Big Ideas

Adam Gendell, The Recycling Partnership's Director of System Optimization, joins David Clark, Vice President Sustainability at Amcor, on the Amcor Big Ideas podcast to discuss the recycling market in the United States, challenges of rigid PET bottles, and the importance of consumer convenience in recycling.

Jeremy Wallach, Partner at McKinsey & Company, joins David Clark, Vice President, Sustainability at Amcor, on the Amcor Big Ideas podcast to discuss the multi-faceted journey towards a circular economy, and how the packaging industry’s challenges are complex across the value chain.

Packaging industry veteran Roger Zellner joins Amcor’s vice president of sustainability, David Clark, on the Amcor Big Ideas podcast to discuss how important consumer participation is for increasing recycling rates across the United States.

Erin Simon, head of Plastic at WWF, joins David Clark, vice president of sustainability at Amcor, on the Big Ideas podcast to discuss progress toward reducing plastic in the environment. The pair also discuss the progress made by WWF’s “ReSource: Plastic” initiative, and its recently released progress report, Transparent 2021.

Mael Arribas, research analyst with the global commitment team of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, joined David Clark, Amcor’s vice president of sustainability, on Amcor’s Big Ideas podcast to discuss the progress brands and retailers are making towards a circular economy. In the podcast, they discuss the findings of the most recent Global Commitment 2021 Progress Report, the huge potential of reuse models and why a global treaty on plastic is essential to achieving a circular economy, in order to prevent a patchwork of disconnected solutions.

Gabriel Thoumi, head of the plastics program and director of financial markets at Planet Tracker, joined David Clark, Amcor’s vice president of sustainability, on Amcor’s Big Ideas podcast to discuss the financial market’s growing interest in one of the packaging industry’s trending topics – plastics underserved by recycling infrastructure. In the podcast, they discuss how investor and analyst attention is having knock-on effects for the packaging landscape and driving innovation, creating opportunities and making lower impact products. The financial market is starting to take a greater interest – but how can this interest drive change for more responsible packaging and positive environmental outcomes? You can also read the Unwrapping Investor Risk report and the Stormy Outlook report, both written by Planet Tracker. Finally, you can watch the ‘ESG & the Global Plastic Supply Chain: Uncovering material risks & opportunities in a changing world’ event by clicking here.

Ensuring a strong future for the packaging industry requires innovation, education and state-of-the-art technology. Leading the way are pioneering university programs, which play a pinnacle role in preparing the next generation of packaging professionals in facing the industry’s most pressing challenges. In this podcast, Amcor’s Vice President of Sustainability, David Clark, and Michigan State University School of Packaging Assistant Professor, Dr. Muhammad Rabnawaz, reflect on the two organizations’ recent partnership and the opportunities it presents to the packaging industry. The pair discuss how undertaking a packaging degree can give students a more complete picture, gaining an insight into health and safety requirements and an understanding of all stages of the packaging lifestyle from distribution to end-of-life. The duo also consider how universities can use the combination of critical thinking, traditional academia and using sophisticated industry technology to drive innovation and critical research to inspire more sustainable packaging solutions.

Not all communities are built the same when it comes to dealing with packaging at the end of its life. Understanding how to engage individuals, groups and broader regions is a crucial part of successful recycling, composting and reusing. In this podcast, Amcor’s Vice President of Sustainability, David Clark, discusses McKinsey.org’s ‘Rethinking Recycling’ initiative with Cynthia Shih, Director of Knowledge and Larissa Sakamoto, Program Manager. They discuss their pilot project in Argentina, which aims to empower every community to build green, inclusive, and economic recycling systems.

There have been a lot of conversations around the importance of designing packaging for responsible end of life scenarios. From recycling, to reuse, to composting, there are many critical aspects to consider. In this podcast, Elizabeth Schuessler, Senior Director of Social Change, Behavior and Impact, and Cody Marshall, Chief Community Strategy Officer at the Recycling Partnership join Amcor’s Vice President of Sustainability, David Clark, to discuss a crucial part of the equation: consumer engagement.

Plastic waste is now a widely understood issue, and with it, the limitations to recycling have become clear. In this episode of the Big Ideas podcast, Matt Prindiville, the CEO and Chief Solutioneer at UPSTREAM, joins Amcor's Vice President of Sustainability, David Clark, to discuss reusable packaging and how innovative product delivery models can help reduce plastic waste.

Michiel De Smet, Finance Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Amcor’s David Clark discuss the lack of awareness of finance’s role in the circular economy, and how bankers and investors are driving a rapid uptake of circular models. The question is no longer if climate change matters to the financial sector, but how it will address it.

Joi Danielson, Co-Founder of Vital Ocean and Partner at SYSTEMIQ, is on the frontline of waste management. In this episode, Amcor’s David Clark talks with Joi on working with governments to address the structural constraints to waste management systems, her free book ‘Leave No Trace’, and the five challenges to overcome to create real change.

John Caturano, Senior Sustainability Manager, Packaging and Programs at Nestle Waters NA, discusses ‘designing for recycling’ with Amcor’s David Clark. Discover how well-designed packaging fits into the wider recycling infrastructure. Here’s the article mentioned in the episode: https://www.tribpub.com/gdpr/courant.com/

Two billion people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, with some cocoa farmers living on fewer than 70 cents a day. Amcor’s David Clark and Fairtrade UK’s Catherine David talk about how the Fairtrade Foundation builds more sustainable supply chains that are economically secure, fairly paid, and more dignified for people in them. They also talk about how products are certified by Fairtrade and how packaging plays a role.

Adrienna Zsakay, CEO at Circular Economy Asia, talks with Amcor’s David Clark about how the Asian Plastics and Packaging Agreement (APPA) is working to achieve a more circular plastics and packaging system in the region. One way is by encouraging consumers to make more informed choices about recycling. Tune in to hear Adrienna and David discuss this and more.

Monetizing plastic waste is not only good for the environment but it also helps to facilitate social change. In this episode of Big Ideas, Amcor’s David Clark speaks to David Katz, Founder, and CEO of Plastic Bank about how he is providing a way for people to escape poverty through plastic.

How can businesses realize the circular advantage? Amcor’s David Clark speaks with Wesley Spindler, Business Strategy and Sustainability Senior Manager at Accenture and co-author of ‘The Circular Economy Handbook’ about competitive advantage and the circular economy.

In the 20th episode of the Big Ideas podcast series, Amcor's David Clark talks to Philippe Blank, Head of Packaging Sustainability at Henkel beauty care, about the company's recyclability evaluation tool, Easy D4R, and its "achieving more with less" Factor 3 sustainability strategy.

Scenario planning, a strategic planning method, is applied to climate change and discussed by Nardia Haigh, business strategist and associate professor of management at the University of Massachusetts, and Amcor’s David Clark. The focus on the potential impacts of climate change on businesses and how scenario planning can be applied to plastic waste are examined, as the pair discuss Haigh’s new book on the subject.

In this special episode, Amcor’s David Clark hosts a panel at the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit about how we have all the tools to act now to stop plastic pollution if we work together. Panelists are Sander Defruyt, Lead, New Plastics Economy at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Kevin Rabinovitch, Global VP Sustainability at Mars and Allen Langdon, CEO at Encorp Pacific.