Impact

Our achievements so far...

In a short space of time, Products of Change and its vibrant membership community has witnessed some agenda-setting achievements. We’ve worked closely with cross-sector industry bodies to reduce collective impact and we’ve helped businesses implement purposeful change while we continue to influence a $340bn global industry to act more responsibly and sustainably.

Products of Change is proud to partner with key industry organisations to drive sustainable change. Let’s meet them…

Brand Licensing Europe and Licensing Expo

We have been partnering with Informa Markets since 2021 to bring sustainable transformation to the brand and licensing industry.

How? We bring industry conversation to life through dedicated panel sessions, roundtables, and educational workshops to shine the spotlight on the industry’s sustainable development at key industry trade shows. Not only this, we partnered to launch an industry first Sustainability Framework – created by us, our community, and our Advisors.

Spring and Autumn Fair

Since 2022, we have been working with Hyve Group to showcase sustainable innovation at Spring and Autumn Fair as well as launch a series of educational whitepapers tackling key sustainability topics, including the Circular Economy; Greenwashing and the Green Claims Code; Legislation; Consumer Insights; and an Introduction to Sustainability.

Partnership Framework

Through the Products of Change legal workstream, we brought brand owners, manufacturing partners, and retailers together from across the industry to create a blueprint step-by-step Framework for companies to use to undertake their journey of sustainable transformation. The Framework has been gifted – for free – to the industry as a learning tool and practical resource for implementing sustainability strategies across their operations.

The Partnership Framework Maturity Index

Teaming with the brains at Kids Industries, the we have been able to build a Maturity Index – a new benchmarking tool to be used by the industry to give us an bird’s eye view of where we are collectively on that journey of sustainable transformation and a deeper understanding of the knowledge and resource gaps that need bridging. This benchmarking tool has been endorsed by some of the leading brand names and manufacturing partners in the industry.

Across the industry

We also work closely with many trade organisations and NGOs, including with Licensing International since 2022 to bring content and support to the brand and licensing industry through their platform and events.

We also work with the Giftware Association, the Greetings Card Association, WRAP, Textiles 2030, RECOUP, Textile Exchange, the United Nations’ Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Initiative, and Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) to drive cross sector collaboration.

Wastebusters and
Recycle to Read

We work closely with Wastebusters, a leading not-for-profit children’s environmental educational platform currently building a UK-wide recycling infrastructure for toys.

The recycling infrastructure will bring the waste material back into the loop, creating a circular economic model for the toy industry.

This initiative is a huge research project in partnership with Sheffield University, WRAP, OPRL, EPPIC, DEFRA and many more.

The campaign – called Recycle to Read – launched its first in-store trial with Tesco in 2023.

The campaign encourages schools to collect toys, waste electronics (WEE), and textiles to be redeemed for recycling reward points. These reward points in turn provide free books – funded by children’s publisher HarperCollins – to under-resourced schools. Recycle to Read counts the Children’s Literacy Trust among its campaign partners, alongside Hasbro and Wastebuster’s community of members.

Please learn more about this initiative at RecycleToRead.org

Play Video

Collaboration through active working groups

Our Products of Change members make up our active working groups, building methodologies to guide the industry. We also bring in the guest experts to help grow our knowledge base.

Our focused working
groups for 2024 are:

Carbon

Setting a scope 3 methodology for the brand and licensing industry, led by POC’s Ambassador for Carbon, Steve Plackett.

Paper

Gathering impact data to aid navigation and future strategies, led by POC’s Ambassador for Paper, Duncan Shearer.

Fashion

Navigating new legislation and reviewing material and impact data, led by POC’s Ambassador for Fashion, Julia Redman.

Packaging

Supporting the industry’s transition to circular packaging design and new legislation, led by POC’s Ambassador for Packaging and Material Innovation, Mike Swain.

Legal

Building a framework for the industry to transition how we operate (the framework can be downloaded here), led by POC’s founder and ceo, Helena Mansell-Stopher.

Alongside these working groups we also have themed meetings to bring educational opportunities to the community, covering toys and games; gaming; publishing; gift and home; marketing; fashion; carbon; and live events.

Partnership Impact

Products of Change partners with a number of industry organisations and bodies to platform the collective impact of the industry’s pioneering change-makers. We demonstrate the advances that businesses are making in the development of sustianability in licenisng through our work with the following:

Legislation

Get in touch!

Taking your first steps with sustainability but no idea where to begin? Looking to connect with like-minded business leaders and pioneers? Or simply ready to start making a difference? Get in touch with the team today