Annual Meeting of Members and Partners - Product Stewardship Institute

Date: June 13
Time: 12:30 – 1:50 EST
Location: Zoom (register below)

With 41 new programs and 10 amendments introduced this year – plus one new EPR law (so far) – we are seeing unprecedented support from legislatures for product stewardship. Join us to strategize on how to keep this momentum going!

We’ll kick off with a live conversation between Scott Cassel, PSI’s CEO and Founder, and EPR luminaries Joachim Quoden, Allen Hershkowitz, and Reid Lifset.

Tom Metzner, PSI’s Board President, Jennifer Semrau, our Board Treasurer, and the entire PSI team will share accomplishments from 2023 and goals for fiscal year 2024.

Register Here

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Joachim Quoden
Since April 2013 Joachim Quoden is appointed as managing director of EXPRA – Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance – Inspiring Packaging Recycling, an alliance of 23 non-profit packaging recovery organisations owned by obliged industry from 21 countries from Europe, Canada and Israel. Besides this, he is working since June 1995 as independent German Lawyer specialized on international extended producer responsibility legislation. Since October 2013 he is appointed as chair of the Governance & Legal Issues working group of ISWA, he is member of the Advisory Panel of the Global Product Stewardship Council and of the OECD EPR expert group. He was also an expert of the ISO global standardization project SIS/TK 165/AG 10 Packaging and Environment that has developed between 2009 and 2012 global standards on packaging optimization, recycling, reuse, and energy recovery.

Reid Lifset
Reid Lifset is a Research Scholar and Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology on the faculty of the Yale School of the Environment (YSE). He is the founder and an editor of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal. His research focuses on the application of industrial ecology to novel problems and research areas, the evolution of extended producer responsibility (EPR), resource and material efficiency, the environmental impact of the digital economy, and the circular economy. He is a member of the UN’s International Resource Panel (IRP), the governing council of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, and the editorial board of the journal, Waste and Biomass Valorization.

He has recently advised the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office on EPR and the circular economy and served as a lead author on the IRP’s Resource Efficiency & Climate Change study.

In 2015, he was awarded the ISIE’s Society Prize and has chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology. He has served on the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board and has advised organizations including the OECD and the Luce Foundation.

“Take it Back: Extended Producer Responsibility as a Form of Incentive-Based Environmental Policy” The Journal of Resource Management and Policy, 1993

Allen Hershkowitz
Dr. Allen Hershkowitz is the Environmental Science Advisor to The New York Yankees and also serves as the official Sustainability Advisor to the NBA, Major League Soccer, The Los Angeles Clippers, and the New York Football Club. He also serves as the Environmental Science Advisor to Royal Albert Hall and is the first person to hold any of those positions. Working as the environmental advisor to the Commissioners of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer, Dr. Hershkowitz was singularly instrumental in creating the environmental programs at MLB, the NBA, the NHL, and MLS. In 2008, at the request of Billie Jean King, he created the environmental program for the USTA.

In 2015 Sports Business Journal listed him as one of the “50 Most Influential People in Sports Business,” and in 2016 Worth magazine listed him as one of “The 60 Most Powerful People in Sports”. According to Green Sports Blog: “It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. Hershkowitz is the most consequential environmentalist in the history of North American sports,” and Yoga + Joyful Living magazine labeled him “The Godfather of Greening”. According to Greenwire, he “has long been among the most visible activists in the nation.” In 2022 Dr. Hershkowitz was listed by Sports Business Journal among its short list of “Executives To Know in Sports Sustainability.” His work advising sports organizations about sustainability was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Merit Award in 2008.

Dr. Hershkowitz was instrumental in creating the movement to leverage sports to promote sustainability and, as the world faces its greatest climate emergency, he serves on the Steering Committee of UNFCCC Sport for Climate Action Framework. He led the effort to create the US-based Green Sports Alliance as well as Sport and Sustainability International, based in Switzerland. He also created the environmental program for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscars telecasts, as well as the environmental program for the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Awards.

Dr. Allen Hershkowitz is an environmental scientist, visionary, activist, writer, lecturer and strategic sustainability advisor. For 26 years (1988 – 2016) he served as a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and was the force behind some of the organization’s most effective and visible initiatives related to forestry, waste management, plastics and paper industry impacts, and industrial ecology. He has served on scientific committees and advisories of dozens of organizations and businesses including the UN, the OECD, the US EPA, the CDC, the IOC, the IWBI, and many others. Blending technical expertise with the influence of iconic cultural sectors, Dr. Hershkowitz leverages the cultural and market influence of sports and entertainment organizations to promote environmental literacy to mass audiences and corporate leaders alike.

“How Garbage Could Meet It’s Maker,” The Atlantic Monthly, 1993

PSI Staff

Amanda Nicholson
Chief Operating Officer