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Responsible Battery Coalition Argonne partner on joint research project
Responsible Battery Coalition, Argonne National Laboratory Partner on Advanced Design, Recycling Programs for New Battery Technologies
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For more information, visit www.responsiblebatterycoalition.org .
Innovation at every level of the supply chain: The future of natural products
Here, leaders at the forefront of the industry explain why brands are more successful when they improve upon the food system as a whole.
Working at the farmers market during college, Patrick Mateer was excited by what he saw: consumers and farmers connecting over eager demand for fresh and local food. But he was concerned, too, about the excess that was coming back from the market unsold with no other clear outlet, and about the problem of aligning the daily output of the farm with the weekly opportunity of the market.
Attempting to solve these problems for farmers, and meet consumer demand for local, Mateer created Seal the Seasons, a frozen fruit brand hitting the market with an unprecedented model.
“We wanted to replicate that same local feel in the grocery store by introducing lines of locally sourced, locally frozen, and locally sold products,” says the company’s COO Alex Piasecki. That means contracting with local farmers, freezing the goods locally and distributing only to markets in the region—all within about a 300-mile radius.
On the shelf, the frozen, bagged fruit Seal the Seasons brings to market, is nothing new. The innovation demonstrated is in the way it serves farmers, communities, consumers and retailers behind the product. And this may be the next wave of innovation in the natural products space. “It’s not always about engineering something new,” Piasecki says, “because we can always engineer something new. It’s all about understanding the story and who you’re supporting with your dollars, more so than what you’re buying.”
In many ways, this view is the core and founding ethos of the natural and organic products industry, and the influence the industry exerts throughout the U.S. food system is undeniable. But even as innovation and competition in this now $219 billion industry reaches a fever pitch, many experts witness an ironic stagnation in meaningful change. Does the market need more flavor choices in popcorn or more format choices for matcha? Maybe. But what the world urgently needs is innovations that work to regenerate the systems—ecological, financial, cultural and climatic—so threatened by rampant consumption.
“We brought this just amazing innovation to the food industry,” Robyn O’Brien says about the natural products industry, “and we’ve reinvented these toxic products, brought them back into this wholesome, nutritious product.” The author, speaker and vice president of impact investing firm rePlant Capital has been tracking the industry throughout her career. “But then we just got stuck, and we kind of kept trying to reinvent ourselves on that wheel. And it just became a wheel that, instead of moving us forward, started spinning in place.”
Too much of the industry today, O’Brien believes, is focused on the end-user product. “But if you think about everything it takes to get there, we need innovation at every level, from distribution to packaging, to transportation.”
Seal the Seasons may not hit every level, but it is pioneering something meaningfully different in distribution. The company has now replicated its model in six growing regions across the country, working with nearly 60 farmers and selling frozen fruit in 3,000 grocery stores, proving that a local focus doesn’t inhibit a company’s national growth potential.
There are clear ecological benefits to its model (Piasecki says each two pounds of fruit eliminates one pound of greenhouse gases when compared to average frozen food), but the motivation for the brand is really in the people it serves: the farmers struggling in a global market, the retailers attempting to satisfy demand for local, and the consumers seeking that local product—whether to support the farmer they met at the farmers market or just to buy American.
It’s only going to become more important, Piasecki predicts, as consumers increasingly care “not only what their food is, but where it’s coming from, what it’s treated with, who’s growing it, are they paid a fair wage?” Quality matters, too, and he believes Seal the Seasons delivers on this. But he distinguishes between brand promise and product promise, which is just a matter of quality standards.
“Consumers want that product to be great,” he says about the interaction of those promises. “They want that product to be sold to them at a value they think is fair, and they want that product to be produced in a way that is fair to everyone.”
Taking a step back
TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky distinguishes between two different types of innovation. Even when trying to solve big problems, innovators often employ what he calls “twist innovation,” wherein tweaks are made to existing product concepts to make incremental improvements. What inspires Szaky, is what he calls “step back” innovation. By stepping back to look at the problem being solved, Szaky says, innovations can stimulate monumental leaps into the future. “Uber’s a good example, right? It’s not a better cab or a better price, it’s thinking about the concept of mobility within what resources are on the road today,” he says. “Or taking an arbitrary example of oral hygiene, I take a step back and first understand why it is the problem of oral hygiene even exists, what are the causes?” That, he says, is when innovators start thinking about not just the object, but the way the consumer receives it and interactes with it. Once the source problem is understood, he says, “you may land on an answer that doesn’t look like a toothbrush at all.” That would be a unique market advantage compared to a toothbrush “incrementally twisted” to feature new bristles or a better handle. “And I think that’s where you’re going to get the biggest opportunity to succeed, especially as an entrepreneur or a smaller company.”Package deal
TerraCycle exists to eliminate the very idea of waste through collection and remanufacture programs. This intersects with the food and household goods industry on packaging. After all, even as islands of single-use plastics continue to pollute the oceans, “packaged” remains the middle name of the CPG world. (Indeed, TerraCycle’s programs include working with P&G to package the world’s top-selling shampoo, Head & Shoulders, in recycled ocean plastic.) For TerraCycle’s most ambitious program to date, the team applied a step back approach to packaging, asking why packaging exists and how those needs can be met without giving in to single-use materials. This step back also included a look back. “In the past, garbage didn’t exist,” Szaky says. “Things were reusable, things were beautiful, things were more durable, things were higher quality.” All major positives, he says, especially when compared to the disposable, low-quality packages we use today that don’t often deliver a particularly good consumer experience beyond the most basic function. The exploration resulted in Loop, a bold plan to create packaging that is both durable and appealing to consumers and can be returned, cleaned and reused—not recycled—at the same value level again and again, and to build it with the biggest players in household goods: P&G, Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Clorox and Unilever. This required “thinking beyond the three-dimensional design of the product and the two-dimensional artwork that adorns it,” Szaky says, and tackling the system behind it. Each of these brands, and others, are participating to create what Szaky calls an ecosystem, and thereby a critical mass of offerings consumers can interact with—something he believes is required to create the momentum necessary for Loop to be successful. Presently the programs are handled by mail, but eventually will involve major retailers selling goods and collecting empties. In other words, not settling for a new twist on packaging has the potential to be, Szaky says, “a monumental reinvention of the very concept of that idea in a very futuristic way.” The program is off to a good start. Since its launch early this year—with a few hundred products in a handful of cities—Project Loop has engaged over 10,000 consumers. “The world is falling deeply out of love with packaging,” Szaky says. “Seeing the negative, losing the delight on the positives, it’s an existential crisis for packaging at the moment, which is the perfect time to open and question all the foundations around it.” Any potential success is a product of timing, Szaky says. “If you go back to the 1970s and 1980s, people were so in love with [packaging], you couldn’t foundationally have those discussions, because people didn’t see the problems. They had the love but not the negative.” Now, he says, everything is open to change. “It’s a massive ask of these brands,” Szaky says, “to ask them to reinvent everything: how they account for physical product itself, how it’s filled, the entire economic backbone to it, so on and so forth. But now with this particular time where we are, those conversations are on the table. Enthusiastically.”Now’s the time
Innovation, of course, is always a question of timing. Changes in the collective consciousness make way for new opportunities to solve more fundamental problems. Are sufficient numbers of consumers eager enough to embrace the motivation behind the innovation? Are we ready to reassess some of the fundamental assumptions of capitalism? “In a way, it’s the same problem Wall Street has, where it’s just this insatiable drive to consistently be on your earnings model, quarter after quarter after quarter,” says O’Brien. “And when you get into that mindset of demanded, extracted growth, we pay a price.” O’Brien would like the industry to go deeper, like Seal the Seasons and TerraCycle have. “The invitation is to really think of the entire supply chain, the entire sourcing process, and think about ways we can do this in a smarter, more holistic way,” she says. “That’s the higher calling. I mean, that’s really what we’ve been called to do in the industry, is to innovate on the food system, not just the food product.”Day 11: Going Zero Waste at Work
It is easier than you think and can be an important part of your office culture.
Thinking about going zero waste at work? Whether your office is focused on sustainable design or you just want to reduce your garbage output, going zero-waste can be an important—and beneficial—part of your office culture. Diverting all or most waste into reuse or recycling may sound challenging, of course, but there’s a pretty easy roadmap to getting there.
“The word ‘zero’ can be daunting,” says Tiffany Threadgould, global vice president at waste management company TerraCycle, which offers a broad, national recycling program. Begin where you are, she advises, and look for the low-hanging fruit. “Our office is a great example of one that’s evolved over time,” she says.
To get started, conduct an audit to determine what waste materials your office is generating most. Is it fabric samples? Junk mail? Chip bags? The audit doesn’t need to be formal, but it should include observing the contents of garbage cans, amount of paper on desks, and single-use items in break rooms.
To go zero-waste, it’s crucial to heed the three Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle, and in that order. Once you’ve identified your biggest culprits, figure out how to cut back. For many offices, lunch is a problem area. Replace disposable drink- and flatware with reusables. Terracycle’s Loop program offers snacks, cleaning products, and more in reusable packaging that can be returned and refilled. And increasingly, subscription compost services will pick up your organic matter, too.
Pre-cycling—the concept of considering how much waste a product will create before you even buy it—is also essential. How recyclable or reusable is a particular office supply? Do you really need it? “It’s about being cognizant of what you’re buying and what you’re using,” says Threadgould.
Where it comes to paper, for example, by some accounts the average American office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper annually. Reduce that by sharing documents digitally. When printing is necessary, a high-efficiency printer will use less ink and toner. Invest in quality, durable goods built to last, consider renting equipment you use only occasionally, and look for manufacturers—like office furnishings leaders Herman Miller and Humanscale—that meet high sustainable standards and offer take-back programs. And for materials that can’t be easily recycled regionally, check out Terracycle’s extensive recycling programs, many of which are free.
At LPA, a sustainable architecture firm based in Southern California, the zero-waste program includes eliminating personal garbage cans at desks, which reduced bins in their 280-person office from 300 to 24. The goal was twofold: minimizing waste by changing behavior, but also increasing collaboration by getting workers up from their desks. The move saves on maintenance costs, too.
The program is also a talking point with clients, many of whom feel inspired to go zero-waste, too. “It’s a great PR opportunity for us,” says Rick D’Amato, the design director and principal who steered the effort. “But the minute you start talking about the bottom line, that really gets their attention.”
For any zero-waste program to succeed, educating employees is critical, and chances are good you’ll meet a little resistance. It helps to clearly spell out benefits to staff, says D’Amato, who admits he’s had to nudge a few co-workers into compliance. “Stick to your guns, though,” he says. “If everyone is on board, change happens much more quickly.”
Gerber Offer Baby Food Packaging Recycling Program
Gerber, the early childhood nutrition leader, has partnered with international recycling company TerraCycle to help give hard-to-recycle baby food packaging a new life. This partnership is rooted in Gerber and TerraCycle's shared values around eliminating waste and supports the recovery of hard-to-recycle baby food packaging on a national scale.
What Do You Do With Old Toothbrushes?
Do you have a stash of old manual toothbrushes, in case they may come in handy for cleaning? How many do you really need? Liberate the rest and Terracycle® them! Just put them in the yellow bin at the Littleton Transfer Station, near the tires, behind the cardboard collector. This is where you may recycle your empty toothpaste tubes, empty floss containers, empty mouthwash bottles, empty deodorant containers, and manual toothbrushes, as well as any of their outer packaging. Please note that all items should be emptied, and that no aerosols or electric toothbrush parts will be accepted. Terracycle® and Tom’s of Maine® are sponsors of this recycling stream, but containers may be of any brand. More information may be found at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tom-s-of-maine-natural-care-brigade/brigade_faqs . Still have questions? Please leave a message at 978-501-5336.
Clean Up, Aisle 3
TerraCycle
pepsico
Unilever
Include USA
P&G
Walgreens
Loop
Clorox
Kroger
Cascade
Tide PurClean
Seventh Generation
Febreze One
The home cleaning market has been saddled with lackluster growth for years. New players, with new ideas, hope to shake up this $3.4 billion category.
The only thing worse than cleaning the home is purchasing cleaning products, a process that wastes time and resources, according to detractors. No wonder that the newest ideas in home cleaning have less to do with cleaning spills than cleaning up the buying process.
While few people admit to enjoy cleaning their homes, there’s no denying that the home cleaning category, when taken together, is a giant business. According to IRI, household cleaner sales in grocery, drug, mass market, military and select club and dollar retailers, rose 1.2% to more than $3.46 billion for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 8, 2019.
Of course, some segments performed better than others. For example, all-purpose cleaner/disinfectant sales rose 4.7% to nearly $1.3 billion, but national brand managers should temper their enthusiasm, considering that private label sales surged more than 35% during the period. Oven and appliance cleaners and degreasers also outpaced overall industry growth, rising 8.3% to more than $203 million. The category has been a boon for Procter & Gamble, as its sales jumped more than 58% during the period, according to IRI. Meanwhile, sales were flat in multimillion-dollar categories like toilet bowl cleaners/deodorizers.
But with sales limping along with a growth rate lower than the population growth, some entrepreneurs insist that the category is ripe for dramatic change through simplification. According to the founders of Truman’s, a new line of cleaning products, the cleaning process has become extremely complicated with a variety of formulas, SKUs, colors and scents. Their answer is four spray cleaners that work effectively on a variety of surfaces. There’s Everything And The Kitchen Sink kitchen cleaner, Floors Truly floor cleaner, More Shower To You bathroom cleaner and The Glass is Always Cleaner glass cleaner.
What’s more, all four formulas come in concentrated cartridges. Consumers fill and refill spray bottles using water and cleaner formulas that are about the size of a Lifesavers package. It all adds up to a big savings in packaging and shipping costs—issues that have moved front and center with consumers.
For Truman’s co-founders, reinventing an existing business model is nothing new. Jon Bostock and Alex Reed co-founded Truman’s after shaking up the staid industrial fan business. Bostock is the former president and COO of Big Ass Fans (BAF), which designs and sells large fans and lighting systems for industrial, commercial and farm use. Reed was BAF’s global marketing director. BAF was sold at the end of 2017, but Bostock and Reed wanted to do something entrepreneurial together.
“We believe in the direct-to-consumer model and innovative products, and we felt that cleaning had been left behind,” Reed told Happi. “The supply chain is broken; products are primarily water, so companies are basically shipping and warehousing a small amount of active.”
Problems continued once palettes are unloaded and products are placed on retail store shelves, according to Reed.
“With so many unnecessary cleaners and fragrances, it is all very confusing,” he insisted. “No brand was born in the digital age of listening to the consumer. The category needed to be reimagined throughout the value chain.”
Truman’s is a startup, but in its short existence company executives realized that consumers have an appetite for easy-to-use products that are “non-toxic.”
People like to engage with us via social media and our website (www.Trumans.com),” insists Reed. “Household cleaning is a sleepy category and it doesn’t have to be.”
In fact, Truman’s woke up Henkel to the possibility of a fun, DTC model. Two months ago, the multinational took a stake in the Louisville, KY-based startup. With the minority investment in Truman’s, Henkel is taking over the role as lead investor in a seed round totaling $5 million.
“Convenience and sustainability today are top-of-mind for an increasing number of today’s consumers and we continuously advance our portfolio while addressing these topics. Specifically, when it comes to packaging, Henkel pursues ambitious targets for sustainable packaging to promote a circular economy and reduce plastic waste,” said Robert Günther, corporate director, Henkel Ventures, in statement. “We look forward to gaining insights from the Truman’s team, as well as supporting them with our expertise and resources.”
The feeling is definitely mutual, said Reed, who noted that Henkel has broad manufacturing capabilities and international distribution.
“We wanted to do more than take a paycheck,” he recalled. “Henkel has expertise in international trade and compliance, and has new technology, too. Now we have access to it.”
Will Henkel ultimately offer the founders a buyout? Not necessarily.
“Henkel’s venture arm made the investment and they want to see the value of the investment increase; this isn’t an acquisition nor is it a path to acquisition,” explained Reed. “We aren’t seeking new funds at this time, but it shows that the multinationals are interested (in a new model).”
New from P&G
Multinationals want new, whether its home grown or brought inside. Procter & Gamble expanded the Mr. Clean franchise earlier this year with two new formulas. Clean Freak is said to have three times the cleaning power of conventional all-purpose cleaners, and acts on contact to remove 100% of dirt, grease and grime leaving nothing behind but a perfect shine, according to Mary Johnson, a spokesperson for Procter & Gamble. The brand also launched Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sheets that have Magic Eraser’s cleaning power but are thin and flexible.
“Recently, we’ve focused on designing more plant-based products, to meet consumer needs and help increase our use of renewable materials,” explained Johnson. “We’ve introduced a plant-based portfolio in Fabric Care, with Tide purclean, Downy Nature Blends, Dreft purtouch and Gain Botanicals, and we’ve launched Home Made Simple, a plant-based home care & cleaning line designed to meet EPA Safer Choice and USDA Standards.”
The Home Made Simple line includes detergent, fabric softener, multipurpose cleaner, hand soap and dish soap. According to P&G research, about 8% of consumers are committed to a lifestyle that includes natural products, but up to 76% of consumers are interested in trying such products. About 24% of consumers aren’t interested in naturals.
Cleaner products that help consumers clean their homes has other benefits, too.
“Consumers across the country are increasingly tapping into the mental clarity and peace of mind that comes from not only a clean home, but from the act of cleaning itself,” observed Johnson. “Most consumers are aware of the physical benefits of a good clean, but more and more consumers are turning to cleaning as a way to clear their minds, take a pause from the hectic pace of daily life and use that as a moment of ‘me time.’”
Johnson pointed to the new phenomenon of “clean with me” videos has caught fire on YouTube. These videos, which literally take the viewer around a stranger’s home as they clean it, have been viewed more than 200 million times, with more than 5,000 new video uploads in the past few months alone.
She told Happi that for P&G brands, sustainability comes to life in everyday moments, like washing laundry and doing dishes.
“For example, as more and more people strive to adopt resource-efficient habits, it becomes increasingly important to use products designed to perform in the toughest conditions. If you’re washing clothes in shorter, colder cycles, you need a detergent like Tide, that’s been designed with a specific enzyme to clean in the quickest, coldest wash. If you want to use less water to get clean dishes, you need a product that doesn’t require a pre-rinse, like Cascade, which lets you skip the rinse and save up to 15 gallons of water per load. If you’re using a lower performing product and something doesn’t get clean, chances are you’ll compensate for that by washing it again—this time with more water or more product, driving your footprint up. So that’s why we design products like Tide and Cascade specifically to help save water, time and energy, without sacrificing the clean you need.”
At the same time, P&G is aware that the way its products are made matters too. So, the company makes its brands at facilities that use 100% renewable wind power electricity and send zero manufacturing waste to landfill.
“We’ve helped the industry tackle important challenges like the creation of a recycling stream for colored PET, and we’re working to find alternatives to plastics, like Cascade cartons made from 100% recycled wood pulp,” said Johnson.
Finally, P&G is being transparent about what’s in its products and why. Johnson noted that P&G was one of the first firms to participate in the online SmartLabel system, where you can find information about all of P&G’s fabric and home care products listed.
“Today, we working to incorporate more of this information onto our packaging to further our transparency efforts and enable you to make informed choices,” she said.
SC Johnson has been the leader in ingredient transparency for years. In September, SC Johnson released its 2018/19 Sustainability Report. During the past year, the company has removed 1.7 million kilograms of plastic from primary packaging. Furthermore, 94% of the company’s plastic packaging is now recyclable, reusable or compostable.
Recently, SC Johnson let its membership in the Plastics Industry Association expire. In a statement, SCJ said it strongly believes governments should be able to democratically ban plastics if that’s what its citizens want.
“Leaving the Plastics Industry Association was a difficult situation because we respect the work they’re doing on recycling and plastic innovation,” a company spokesperson told Happi. “However, its connection to the American Progressive Bag Alliance became confusing. SC Johnson is committed to packaging innovation and post-consumer recycled content and you’ll see more from us in the future.”
Are You in the Loop?
Whether startup or multinational, nearly every FMCG company is determined to reduce its packaging footprint. Last year, more than 250 companies, including PepsiCo and H&M, pledged to cut back on their use of plastic, including making all of their packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Packaging is the hot-button issue of the moment and TerraCycle, the creator of Loop, is pushing all the right buttons. Launched in May, Loop is billed as a global circular shopping platform that’s designed to eliminate the idea of waste by transforming the products and packaging of everyday items from single-use to durable, multi-use, feature-packed designs, according to TerraCycle, which developed Loop more than a year ago, introduced the concept at Davos and has expanded from three US states to 11 in six months. Loop is also available in Paris and, most recently, London.
“The growth and acceptance has been wonderful,” said Anthony Rossi, VP-global business development, Loop. “We are adding nearly a brand a day.”
At press time, Loop offered 150 products and Rossi expected that number to climb to 350 by year-end. So, who’s in the Loop? Well-known companies such as Clorox, P&G, Seventh Generation and Unilever offer an array of cleaners, detergents and personal care products in reusable, returnable, often stainless-steel packaging. Loop delivers products to its members’ doors and picks up the packaging when it’s depleted. Products are reordered online and after seven or eight uses, The Loop process turns positive for the environment, according to TerraCycle.
For now, consumers can order products at Loopstore.com, and Kroger and Walgreens are the official retail partners. Loop is just getting started, but there have already been a lot of lessons learned, according to Rossi.
“Faster moving products, such as snacks and beverage, create a lot of engagement with consumers,” he told Happi. “On the home care side, autodish pods and all-purpose cleaners have been performing very well.”
Getting in the Loop isn’t easy. Suppliers are making heavy investment in packaging and filling lines, but as Rossi notes, “they wouldn’t do it if the reaction wasn’t positive and there wasn’t demand for our products.”
Procter & Gamble was one of the first companies to join the Loop program. P&G designed packaging that is both reusable and recyclable for Febreze One, an ultra-durable package for Cascade and a stainless-steel refillable package for Tide Purclean. All three of these solutions are designed for consumer convenience and reuse, and to enable ongoing learning within the new platform, according to Johnson.
“While it’s still very early in the test markets, we have seen that consumer appeal increases when the product offering broadens, so we are encouraging more brands to join Loop as we all learn together in this important space,” she said.
Coming Next Month
A different kind of packaging issue was front and center earlier this year. The household cleaning industry won a key battle in August when the Supreme Court of the State of New York ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Household & Commercial Product Association (HCPA) and the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) attempts to force cleaning product manufacturers to disclose chemical ingredients and identify any ingredients that appear on authoritative lists of chemicals of concern on their websites. The Court found that the NYSDEC Disclosure Program is “null and void” and remitted the matter back to NYSDEC with the directive to comply with State Administrative Procedure Act.
“It was a huge decision,” recalled Steve Caldeira, president and CEO, HCPA. “Any time you litigate against a state it is a big undertaking.”
According to Caldeira, the ruling underscores HCPA’s successful strategy to collaborate with other stakeholders on key issues.
“The HCPA has a good reputation of being collaborative and inclusive. Engagement and collaboration is our mantra and we will continue to do so.”
At the same time, however, Caldeira observed that the association is willing to go it alone when it involves critical issues. Two years ago, when California passed the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act, HCPA engaged in intense negotiations with NGOs and other stakeholders, when many other associations, were neutral on the issue. HCPA also played a leading role in the reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA), which was signed by President Donald J. Trump this Spring and will remain in effect through 2023.
Also this year, HCPA earned the 2019 Safer Choice Partner of the Year from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
“To win this award is humbling and we are very grateful. It speaks to the vision and mission of our board and the engagement of our membership,” said Caldeira. “We have a lot of big wins, because we have a talented staff, an engaged board and are focused on the right issues.”
Of course, more issues are on the horizon. For example, the California legislature adjourned before acting on the Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act, which would require all single-use packaging sold in California on or after Jan. 1, 2030 to be recyclable or compostable.
HCPA member companies are part of the Alliance To End Plastic Waste, a group made up of some the leading suppliers and marketers in the home came industry. These companies have pledged $1.5 billion over the next five years to solve some of the issues surrounding plastic.
“Plastic is an issue that consumers care about and one that we must address,” said Caldeira. “Whatever we can do as companies and trade associations to become smarter and innovate around plastic is important.”
During XPand 2019, the HCPA Annual Meeting, several important issues will be in focus. The event takes place in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Dec. 8-11, 2019.
The overarching theme of the Annual Meeting is innovation and, for the first time, the HCPA will honor members with its Innovation Awards, which will be granted in five categories—ingredients, sustainability, consumer communication, technology and game-changing innovation.
Annual Meeting programming will center on operational excellence, consumer education and sustainability stewardship. There will be sessions on consumer habits, ecommerce, retailer updates, supply chain disruption and diversity. The keynote speaker is Nancy Giordano, a strategic futurist and corporate strategist who has guided transformation projects with The Coca Cola Company, Brinker International, Sprint, Nestle, Acumen, Energizer, Mercedes Benz and many other Fortune 500 companies.
On Dec. 11, HCPA will host a Preservation Summit that will feature presentations by Beth Ann Browne of DuPont, Tony Rook and Doug Mazeffa of Sherwin Williams, Petra Kern and Jeff Van Komen of Procter & Gamble, and other key stakeholders to further the discussion about the benefits of product preservation.
According to HCPA, the goal of the Summit is to help inform legislators, retailers, decision makers and NGOs about the benefits of product preservation by developing scientific and consumer-friendly data and educational content that can be used to communicate effectively with a range of target audiences.
In 2020, HCPA staff will continue to collaborate with other groups to find a solution at the national level regarding ingredient communication.
“We will continue to the use the California model for a national solution. Patchwork regulations can be onerous and costly,” observed Caldeira. “We need common sense solutions. We will continue to work with the Grocery Manufacturers Association, ACI and others to find a solution. There are a lot of great things going on, but we have to stay focused, collaborate with NGOs and like-minded trade groups.”
The strategy is paying off, as HCPA membership and revenue continue to grow slowly and steadily. During his three years at the helm of the association, HCPA has been rebranded, developed economic data to better tell its story on Capitol Hill and at the state level, updated its strategic plan and and expanded its board and officers.
“There is growing interest among companies to have a voice as we expand,” Caldeira concluded. “If you stay stagnant, you get left behind.”