In the occasion of the Week of Circular Economy, SustainaLab and ACN join forces, offering you an event around Sustainable Packaging.
Chem Together #23 in SustainaLab
Green Packaging 2.0: Why Is the Future Taking So Long?
Sustainable packaging is no longer a distant ambition: it is a scientific, technological, and societal necessity. Yet despite rapid advances in materials chemistry, biopolymers, recycling technologies, and circular design, large-scale transformation remains slower than expected.
This event brings together leading experts from academia, brand owners, startups, and scale-ups to explore the gap between innovation and implementation. Through scientific insight, practical case studies, and critical discussion, we will examine the technical and economic challenges of the transition toward truly sustainable packaging.
As always with SustainaLab and ACN, join us for a forward-looking conversation on how we can accelerate the shift from promising solutions to real-world impact.
Speakers:
- Rick Passenier, Program Director at BioBased Circular, will moderate the event and introduce upcoming Groeifonds calls.
- Prof. Gert-Jan Gruter, Professor of Industrial Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, will offer a system perspective on challenges, positioning sustainable packaging not merely as a waste problem, but as a material design problem. He will also illustrate promising solutions from his research efforts.
- Poonam Dharman, Packaging & Artwork Innovation Director at Lipton Teas and Infusions, will walk us through the evolutionary journey of packaging materials, covering the challenges of adopting new solutions from a consumer and market-oriented perspective.
- Sarvesh Poddar, CEO & Co-founder at Sustanix, is working on a biobased coating solution for paper packaging. He will share Sustanix’s journey, strategic story, and challenges towards commercialization.
- Rianne Hagen, Packaging Specialist at Albert Heijn, will address what “Sustainable packaging” means from a retailer’s perspective: how choices are made in practice, why technically optimal materials do not always win, and how private label can act as a lever for circularity.
- Ingrid Goumans, Director Public Affairs & Sustainability at Avantium, will share her insights from navigating a scale-up journey combining material innovation with market, business model, investor, and policy lessons learned along the way.
The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion.
Moderator: Rick Passenier, Program Director at Biobased Circular.
📅Thursday, March 19th 2026
🕒14:30 – 18:00 (including networking drinks)
📍 SustainaLab, Matrix ONE Amsterdam Science Park 301, 1098 XH Amsterdam
Language: English
Cost: Free
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