2nd National Summit for Retailers - Preliminary Agenda

Tuesday, May 7th

8:30 - 9:00am  

Registration and Breakfast

9:00 – 9:45am 

Welcome

• Sally Edwards, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
• Guy Gleysteen, Executive, Time, Inc.

9:45 – 10:45am 

Drivers for Safer Chemicals and Products in the Retail Sector and Key Leverage Points for Change

• Why are retailers working to ensuring that the products they source and sell are made of safer chemicals?
• What are the main strategies that leading retailers are using (such as reformulating private label products)?   What’s working?  What lessons can be learned by retailers in the same or different sectors?
• What barriers are retailers facing as they work to advance safer chemicals in products? 
• What do retailers stand to gain (or lose) as they engage in this effort?
• What does this mean for your company?

Panel Discussion:

• Mark Buckley, Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Staples
• John Frazier, Senior Director of Chemical Innovation, Nike

11:00am – 12:15pm

Educating Consumers and Building Demand for Safer Products

• What is the retailer’s role in getting customers to care about safer products, and what are the challenges to doing so?
• How do you gain the trust of customers about safer products if ‘green’ is not your brand identity?
• What has worked?  What hasn’t worked?
• What is more effective:  greening mainstream brands or driving customers to the “deep green” products?  What are the challenges in each approach?
• What do you want customers to know to help drive demand for safer products?

Panel Discussion:

• Sarah Beatty, CEO, Green Depot
• Martin Wolf, Director of Product & Environmental Technology, Seventh Generation

• Margaret Morey-Reuner, Senior Manager of Global Brand and Values Marketing, Timberland

12:15 – 1:15pm

Lunch and Networking

1:15 – 2:30pm

Addressing Supply Chain Challenges to Encourage the Manufacture and Sale of Safer Products

• What are some effective approaches for working with suppliers to ensure that products contain safer chemicals?
• What systems are retailers using to identify and track chemicals of concern in supply chains? What’s working?   What additional information is needed?
• How effective are chemical policies and restricted substance lists?  What other information do suppliers need to respond to concerns about chemicals in products?
• How can retailers know that their suppliers have selected safer alternatives to chemicals of concern?

Panel Discussion:

• Brittni Furrow, Director, Sustainability, Food and Consumables, Walmart

• Roger McFadden, Vice President and Senior Scientist, Staples

• Greg Montello, Product Chemistry Manager, New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.

New Tools to Assist Retailers in the Transition to Safer Chemicals and Products

• How are retailers using these tools to make the transition to safer chemicals and products?
• Do these tools address gaps that retailers have found in other tools?
•  What other tools have retailers found to be helpful?
• Where is a good place to start and how can those already engaged go deeper?

Panel Discussion:

• Kevin Myette, Director, Product Supply Chain and Sustainability, REI
• Mark Rossi, Co-director, Clean Production Action and Co-chair, BizNGO
• Peter Syrett, Partner, rePlace Urban Studio

Open Discussion and Next Steps

• What have you learned and what might you do differently as a result of this meeting?
• What do you want the GC3 to do to support your efforts?