable Insights & Analyses.

Conference Adjourns