Members must register by Friday, September 13 to avoid a $150 late registration fee.
We are currently seeking ten SPC member companies to act as meeting hosts for the SPC Fall Meeting 2013. As a host, your company will be featured in all meeting promotional materials and will receive two additional complimentary registrations. For more information on becoming a host, please contact Adam Gendell by email or by phone at 434.817.1424 ext. 321.
As an Analyst at Lux Research, Julia Allen is a member of the Bio-based Materials and Chemicals Intelligence service team and contributes to the Alternative Fuels Intelligence service, where she analyzes the technologies, strategies, and business models of emerging companies with particular focus on disruptive technology to generate chemicals, materials, energy, and transportation fuels from biomass, waste, and other non-traditional feedstocks.
Julia joined Lux Research after working as a consultant supporting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s BioFuels portfolio of programs, which focused on converting alternative feedstocks to drop in, renewable jet fuel. In this role, she conducted technical and risk analyses on a variety of research and development efforts and was the team’s subject matter expert on technical, economic, and system models.
Julia received her M.E. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Maryland – College Park. She also attended Virginia Commonwealth University where she earned at B.S. in Chemical and Life Science Engineering with a double major in Physics and minors in Chemistry and Mathematics. She has research experience in a wide range of areas, including diffusion characteristics of systems with strong polymer-solvent interactions, design and troubleshooting of novel diffusion measurement systems, and polymer membrane diffusion.
John Bissell (B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of California—Davis), is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Micromidas, Inc., a chemical and biochemical technology firm that converts heterogeneous wastes into conventional petrochemicals. Mr. Bissell has successfully raised over $20M in venture capital for his emerging company. Mr. Bissell has technical expertise in process design, chemical kinetics, and chemical engineering. He is an inventor on five pending patents, and was awarded UC Davis’ Young Alumnus Award in 2013.
Steve leads marketing & public affairs globally for NatureWorks LLC, a company formed withthe unique mission of bringing to market a broad family of performance plastics and fibers created from plants, not oil. He is responsible for the strategy, direction and management of the company’s external communications, media relations, issues management, and brand.
Previously as NatureWorks’ global marketing director, Steve was responsible for market development with Ingeo plastics in rigid and flexible packaging, food service-ware and durable goods, and with Ingeo fibers in apparel, personal care, home and garden. Since joining NatureWorks in 2003, he has led fibers applications development, business development in apparel, home textile, and nonwovens markets, brand management, and marketing communications.
Tamsin Ettefagh has over 26 years of experience in the areas of recycling and plastics recycling; from implementing a recycling collection program, to running the Recycling Operations for a MRF, to purchasing raw materials for plastic recycling companies, to selling recycled resins for plastic recycling companies, and consulting for agencies, banks, potential plastic manufacturers on market conditions, types of supply and how to evolve and diversify markets for recycled resins.
Ms. Ettefagh is currently working as Vice President for Envision Plastics the second largest HDPE Plastic Recycling company in North AmericaWhile at Envision Ms. Ettefagh has consulted for Waste Resource Action Programme on developing Plastics Recycling in the UK in 2003 and 2004 She has also been Treasurer of the APR the entire time of employment at Envision Plastics and has sat on the Technical, Legislative and Rigids Committees. She has also served on PTIS Havi Global’s Science and Technology Project 2012 as part of the Delphi Expert Group and consulted mainly on the Recycling portion of the report. Ms. Ettefagh has spoken at ISRI, NERC, NRC, CRA, APR, Caps and Closures, SPC, some of these multiple times.
Nathan Kemeling is Director Business Development YXY at Avantium, a leading renewable chemicals company that develops and commercializes next generation biobased chemicals and plastics. YXY is Avantium’s technology platform to convert plant-based sugars into renewable chemical building blocks, primarily FDCA and Methyl Levulinate. FDCA can be polymerized into PEF a 100% biobased polyester with unique properties, and a sustainable alternative to PET. Avantium has announced partnerships with The Coca-Cola Company and Danone to collaborate on the development of PEF bottles.
At Avantium Nathan is responsible for developing partnerships on biobased materials in new application areas like films and fibers. Prior to joining Avantium Nathan worked for more than ten years in Asia in various High-Tech Business Development roles. First he worked in the semiconductor equipment business at ASM Japan, and then at Air Liquide, introducing novel materials for thin film deposition to semiconductor and photovoltaic customers in Asia.
Nathan holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology.
Ms McEwen is a dynamic sustainability strategist with over 8 years of experience training and consulting on LCA with Fortune 500 companies. During her tenure at EarthShift, Laurel developed the worlds largest LCA on-line training program, trained over 300 LCA practitioners, and launched the world's first LCA training certificate program, partnering with ACLCA for professional certification testing. A successful educator and communicator of complex environmental information she can unravel for any audience complex LCA information into simple actionable components.
Prior to her work in the field of LCA, Ms McEwen worked for National Sea Products as Director of US Research and Development and for O’Donnell-Usen Fisheries, a division of ConAgra, as Marketing Director. Currently she consults with corporations on the design of LCA studies, develops custom training materials for corporations, and produces Sustainability Briefings utilizing an e-learning platform. These briefings translate complex LCA studies into clear, actionable communications helping to support sustainability initiatives by reaching large audiences quickly and cost effectively.
Wenny Ng is an Associate Principal Engineer with PepsiCo Advanced Research – Beverage Packaging R&D. She has worked to commercialize several packaging programs within Tropicana including lightweighting initiatives and the clear 89/118 oz orange juice handle-ware container that is composed of a specialty resin that is fully compatible with PET recycling processes. Wenny received her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She also attended Northwestern University where she earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
As Sustainability Leader, Gerald Rebitzer is responsible for Sustainability at Amcor FlexiblesEurope & Americas. From 2007 to 2009 he was responsible for product-related sustainability issues at Alcan Packaging, globally. Prior to this, he had several roles related to EHS and sustainability within Alcan (2003 – 2007). He has more than 15 years of experience related to life cycle approaches and implementation of sustainability initiatives in sectors such as Packaging, Building and Construction, Automotive, Aerospace, Electronics, and Metals. He holds a Ph.D. in Life Cycle Management from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University Berlin.
At Amcor Gerald focuses on the implementation of sustainability in the multinational’s business processes and leveraging sustainability in cooperation with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Additionally, he is editor for The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, lecturer at the ETH Zurich, former elected member of the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), and has been leading key initiatives within the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. From 2006 to 2008 he served as chairman of the Product Stewardship WG of the European Aluminium Association and since 2008 he is member of the Steering Committee of the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol’s Product and Supply Chain Initiative. To date he has published more than 110 papers and book chapters related to life cycle approaches and sustainability.
Susan E. Selke is a Professor at Michigan State University and serves as Associate Director of the School of Packaging, where she has been a faculty member for 29 years. She received a Distinguished Faculty Award from MSU in 2012. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan State. Her research interests include environmental impacts of packaging; sustainability; plastics recycling; biodegradable and biobased plastics; composites of plastics with natural fibers; life cycle assessment; nanotechnology and packaging, and other areas. She has authored or coauthored several books on packaging materials and on packaging and environmental issues, as well as over 150 articles and book chapters. Courses she teaches include plastics packaging, packaging materials, packaging and the environment, stability and recycling of packaging materials, and analytical solutions to packaging design.
Read about your nominees for the 2013 Executive Committee election. Members will elect three new representatives. Voting begins October 8th.
Please join us for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and networking at the Welcome Reception on Monday evening.
For those attendees who are new to the SPC, you are invited to a special reception for first-timers immediately prior to the Welcome Reception. Come and meet the SPC staff and Executive Committee members, introduce yourselves, and find out how you can get involved in the SPC.
Help Clean the Beach! In 2012 the Ocean Conservancy and a team of volunteers helped remove about 10 million pounds of trash with its International Coastal Cleanup efforts. This year, we will be contributing to the cause and invite you to join us in a beach clean up event. The clean up will include a brief discussion about marine debris issues in relation to packaging, and will consist of about 1 hour of cleaning our shores. Gloves and collection materials will be provided.
CHEP USA invites members of the SPC’s Fall Meeting to tour the CHEP Service Center in Lakeland, FL. CHEP will host up to three groups of ten SPC members in staggered tours of the facility. SPC guests will be greeted by a CHEP Operations representative where they will be welcomed to the facility. Guests will begin the tour with a safety briefing and be issued personal protective equipment (PPE) such as earplugs, reflective vests, glasses, and toe caps. The host will then give an overview of the CHEP business model and explain the function of the facility at the heart of the tour. During the walking tour through the facility guests will learn about and watch the process where pallets are returned to service centers, inspected for damage, repaired, and made ready for re-issue to customers. The tour will wrap up with a question and answer session and then guests will depart for St. Petersburg.
GreenBlue’s Advisory Services Group is innovating in the eco-gamification space to bring The Sustainability Game to corporate clients who want to fully engage employees in their sustainability efforts. This Game demo will provide you an opportunity to understand why gamification is being recognized as one of the most powerful ways to excite employees to become more involved in company initiatives, and how ECO-gamification can help your company expand the effectiveness of a single "green-champion" or small sustainability team by helping each and every employee understand that sustainability is everyone's responsibility. Find out how The Sustainability Game is also a great way to engage you supply chain partners and motivate them to be more responsive to your sustainability requirements and expectations. Come have some fun, learn something new, and get the scoop on how to bring The Sustainability Game to your organization.
We are pleased to announce that, as with previous years, we are co-locating our meeting with the Sustainable Packaging Forum to be held October 8-10, 2013 at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort. SPC members receive a discounted registration price for the forum: only $910 for SPC members ($1,175 for non-SPC members).
Packaging Strategies generously supports the activities of the SPC, so please take advantage of the SPC member discount and also encourage your contacts to attend the Forum. Please note that you must register separately for both the SPC Fall Meeting and the Sustainable Packaging Forum. Register for the Forum here.
We have reserved a room block at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort for $165/night. Please reserve your hotel room by September 13 to secure this rate.
You can make your reservation online or by calling 888-303-4430 and specifying that you are with GreenBlue.
GreenBlue has a contractual obligation that was negotiated based upon attendees staying at the host hotel. Any individuals staying outside the room block will be charged an additional $150 to cover attrition penalties.