SILC21 – the key takeaways from this year’s sustainability conference

Inset: Significant gains have already been made by the licensing industry since SILC20, says Helena.

Transformingthe industry

Following the second successful Sustainability in Licensing Conference in June, Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder of Products of Change and conference director of SILC, looks back at the two-day event and how the licensing industry is continuing to work towards a more sustainable future.

Isit down to write this piece at a hotel in Battle, a small town in East Sussex that houses the broadcasting studio where we have just wrapped up the final day of the Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2021. I had thought I would be in a swanky London bar celebrating our first physical SILC with the amazing individuals that were due to attend, but alas that was not to be due to Covid. However, I do sit here reflecting with great pride on the amazing journey and progress the industry has made over the last two years. During SILC20 only 22% of the audience were aware of the 17 sustainable development goals. Fast forward to SILC21 and 75% of attendees now have a

team dedicated to driving sustainable practices

within their business, and a further 73% were aware of the up and coming packaging and extended producer responsibility tax (EPR) due in April 2022 and 2023. At the heart of our industry is the brands we represent, with the latest McKinsey study stating that 86% of consumers feel that it’s the responsibility of business to build sustainable products. This was a key priority for us to highlight during the conference and we were so lucky to learn how Hubbub, an impact marketing agency, brought to life the latest food waste campaign with Tesco and the wonderful Lagom initiative with Ikea.

Toy momentum

We are also seeing great momentum in the toy space, with the top three global toy companies committing to reducing their packaging, committing to 100% renewable energy, to reduce waste to landfill, to source more sustainable plastics (recycled or sustainably sourced bio-based). Zuru revealed plans during the conference to make its two largest global brands - Mini Brands and Mini Toys - to be 100% virgin plastic free through certified, traceable recycled plastic. Co-founder and ceo, Anna Mowbray stated that the move will prevent an estimated 180 tonnes of virgin plastics from entering the environment and will match the recent environmental moves made across its wildly popular Bunch O Balloons brand. Combined, the latest measures will prevent around 3,000 tonnes of virgin plastics from entering the environment.

LEGO followed by highlighting its first to market LEGO Replay (reuse) initiative, the trialling of paper packaging in its core product, as well as being the first major toy company to commit to sciencebased targets and the first to join the United Nations Global Compact. Outside of the vertical toy business, LEGO presented the strategic framework to influence sustainable change through its licensed arm, showcasing the sustainable packaging guide and work achieved so far to gain transparency across this area of business.

Inset: ustwo got players thinking about nature through its game, Alba. Below: Hubbub brought to life the latest food waste campaign with Tesco.

Retail viewpoints

Attending the conference was a collection of key retail partners including Tesco which brilliantly conveyed its strategic targets, Character.com showcasing the reduction in single use plastic and packaging achieved over the last year, George at Asda sharing the future technologies it is trialling to reduce waste impact and Dayrize, the new sustainability ecommerce platform dedicated to sustainable consumption.

I know that we have a mountain to climb with only 2% of factories globally committing to sustainability standards as stated by Julia Redman of Buyers Eye. We have a long way to go in embedding circular economic principles and gaining transparency across the full value chain within the industry too, but I am extremely optimistic as the transformation has definitely begun.

Throughout 2021, the Products of Change community will continue the amazing work achieved so far by the territory and category ambassador leads. An industry wide legal framework to provide parity within our licensing agreements is due to be released in September, while our packaging recommendation framework is also in the works to help small and medium sized businesses. The POC community is working on many other solutions for the industry and would love to open up the invitation for others to come and join this group of change makers on this transitional journey.

Gaming gains

The conversation continued with a look at the impact the video games industry can have on positive environmental outcomes. “Games has a huge power to inspire,” said Daniel Wood, strategic projects lead at video games trade body, UKie, with the industry already showcasing some of its impact initiatives.

Jane Campbell, studio operations lead at ustwo games, explained how the company aimed to tackle in-game action and inspiration and get people thinking about nature through its game Alba, which launched in December 2020.

“We wanted to take the impact we’re making in the game into the outside eco-system and use Alba as a platform to take action in the real world and help make it different,” she said.

To this end, ustwo worked on Alba’s Forest with Ecologi which Jane describes as becoming its “most impactful, most ambitious call to action”.

For every copy of the game, which was bought or downloaded, ustwo pledged to plant one tree, with an overall target of one million trees. The company is already over halfway to achieving this goal, with the total currently standing at around 730,000 trees.

Looking at the bigger picture there is land available globally to the size of the United States, that if we were to use this land to plant trees it would remove 70% of the carbon released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Imagine if as an industry we planted more trees, what positive impact this could make!

Please contact helena@productsofchange.com or visit the hub at productsofchange.com for more information. You can also follow the industry’s transformation across social media. www.facebook.com/productsofchangeglobal twitter.com/products_change www.instagram.com/poc.global www.linkedin.com/company/37057347/admin