Sustainability in Licensing Conference confirms its return for 2021

The Sustainability in Licensing Conference has confirmed its return for 2021 with plans to take place at The British Library in London while dual-cast digitally across the SILC21 digital platform.

Breaking new ground in the licensing industry when it launched last year, the 2021 edition of the conference is scheduled to take place on June 24 this year. The event is once again aimed at everyone in the licensing arena, from retailers to licensors, licensees to trade suppliers.

Launched by Max Publishing along with Products of Change (the online membership platform for sustainable advancement within the industry) and curated by Helena Mansell-Stopher – an experienced licensing executive and founder of Products of Change, SILC 2021 will aim to inspire and inform as to how the sector can continue to innovate and grow commercially while not costing the planet.

The agenda will see leading lights and visionaries from outside and within the industry as well as retail experts, all sharing their inspiring achievements and demonstrating the gains, both environmentally and financially, that can be made.

“It has been amazing to learn of the businesses that were inspired by the speakers last year and have since implemented those learnings into actionable sustainable change, and it’s because of this I am extremely proud to curate the 2021 line up,” said Mansell-Stopher.

“To drive sustainable growth within the licensing industry over the next few decades will require a radical approach to business practices, be it through embracing new materials and production techniques, re-engineering packaging or adopting new marketing methods, all without sacrificing financial growth. Our aim with SILC 2021 is to help both future-proof our industry and our world.”

Already, a number of leading companies have pledged their official support to SILC 2021, underlining their commitment to change within the industry, including BBC Studios, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Natural History Museum, ViacomCBS, Hasbro, Character World, TDP Textiles, Dreamtex, Amscan and GB Eye with more due to be announced in the coming weeks.

Products of Change is the headline supporter of SILC 2021.

Louis Kennedy celebrates 30 years of it sustainability drive and joins Products of Change

Compounding a 30 year history in driving partnerships centered on sustainability and strong ethics, Louis Kennedy has joined the Products of Change initiative as it looks to ‘share ethos with organisations across the licensing space’ and encourage fundamental change across businesses.

Founded in 1991, Louis Kennedy set out its own goals of striving to reduce environmental impact and promote sustainability, as well as be an ethical partner and only associate with highly audited manufacturers who promote high standards of fairness and safety.

Over the course of its 30 years, Louise Kennedy has been building a UK-based supply chain that only uses recycled raw materials to produce recyclable items.

Grant Morgan, CEO of Louis Kennedy has said that while the firm has “not been so vocal in assessing its contribution in the past” it was “joining in the trend” to speak out about its successes going forward. 

“Becoming a member of Products of Change is an important step in this strategy,” said Morgan.

 The firm has said that it has been following the developments of Products of Change and has recognised its exciting potential to help drive and support the initiative.

As a membership organisation, Products of  Change is designed to support, encourage and perpetuate companies and brands in meeting their sustainability goals through educating to inform change and peer-to-peer networking.  

“The ability to connect with other members, which share the same ethos, irrespective of the size of  the organisation, the opportunity to share best practice, learn from experts and develop  partnerships are among the major benefits of membership,” said the company.  

“Louis Kennedy has been connecting the brand and licensing industry to charities and NGOs  for decades; bringing brands with purpose to the forefront of their ethos and driving real social  impact,” added Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder of Products of Change. “It’s an honour to have Louis Kennedy be part of Products of Change and I look forward to what we can achieve together as a group.”

LEGO pledges support to Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2020 with keynote talk

LEGO has pledged its support to the Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2020, the first of its kind for the consumer products and licensing community, set to take place virtually on November 24th and 25th.

Sine Klitgaard Møller, The LEGO Group’s licensing sustainability transformation lead, will take to the digital stage to speak of the importance of change within the toy sector. She will discuss ‘a playful approach’ to sustainable packaging in the licensing industry on the show’s first day, November 24th at 12.30 pm.

Klitgaard Møller began her LEGO career as global licensing creative director over 15 years ago and is now leading the change towards the company’s strategic ambition to have a fully sustainable portfolio for the LEGO licensing portfolio by 2030, starting with packaging transformation by 2025.

“Children are our role models in the LEGO Group and it is their planet we are using, we must protect their future,” she said.

Helena Mansell-Stopher, Sustainability In Licensing Conference curator and director, added: “We are extremely proud to have LEGO join the SILC line up of speakers to present their sustainable journey so far, and learn from the great inroads they are making in this complex area.”

Klitgaard Møller joins a speaker line-up which includes leaders from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Tesco, Asda, Marks and Spencer, Teemil Tech/Rapanui Clothing, Retail Economics, Central Saint Martins, Breakdown Plastics, Wastebusters, Kids Insights and the R&A (The Open) Sustainable Sporting Events covering a wide spectrum of topics.

Click here for the full agenda and speaker information.

The cost of attending SILC 2020 is £95 (+VAT) per delegate. Bookings can be made by clicking here.

A number of companies have already pledged their official support to SILC 2020, underlining their commitment to change within the industry. The Products of Change group is the headline supporter of SILC 2020 while the official supporters include Amscan, BBC Studios, Brandgenuity, Change Plastic for Good, Character World, Discovery, Dreamtex, GB eye, Global Brands Group, Hasbro, MDR Brand Management, Natural History Museum, Smiffys, TDP Textiles, Those Licensing People, University of Oxford, ViacomCBS, and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

LEGO pledges support to Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2020 with keynote talk

LEGO has pledged its support to the Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2020, the first of its kind for the consumer products and licensing community, set to take place virtually on November 24th and 25th.

Sine Klitgaard Møller, The LEGO Group’s licensing sustainability transformation lead, will take to the digital stage to speak of the importance of change within the toy sector. She will discuss ‘a playful approach’ to sustainable packaging in the licensing industry on the show’s first day, November 24th at 12.30 pm.

Klitgaard Møller began her LEGO career as global licensing creative director over 15 years ago and is now leading the change towards the company’s strategic ambition to have a fully sustainable portfolio for the LEGO licensing portfolio by 2030, starting with packaging transformation by 2025.

“Children are our role models in the LEGO Group and it is their planet we are using, we must protect their future,” she said.

Helena Mansell-Stopher, Sustainability In Licensing Conference curator and director, added: “We are extremely proud to have LEGO join the SILC line up of speakers to present their sustainable journey so far, and learn from the great inroads they are making in this complex area.”

Klitgaard Møller joins a speaker line-up which includes leaders from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Tesco, Asda, Marks and Spencer, Teemil Tech/Rapanui Clothing, Retail Economics, Central Saint Martins, Breakdown Plastics, Wastebusters, Kids Insights and the R&A (The Open) Sustainable Sporting Events covering a wide spectrum of topics.

Click here for the full agenda and speaker information.

The cost of attending SILC 2020 is £95 (+VAT) per delegate. Bookings can be made by clicking here.

A number of companies have already pledged their official support to SILC 2020, underlining their commitment to change within the industry. The Products of Change group is the headline supporter of SILC 2020 while the official supporters include Amscan, BBC Studios, Brandgenuity, Change Plastic for Good, Character World, Discovery, Dreamtex, GB eye, Global Brands Group, Hasbro, MDR Brand Management, Natural History Museum, Smiffys, TDP Textiles, Those Licensing People, University of Oxford, ViacomCBS, and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

Sustainability in Licensing Conference to be an all virtual event taking place this November

The inaugural Sustainability in Licensing Conference is to be staged as a virtual two-day event taking place this November 24th to 25th, with a line up featuring never-seen-before research and findings from across the manufacturing and retailing landscape.

SILC 2020 will be the first event of its kind and promises to deliver a full agenda of inspiring and insightful keynote speeches, panel discussions, and research findings from a vast array of experts, retailers, and visionaries all focused on helping everyone in the licensing community to drive sustainable growth.

In a line-up curated by the conference director, Helena Mansell-Stopher, SILC speakers will include leaders from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Tesco, Asda, Marks and Spencer, Teemil Tech/Rapanui Clothing, Retail Economics, Central Saint Martins, Breakdown Plastics, Wastebusters, Kids Insights and the R&A Sustainable Sporting Events.

Mansell-Stopher said: “While all our personal and business lives continue to be disrupted by Covid-19, by taking SILC onto a digital platform means that we can all continue on our sustainable journey. The commitment we have engendered in SILC, as evidenced by the fabulous line-up of speakers and official supporters, highlights the collective drive for change on the sustainable front while also being aware of the commercial realities.”

James George, network development lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation will explain why the circular economy is integral to sustainable growth within the licensing sector, while Martin Drake-Knight, the Co-founder of Rapanui Clothing and Teemil Tech will share how this British entrepreneurial business forged a sustainable fashion revolution with its ‘give back’ scheme.

Meanwhile, on the retail front, Jessica Palalagi, Head of Resource Management at Marks and Spencer will reveal details of its ‘Plan A’; Joe Little, Head of Technical, Fabric, Colour, Sustainability and Technology at F&F, Tesco will share the progress of F&F’s sustainable journey, and Jade Snart, Senior Sustainability Manager George at Asda will reveal the great strides the grocer has made on the environmental front.

Providing some real punch on the commercial side, Richard Lim, Chief Executive Officer of Retail Economics will be demystifying how to unlock sustainable finance.

Click here for the full agenda and speaker information.

The digital format of the conference replaces the physical event that was due to take place at the British Library in London on November 25.

Using the respected Hubilo digital platform, not only will attendees be able to watch the presentations in real time on the 24-25 November, but they can also request video meetings with speakers and other attendees in the afternoons on those days, as well as use a chat function to network with other delegates.

The Conference programme of talks will also be run in its entirety on Thursday 26 November for attendees to view and all presentations will be fully accessible by them until Sunday 29 November.

The cost of attending SILC 2020 is £95 (+VAT) per delegate. Bookings can be made by clicking here.

A great number of leading companies have already pledged their official support to SILC 2020, underlining their commitment to change within the industry.

The Products of Change group is the headline supporter of SILC 2020 while the official supporters include Amscan, BBC Studios, Brandgenuity, Change Plastic for Good, Character World, Discovery, Dreamtex, GB eye, Global Brands Group, Hasbro, MDR Brand Management, Natural History Museum, Smiffys, TDP Textiles, Those Licensing People, University of Oxford, ViacomCBS, and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

For any more details on booking SILC 2020 contact Clare Hollick of Createvents on clare@createvents.co.uk or 01183 340085.

Products of Change’s Helena Mansell Stopher on the new consumer mindset, toys, and sustainability

From a staple of the licensing and merchandising industry to becoming the face for the sweeping change rumbling through it and the minds of consumers across the UK, Helena Mansell Stopher is the director of Products of Change, a platform on a mission to bring sustainability into the heart of the consumer products space.

Licensing.biz catches up with the sustainability specialist to talk about shifting consumer mindsets, the impact of the movement on the toy industry specifically, and the next moves for the Products of Change platform.

Hi Helena, thanks for chatting with us. To start off, can you talk us through Products of Change? What is the concept, and what is it setting out to achieve in the consumer products space?

Of course, I would love to. Products of Change is currently transitioning from a local group discussing sustainable practices, to a global sustainable networking group driven through an online digital hub. The hub will enable members to be sustainably educated through research and educational content, to learn through our webinars and podcast for quick on the go learning, as well as connect through our members hub on site directly to share best practice and gain knowledge.

How did the move all come about for you? What drives you and the mission statement of Products of Change?

It was during my time as licensing director of National Geographic Partners that the devastating effect of climate change and the impact that the consumer goods industry was having on the environment really hit home, we worked extremely closely with the National Geographic Society and once I knew what we were doing, I couldn’t ignore it.

I got a small group of leaders within the industry together to discuss how we can start to make change through sharing best practice. Our mission statement is really ‘educating to inform change’ through bite size pieces of content, we really want to drive peer to peer learning as the only way we can have a positive impact is if we come together collectively to do this.

What has reception been like from across the industries to Products of Change and the movement that you guys are championing? Why is now the right time for everyone to be joining the ‘movement’?

It’s been a phenomenal response, what is encouraging to see is that people truly want to make sustainable change but they just don’t know where to start. Covid has made 2020 the toughest year for business and though many companies are focusing on keeping their head above water, what has become more apparent is the relationship between human activity/business and the natural world, they are all interlinked and have dramatic effects on each other.

If we are to future proof our business we must first look at how we extract materials, our transportation, our carbon footprint, the list goes on to reviewing the full lifecycle and impact of actually creating product, we can then start to build better systems that don’t harm the environment and enable us to look after the planet and its wildlife, and in-turn look after ourselves…. To me this is the reason why the movement is so important now, we have to be the first generation that creates this new path forward for the next generation to follow and excel.

If we look at the toy space specifically – we are seeing a lot more attention being paid to the topic of sustainability from retail and toy brand perspectives, but there’s still a long way to go. Can you talk us through some of the activity Products of Change is starting to see in this department? How do we start to get businesses to think about the significance of the issue today?

For me the toy industry has some of the most imaginative inventors, there are so many elements to play with and because of this I really do feel the industry can start to take a lead in this area, though the flip side of this is the mix of material input in the toy process as it does pose large challenges for the end of life of a product.

There are some amazing initiatives out there, new materials that will enable the market to move forward and circular business models which will change how we look at product design, there is monumental movement happening here.

The European parliament and most recently the UK government have issued new legislation for plastics and packaging, that for the UK will come in to effect in the next 17 months, this has woken up many retailers and manufacturers as if you don’t have 30 per cent of recycled plastic in your packaging you will be taxed, the infrastructure is not yet in place to supply such a large demand so you can imagine what’s happening in the background to supply this material in time for the April 2022 start date.

Because of this, Products of Change is working closely with the leading children’s UK educator Wastebusters who deliver in class environmental education to all UK schools. Wastebusters have built a market wide recycling infrastructure for hard to recycle plastic toys and plush. We are working with them to drive a national campaign called Recycle to Read (R2R), working with the Children’s Literacy Trust to deliver the programme across schools and retail, children will bring in toys/plush/clothing/waste electronic to be swapped in school and at retail for eco points, the eco point will buy schools books and equipment to aid education.

The R2R programme launches for Waste Week in March 2021 and is currently looking for all producers and brand owners to become part of the programme, you can find out more here https://toytakeback.org. For the Wastebuster campaign we are also working with EPPIC (the extended plastic partnership for innovation within circularity) for their flexible infrastructure which has just launched with the Co-Op and will roll out across retail in the coming months, as well as building a plastics group within Products of Change that is lobbying for parity with plastic signposting, we are working with WRAP, OPRL and a handful of leaders to achieve this.

When we focus on toys, the design stage seems the most fundamental to promote sustainability with, design sustainability into a product from the outset. How integral do you think this is to the idea of sustainability in the children’s space?

The design stage is one of the most important stages of creating sustainable product, It’s so much harder and more costly to add sustainability in at the end of producing something. Designing sustainably is more than just using a recycled material, it’s also asking questions like what happens at the end of life of a product and how do you design so that it can be easily recycled, how do you keep a product in circulation (are there bits that can be reused?) etc. We are designing products for the future generation, a generation who is more aware of climate change than we were and is leading their purchasing decisions.

We also have to work together to educate consumers, currently big box means big value, we have created that, so we can reverse that rule and build new value in. The packaging can becomes an integrated part of the toy (not to be thrown away) the opening of a product a positive experience, I’m looking forward to seeing some creative packaging solutions coming through over the next few months.

Do you think the toy industry is being reactive enough to the issue of sustainability? Big question – is it right to be reactive, or should businesses be setting the standard for the consumer?

I think that the full consumer goods industry is being reactive, there’s a few standout leaders like Unilever, Ikea, LEGO that have been building sustainable practices into their business for the last ten years, but they still have their challenges. Even the fashion industry who is ahead of the toy industry started the conversation with launching small collections of ‘eco’ product, priced higher as an alternative for the consumer, not necessarily looking at delivering every day sustainable product at a fair price, however there are a few leaders two being Asda and H&M, delivering their everyday sustainable clothing at the same price.

The needle is moving with many companies now stating their intentions of what they want to achieve over the next ten years to become a more sustainable business, we need to have the faith that this will all be delivered.

Can you talk us through the Sustainability in Licensing Conference – what have you got planned for the big event this year… and however it may look this year?

Yes of course, the event has been pushed back to November the 25th due to Covid, we would absolutely love to still run the event physical but with guidelines changing daily we are tracking them to see what our options are for the November date.

Covid related issues aside the conference was created to be the starting point for the industry to learn more and build sustainable practices in their business. We have an amazing line up of presenters talking about the importance of design, new ways of thinking such as the circular economy, new technologies such as break down plastic and new tech within manufacturing, through to marketing, insights and finance, our aim is to touch on all the core pillars of creating a more sustainable business for the industry.

Thanks Helena, anything you’d like to shout about?

I’m just really pleased that the conversation has started, we have a long way to go but I do believe that together we can do this, we can no longer use sustainability as a competitive advantage, we must share the knowledge we have to accelerate change and start to re-imagining what a sustainable future will look like across the full supply chain and end of product life.

My ambition is that through Products of Change we can cooperatively achieve this change together.

Products of Change Group supports The Insights People’s first UK industry report to track sustainability

The Products of Change Group is supporting The Insights People in producing the industry’s first ever annual UK report – one that will track the consumer products and licensing industry, and capture data around sustainability for the first time.

The report will be based on results of surveying professionals who work across the kids and licensed industry.

The initiative has been launched amid rapid and fundamental changes across the kids’ industry, and a response from The Insights People, who states it has seen the speed and significance of the changes first hand, from consumers purchasing behaviours to the increased awareness of climate change, sustainable products, and currently with COVID-19.

Industry colleagues have been invited to take part in the survey which will analyse individual’s confidence levels and explore how their business is changing. All respondents receiving a complimentary copy of the report. The survey will take approximately 5-8 minutes to complete.

Nick Richardson, CEO The Insights People, said: “There is no doubt that all aspects of the kid’s industry are going through fundamental changes at the moment. The comforting news for you is no matter if you are in Entertainment, FMCG, Policy, Publishing, Retail, Sports or even Toy industry, the feedback is the same: ‘we are in a state of flux – these will no doubt be challenging times for some, and exciting times for others.’

“By taking part in this study it will enable individuals to share their opinions and see how they compare and contrast with their peers.”

Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder of Products of Change, added: “For us to implement sustainable change within the industry we first need to understand where we currently track as an industry, what our ambitions are and our knowledge around the subject. 

“We can then put in place an industry wide plan that we collectively work towards achieving. Together we can drive change.”

Take part in the survey here.