Tag: SPC Spring Conference

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Moving Beyond the Easy Wins – Integrating Sustainability Into Our Core Business Strategies

As a follow up to our recent SPC Spring Conference, I’d like to share some thoughts on the big picture trends I see happening in the sustainability industry today.

The focus on sustainability within companies is shifting. Sustainability has matured and is being embedded in new ways. In the past, sustainable packaging was often considered the gateway to sustainability; the first focus of many sustainability initiatives. While sustainable packaging still plays a role in a company’s larger corporate responsibility initiatives, there is a difference in the “job” of sustainable packaging versus the larger “job” of sustainability in organizations.

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Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Seattle: A City with an Encouraging Plan for Climate Change

Growing up on the coast of southern Maine, Seattle was about the furthest point in the contiguous US that I could travel. This is probably one of the reasons I never made it out there. While the SPC Conference (#SPC2014) will not necessarily be a vacation, it is an opportunity to be in an amazing new place while pursuing my interests and learning from packaging and sustainability professionals.
Looking into the city (mostly food and must see tourist attractions) in anticipation of my post-conference stay, I got carried away with clicks and found myself looking at Seattle’s Sustainability Initiatives.

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Walking the Walk with our Sustainable Conferences

At GreenBlue, we all do our best to “walk the sustainability walk” in our daily lives at home and at the office. In the past we have even had intra-staff challenges that involved sustainability actions like bringing our own containers to coffee shops and lunch spots for take-out food, eating more fruits and vegetables, collecting compostable waste in the office, and spending more time outside on a daily basis.

We spend our professional lives thinking about sustainability, but that doesn’t stop when we walk out our office door. We do our best to host sustainable conferences, too. What does that mean? First, we look for hotels that offer their own suite of sustainable practices, such as not laundering sheets and towels daily unless requested. We prefer to locate our meetings in a city center that is available by public transportation and allows attendees to walk to restaurants, shops, and sites. Our instructions to the hotel’s catering staff might also be seen as a bit strict sometimes: we require that water is served in pitchers or coolers with reusable glassware, cream and sugar are served in bowls instead of individual packets, coffee and tea are provided in ceramic cups with spoons instead of disposable cups and stirrers, sustainable seafood choices and local products are specified wherever possible…and the list goes on.

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Speaker Interviews: What they are most looking forward to at the SPC Spring Conference

With the 2014 SPC Spring Conference just around the corner, March 25-27, everyone at GreenBlue is understandably busy, but nevertheless incredibly excited about what we have planned for our 10th annual event. We are thrilled to be heading to Seattle for the event, as the well-known green city will provide a perfect backdrop for an informational and productive gathering for the hundreds of packaging and sustainability professionals attending the conference.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with a few of our speakers about what they’re most looking forward to at #SPC2014 in Seattle. Here are some of their thoughts:

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Top 5 Reasons to Attend #SPC2014 – Come for the MRF tour, stay for the Garbage Burrito

SPC’s Spring Conference agenda is teeming with thought provoking panels and outstanding presenters, and it is an event for everyone. In classic fashion, here is my top 5 list and playbook for anyone planning to attend or thinking of attending:

  1. Take a tour – they are perfect small group networking opportunities. You may also learn a thing or two (learning may not apply to the pub crawl).
    Taps_Duck_Island
  2. Let the emails pile up – the flash talk format is going to bring the heat. Put off the latest calendar invite and carry the conversations into the networking breaks.
  3. Find out the relationship between Garbage Burritos, Mariachi Bands, and recycling rates with Sego Jackson.
  4. Wake up early and go to bed late – from early morning yoga sessions to dinner and dialogue groups, there is never a dull moment at an SPC conference. Make the most of the time we have together in Seattle.
  5. Take advantage of the amazing resources and opportunities made possible by our sponsors, Starbucks, Microsoft, REI, PepsiCo, HAVI Global Solutions, General Mills, and Dow Chemical Company, and amplified by our Seattle location.
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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Social Sustainability – Collaboration Drives Change

Sustainability is fundamentally a social issue. Without people envisioning a different state of affairs, coming together, engaging, discussing, learning, and sharing, there would be very little positive change along sustainable materials management. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s annual Spring Conference on March 25-27 in Seattle, WA is loaded with activities conducive to this type of collaboration with colleagues from across the full packaging value chain.


Tours like the CHEP pallet service center tour allow time for casual discussion and networking.

On the social side of sustainability, the event provides superb networking outlets. Start the day with light networking after early morning mind-body sustainability yoga sessions. Follow that up with exclusive behind the scenes small group tours, then attend conference sessions and network over coffee breaks. The event agenda is loaded with material management topics ranging from sustainable forestry and sourcing, measurement of impacts, practical guidance from the field on communicating sustainability efforts, and wide ranging discussions on various facets of effective material recovery upon use. Round out the day with Dinner and Dialogue, a deep dive small group discussion led by GreenBlue staff or members of the SPC Executive Committee. These sessions are very popular and provide opportunities for networking in a smaller forum.

Let me extend a personal invitation to the conference and join me in events I will lead: early morning yoga, Fun and Games with Packaging Sustainability, and Dinner and Dialogue. I look forward to meeting you in Seattle.