8th - 9th March 2027

Agenda

Redefining the entire packaging lifecycle for a circular, sustainable future

DAY 1

08:00 - 08:50

REGISTRATION

08:55 – 09:00

CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS

09:00 - 09:30

Where Innovation Becomes Reality: Aligning Marketing, R&D, Operations and Sustainability for Packaging that Performs

  • How to break functional silos and build one shared decision-making framework for packaging development
  • Turning sustainability goals into practical design and operational requirements that teams can execute
  • Managing trade-offs between performance, cost, speed-to-market and environmental impact
  • What organisations miss when marketing promises what operations cannot deliver
  • Real examples of alignment wins: how cross-functional clarity reduces waste, accelerates development and improves business value

09:30 - 10:00

Haleon packaging approach: Consumer first - A look at OTC packaging development roadmap

  • How consumer healthcare packaging can drive circularity using real life examples
  • Highlighting the different steps needed from leadership and ambition to standardization

10:00 - 10:30

Spec-First Sustainability: Turning Data into Impact

  • Why sustainable packaging ambition fails without structured specification data
  • Oriflame’s digital transformation story
  • Turning PPWR and EPR requirements into business opportunities and compliance
  • Actionable methods to building a data ready PPWR foundation
  • Moving from static reporting to continuous, innovation-ready sustainability management

10:35 - 11:25

COFFEE BREAK

11:30 - 12:00

Why Sensitive Surface Packaging Has Resisted Change - Until Now

  • Sensitive Surface packaging is one of the highest risk packaging categories, where even tiny defects are binary failures that drive returns, rework, and brand damage — which is why LDPE became the long standing default.
  • This established logic is now being challenged by regulation, shifting consumer expectations, and declining trust in plastic recycling, even in applications where performance cannot be compromised.
  • Change has been slow because the challenge is systemic: protection requirements, operational constraints, consumer behaviour, and regulation all interact in ways that make simple material swaps ineffective.
  • Most sustainability driven alternatives struggle because they fail to meet the demanding performance needs of surface sensitive products or create operational friction.
  • The talk highlights what credible progress looks like, using examples to illustrate how solutions must align protection, recyclability, and regulatory readiness without sacrificing reliability.

12:00 - 12:30

Designing Packaging That Protects the Future

  • Renewable and recyclable packaging of the future
  • Circularity + CO₂ reduction through material innovation
  • Fact‑based sustainability decisions using ISO‑aligned LCAs
  • Successful examples from the Netherlands
  • Collaboration to enable scalable system transformation

12:30 - 13:00

Why the Food Industry Needs Standardized Analytical Methods: Insights from an ISO 17043 Interlaboratory Study on Styrene

  • Need for official and standardized analytical methods in the food packaging industry
  • Role of ISO 17043 proficiency testing in method validation and data harmonization
  • Design of an interlaboratory proficiency test scheme for styrene determination
  • Evaluation of interlaboratory variability and its industrial relevance
  • Benefits of standardized analytics for reliable compliance and sustainable packaging innovation

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Packaging Innovation / PPWR
  • Marketing & Branding
  • Additives for Innovative Packaging Design
  • Food Contact Materials
  • Flexible Packaging Solutions
  • Testing & Analysis
  • Digital Product Passport (DPP)
  • Robotic Automation
  • Sustainable Pallet and Container Solutions
  • Packaging Machinery & Plant construction
  • Biodegradable Materials/Circularity and End-of-Life
  • Brand Protection & Anti-counterfeiting
  • Smart Packaging Technologies
  • Packaging Procurement
  • Labelling & Traceability
  • Material Optimization (Reduction and Sourcing)
  • Packaging Sterilization / Decontamination
  • Bio-based PET
  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
  • Packaging Engineering
  • Automation/Robotics
  • Circular Economy
  • E-Commerce Packaging
  • Sustainable Digital Printing
  • Regulatory Compliance & Reporting
  • Sustainable Inks
  • Carton Packaging
  • 3D Printing

13:05 - 13:55

LUNCH

14:00 - 14:30

The Packaging Sustainability Paradox

  • Sustainability doesn’t play a significant role in people’s purchase decisions in the supermarket.
  • Several examples where sustainability was a compromise on functionality or quality that resulted in loss of sales/turn-over.
  • Why, for many categories, theoretically good solutions like refill don’t work.
  • What it means for packaging developers and how you (as a packaging developer) can make sure you still deliver your sustainability ambitions

14:30 – 15:00

Is Circular Packaging for every company?

  • In temperature controlled shipments, is circular packaging Vs standard packaging.
  • Role of reverse logistics
  • A case study on circular packaging and how we did it.
  • How to estimate landed costs, quote the prices.
  • Calculating the ROI.
  • Check if you are eligible for doing it or not.

15:00 – 15:30

Reuse & Refill for a sustainable future

  • What is the (ecourage) system (OmniTap™, OmniCap™, OmniBiB™, Digital Data Management Platform)
  • How this system is different than others in the market
  • Case study: ecostore
  • Lessons learned from piloting and scaling reuse/refill
  • Key operational and business considerations for implementing refill systems
  • What does the future bring?

15:35 - 16:25

COFFEE BREAK

16:30 - 17:00

Anticipating Tomorrow: The Role of SWM’s Ultra Lightweight Papers in Future Packaging Designs

  • Enabling lighter packaging designs and promoting alternatives to plastic with future-ready materials
  • Reducing environmental impact through ultra lightweight paper: measurable LCA benefits versus traditional lightweight grades
  • Protecting forests while enabling growth: how responsible fiber sourcing supports the future of packaging
  • Designing ultra lightweight papers with future European regulations in mind
  • From proof to scale: real world use cases where ultra lightweight papers run on flexible plastic packaging lines and demonstrate strong potential for plastic substitution

17:00 - 17:30

Best Practice & Pitfalls of CO2e Modelling

  • CO2e Modelling best practices and terminology
  • Carbon Accounting – Automating CO2e modelling and system integration
  • Example LCA study – Paper Vs Plastic

17:30 - 18:00

Scaling packaging excellence: simplification, PPWR readiness & sustainable innovation

  • Packaging engineering is now a strategic growth engine, connecting business ambition, operational execution, sustainability, and compliance end to end.
  • Simplification is the ultimate power move: harmonized formats, converged specifications, and scalable platforms unlock speed, reliability, and value.
  • PPWR becomes a design code, not a fire drill, when engineers translate regulation into clear, usable rules.
  • Master data enables scale: clean, governed packaging data is the backbone of traceability, digitalization, and execution speed.
  • Sustainable innovation only wins when it travels, working reliably across plants, markets, and products.
  • Great systems require great engineering culture, built on ownership, discipline, and system thinking.

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Packaging Innovation / PPWR
  • Marketing & Branding
  • Additives for Innovative Packaging Design
  • Food Contact Materials
  • Flexible Packaging Solutions
  • Testing & Analysis
  • Digital Product Passport (DPP)
  • Robotic Automation
  • Sustainable Pallet and Container Solutions
  • Packaging Machinery & Plant construction
  • Biodegradable Materials/Circularity and End-of-Life
  • Brand Protection & Anti-counterfeiting
  • Smart Packaging Technologies
  • Packaging Procurement
  • Labelling & Traceability
  • Material Optimization (Reduction and Sourcing)
  • Packaging Sterilization / Decontamination
  • Bio-based PET
  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
  • Packaging Engineering
  • Automation/Robotics
  • Circular Economy
  • E-Commerce Packaging
  • Sustainable Digital Printing
  • Regulatory Compliance & Reporting
  • Sustainable Inks
  • Carton Packaging
  • 3D Printing

18:00-19:00

DRINKS RECEPTION

DAY 2

08:55 – 09:00

CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS

09:00 – 09:30

Is the Era of Packaging Sustainability coming to an end?

  • Barilla’s ESG Packaging Journey
  • Sustainability as the Industry’s main driver: how environmental goals have dominated packaging innovation for the past decade.
  • The Risk of a Narrow Focus: has the green race overshadowed consumer-centricity, functionality, and convenience?
  • Broadening the Innovation Lens

09:30 – 10:00

Strategic Simplification: A Framework for Future-Ready Packaging

  • Navigate Complexity: Learn how to move beyond the “add-on” approach to sustainability and address the mounting pressures of regulations like the EU PPWR and the circular economy.
  • Introduce Strategic Simplification: Discover a forward-thinking eco-design framework that focuses on strategically removing complexity to enhance sustainability and efficiency.
  • Deliver Future-Ready Packaging: Understand how this subtraction-based model reduces environmental impact, de-risks your strategy, and creates efficient, and future-proof packaging.

10:00 - 10:30

Leading the future of packaging adhesives

  • Bostik is the adhesive solutions segment of Arkema
  • Strong packaging expertise
  • PPWR Challenges
  • Bostik’s innovations for tomorrow’s packaging

10:30- 11:25

COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 12:00

Innovative adhesive tapes as key enabler of a more sustainable packaging industry

  • Where is the industry heading?
  • Sustainability trends in the packaging sector
  • Research and development as a driver of sustainability transformatio
  • Collaboration and innovation are a crucial pillar for the future of industry.
  • Examples of successful collaboration

12:00 – 12:30

New ways of collaborating crucial for bringing circular plastics to market

  • We all know that market conditions are not ideal to reach our 2050 climate and circularity goals.
  • Against the odds, progress is possible by devising innovative technologies, business models, and forms of cooperation.
  • Consumers play a critical role; they literally have our future materials in their hands.
  • Brightlands Circular Space enables impact by combining technical, economical and societal aspects.

12:30 – 13:00

Packaging Recyclability: looking beyond 2030 targets

  • The European legislative framework
  • RecyClass and the relevance of design for recycling
  • DfR Guidelines and testing protocols for plastic packaging
  • Recyclability methodology
  • Recycled plastic traceability

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Packaging Innovation / PPWR
  • Marketing & Branding
  • Additives for Innovative Packaging Design
  • Food Contact Materials
  • Flexible Packaging Solutions
  • Testing & Analysis
  • Digital Product Passport (DPP)
  • Robotic Automation
  • Sustainable Pallet and Container Solutions
  • Packaging Machinery & Plant construction
  • Biodegradable Materials/Circularity and End-of-Life
  • Brand Protection & Anti-counterfeiting
  • Smart Packaging Technologies
  • Packaging Procurement
  • Labelling & Traceability
  • Material Optimization (Reduction and Sourcing)
  • Packaging Sterilization / Decontamination
  • Bio-based PET
  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
  • Packaging Engineering
  • Automation/Robotics
  • Circular Economy
  • E-Commerce Packaging
  • Sustainable Digital Printing
  • Regulatory Compliance & Reporting
  • Sustainable Inks
  • Carton Packaging
  • 3D Printing

13:05 - 13:55

LUNCH

14:00 - 14:30

Design-for-food-grade-recycling

  • Almost all current polyolefin-based packages are unsuited for food-grade recycling
  • Recycling processes will only be approved if all potential contamination risks are minimised
  • An unprecedented redesign campaign of food packages is necessary to meet the recycled content targets of the PPWR
  • Printing inks, adhesives, labels need to be removed completely prior to recycling
  • Packaging standardisation is inevitable to make recycling economical viable
  • There is a lack of awareness at politicians and food entrepreneurs

14:30 - 15:00

Advancing Packaging Circularity through Innovation

  • Circularity is a key enabler to decarbonizing plastics: unlocking the value of waste.
  • Pack Studios as a model to accelerate packaging application development and innovation through value chain collaboration.
  • Examples of sustainable packaging solutions for a circular and decarbonized economy across primary and secondary packaging applications.
  • Key levers to succeed: technology & innovation, partnerships & collaboration.

15:00 - 15:05

CHAIRPERSON’S CLOSE

Please note the agenda can be subject to change