In September, NOVA Chemicals hosted our second annual “Brand Owner Bootcamp” (BOB) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event brought together packaging experts from companies including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Mills, Sargento, Target, Sam’s Club and Mondelez to discuss the challenges and successes of circular plastic packaging. The NOVA Chemicals team shared our own breakthroughs and new technologies in order to strengthen our position as a solutions provider to brand owners and retailers.Attendees played grocery games and saw sustainable packaging in action at Bob’s Grocery Store, a new feature for this year’s bootcamp. The interactive storefront showcased curated packaging examples highlighting different aspects of circularity such as lightweighting, recyclability, recycled material incorporation, material exchange, and compostable materials.
In another first for this year’s conference, expert speakers from industry associations, such as Craig Cookson from the American Chemistry Council, and other NOVA Chemicals customers contributed their insights on life cycle assessments, the future of recycling, and other topics related to the plastics circular economy. “The Brand Owner Bootcamp is quickly becoming an industry-recognized event, and this year we took the event to a new level by giving our guests an opportunity to educate the group,” said John Avolio, Value Chain Manager at NOVA Chemicals.
We are already looking forward to hosting next year’s bootcamp and learning about the advancements that another year will bring.