THURSDAY, 9 MAY 2024 | AERIAL AT UTS, SYDNEY

PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY AND PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY ACROSS THE LIFECYCLE

The Australian Product Stewardship Forum 2024

Your gateway to learning, sharing knowledge, inspiring action, networking, and positive impact in responsible product lifecycle management with industry leaders, policymakers, and experts.

About the Event

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence recently hosted the Australian Product Stewardship Forum.

This one-day event included international keynote speakers and interactive discussion panels that inspired and challenged businesses and governments on what they can do to ensure that products placed on the Australian market are more sustainable and less harmful to the environment and society across their entire lifecycle.

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for the Environment and Water participated in a conversation with John Gertsakis, Director of the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence. It was more than a QandA, this open-ended dialogue discussed the challenging issues, opportunities, and reforms underway to help deliver real world circularity and producer responsibility across the product lifecycle.

The speakers and panellists discussed how innovative business practices, and government policies including procurement, regulation, standards, reporting, financial incentives, along with communications and education can enable circular product design. Discussions also considered the role of sustainable and renewable resource use, avoidance of hazardous substances, product durability, reuse, repairability, recyclability, end of life management of products, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations.

Who attended?

The Forum was inclusive and relevant to diverse stakeholders, including brands, manufacturers, importers, retailers, start-ups, government policy makers, existing and emerging scheme managers, investors, repairers, recyclers, communicators, educators, and logistics suppliers.

The forum was relevant to any organisation that places products on the Australian market, or is involved in managing and servicing products, including local government, charities, reuse, repair and recycling businesses.

Why Attend?

The Forum provided perspectives on producer responsibilities across the lifecycle; what this means for you as a brand, an importer, or retailer, and how you can proactively own the impacts and opportunities associated with an authentic product stewardship approach.

The event also facilitated networking opportunities to help attendees identify and forge valuable connections with like-minded professionals, businesses, and policy makers, creating a dynamic and driven community committed to environmentally and socially responsible product lifecycle management through the principles of product stewardship.

Event Highlights

Comprehensive insights and experiences
Experience a full day of impressive speakers, interactive panel discussions, and knowledge-sharing where participants will contribute to a collective pool of expertise exploring new ideas and tested approaches that have and can achieve measurable positive impact through authentic product stewardship.

Spotlight on best practice
The Forum will highlight best practices and challenge your thinking on what is possible, empowering participants with actionable strategies and ideas to enhance the responsible lifecycle management of products through product stewardship principles, including the relevance of effective EPR regulations.

Global perspectives
Hear and learn from local and international experts who will share their experience on specific challenges, solutions, and opportunities across the product supply chain, to advance more effective product stewardship in Australia across diverse industries and product categories.

Core principles of product stewardship
The Forum’s overarching objective is to amplify and accelerate the uptake of effective product stewardship action and understanding of the environmental, social, and economic benefits of outcome-focused product stewardship schemes and initiatives.

Forum Communiqué

The Communiqué provides a summary of the Forum as well as numerous take-aways and reflections. The Foreword by Vaughan Levitzke PSM is an informed perspective that reinforces the need for national leadership, and policy reform by taking the necessary actions in a timely manner.

Thank you again to those who attended the Forum and the event’s Gold Sponsor – the NSW EPA. Your participation and speakers from Australia and abroad made it a productive and solution-oriented gathering. To those who could not be there on the day, we hope you find the Communiqué a useful account of the deliberations.

DOWNLOAD THE FORUM COMMUNIQUE

Forum Presentations

Thank you to all those who attended the Australian Product Stewardship Forum. We hope you found it informative and valuable. The presentation slides from the Forum are now available to all attendees.

The presentation slides are split into three decks for the morning, mid-day, and afternoon sessions. The documents will be available for free until the end of July 2024. Click on the links below to access the relevant presentation:

PRESENTATION 1: MORNING SESSION

PRESENTATION 2: MID-DAY SESSION

PRESENTATION 3: AFTERNOON SESSION

Thank you for your participation and continued support. If you have any questions or require additional support don’t hesitate to contact us through our online form.

Thank you to our Gold Sponsor

We extend our appreciation to the NSW Environment Protection Authority for their generous support as the Gold sponsor of the Australian Product Stewardship Forum.

The NSW EPA takes an environmental stewardship approach to regulating NSW. We are responsible for caring, protecting and restoring the environment for generations of today and tomorrow. We do this through being focused on outcomes that lead to a sustainable state, being guided by empathy to bring outside perspectives in and ensure our regulations are informed by these views, and by being committed to collaborating with our stakeholders to overcome environmental challenges. Join us on our mission to protect tomorrow together.

Acknowledgement

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence has received funding from the Australian Government to assist with its establishment including support for running this Forum.

We also wish to acknowledge our consortium partners – Australian Industry Group, UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures and Dentsu Creative – for their contribution to establishing the Centre.

Program

As speakers, panellists and sponsors are confirmed, the program will be updated. Check back regularly for updates.

8:00AM – 9:00AM
Registration and Networking Breakfast

9:00AM – 10:30AM
Opening of Forum and Keynote Presentations

Welcome and opening of the Forum followed by keynote presentations.

PArticipants heard from The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for the Environment and Water in conversation with John Gertsakis, Director of the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence. It was more than a QandA, this open-ended dialogue discussed the challenging issues, opportunities, and reforms underway to help deliver real world circularity and producer responsibility across the product lifecycle.

Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, Director for Circular Economy in the European Commission (online) reported on landmark policies, directives, and regulations being applied by members of the European Union.

Three separate panel discussions were facilitated by Claire Kneller, Managing Director of WRAP Asia Pacific. Time has been allocated to allow and encourage questions from Forum delegates.

10:30AM – 12:00PM
Panel Discussion Session
DESIGN & PRODUCTION | MATERIALS, DESIGN, MANUFACTURING
Panelists presented on specific policies, programs, and business actions that drive responsible supply chain practices, including circular product and service design, more sustainable material choices, efficient resource use, emissions reduction, avoidance of unsafe chemicals, and reuse of recovered materials. Speakers included:

Matjaž Malgaj | Head of Unit & Coordinator of the Sustainable Products Initiative, European Commission (online)

Steve Baty | Chief Executive Officer, Australian Design Council

Audrey Chinn | Senior Adviser, Telstra Corporation

Sebastien Ng | National Sales Manager Solar Energy, Fronius Australia

Katherine Featherstone | Senior Manager – Products & Materials, Green Building Council of Australia

12:00PM – 1:00PM
Networking Lunch

1:00PM – 2.30PM
Panel Discussion Session
CONSUMPTION | USE, REUSE, REPAIR, RETAIL
Panelists presented on specific policies, regulations, programs, and business actions that can extend the life of products, foster repair and reuse, educate consumers, and incentivise more sustainable behaviours. Innovative business models focused on waste prevention will also be explored and discussed. Speakers included:

Jennifer Macklin | Senior Research Officer, BehaviourWorks Australia

Ainsley Simpson | Chief Executive Officer, Seamless | Australia’s Clothing Stewardship Scheme

Professor Leanne Wiseman | Griffith Law School & Convenor of the Australian Repair Network

David Woollcott | Chief Executive Officer, King Living Furniture

3:00PM – 4:30PM
Panel Discussion Session
POST CONSUMPTION | END OF LIFE
Panelists presented on specific policies, regulations, programs, and business actions covering product take-back of used products, collection and logistics, material recovery and recycling, as well as establishing new markets for recovered products, parts, and materials. Speakers included:

Pablo Dias | Cofounder and CTO, Solarcycle Inc. (online)

Libby Chaplin | Chief Executive Officer, Battery Stewardship Council

Vaughan Levitzke PSM | Member of the Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group

Danielle Smalley | Chief Executive Officer, Exchange for Change

Tony Chappel | CEO, NSW EPA

4:30PM – 5:00PM
Closing Keynote Address and Remarks
Pete Shmigel from Uplift Consulting and a general hand at Revolve ReCYCLING wrapped up the Forum with a solution-oriented address including reflections on the day’s activities.

Louise McGrath, the Head of Industry Development and Policy at the Australian Industry Group also shared some closing remarks.

5:00PM – 7:00 PM
Networking Drinks
MC for the evening was Professor Damien Giurco from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS.

DOWNLOAD PROGRAM GUIDE

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence is an independent, not for profit charity, that seeks to reduce waste generation and create positive environmental and social outcomes through sustainable design, resource conservation, reuse, repair, and recycling. The Centre helps businesses, industries, and product stewardship organisations to adopt a strong lifecycle approach to deliver their ESG and circular economy objectives. We also provide independent advice on product stewardship priorities to the Australian government.

Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence | c/- Institute for Sustainable Futures | University of Technology | PO Box 123 | Broadway NSW 2007