Products of Change Conference 2024 provided hope for a sustainable future

A busy auditorium side angle

Products of Change Conference 2024 provided hope for a sustainable future

On Wednesday 6th November, the retail and brand licensing community assembled at the Royal Geographical Society, London, for a deep dive into the world of sustainability for the Products of Change Conference.

Notable industry heavyweights in attendance included the BBC, Penguin Random House, Paramount, Warner Bros, Mattel, Universal Music Group, Disney, and the Natural History Museum, with the conference’s 2024 installment receiving its highest ever attendance level so far.

A young girl stands with her arms open addressing a audience
Moksha Roy delivered a memorable and impactful keynote address to open the conference.

Attendees enjoyed a packed and diverse session agenda, which was opened by keynote speaker, Moksha Roy, UN ambassador and the world’s youngest sustainability advocate at nine-years-old. Moksha’s impactful and memorable address implored her audience to remember that children believe their toys are made by fairies and pixies, so companies should be those fairies and pixies by making their products in a way that protects the world children will grow up into.

The rest of the day followed with further insights, inspirations, and innovations, such as Tony’s Chocolonely’s fight against child labour in cocoa, the future of our homewares with Dunelm, and circularity in fashion with Primark.

An overarching theme of the conference this year, and the keyword that many of our speakers came back to throughout their presentations was collaboration. All the companies that were sharing their sustainability successes with the audience had done so through collaborations. Likewise, with such rigorous legislation only around the corner, the industry must rally together to share learnings in adopting and complying to these changes.

Overhead of the auditorium during a panel discussion.
Overhead of the auditorium during a panel discussion.

The global context and international political atmosphere could also not be ignored as the Conference opened just as Donald Trump was declared the next President of the United States. Andrea Green, POC Advisor and North America Ambassador took to the stage as part of the global legislation conversation and expressed her concern for what this election result means. But Andrea insisted we cannot use this to stall progress, in a rousing address that we must unite to fight even harder than we were before to ensure there is a habitable planet left to protect.

Rob Goodchild, commercial director of Two Daughters Entertainment, commented, “The Conference made me realise that I am on a very steep learning curve, my head feels like it is exploding with information and my eyes are wide open to changes that we as an industry need to make.

“Products of Change and the Conference are so crucial to our wider understanding and alerting us all to how we can and need to embrace the challenge to make our businesses truly sustainable, not fake sustainable.”

Meanwhile, Alex Samson, senior brand manager of Magic Light Pictures, added, “It’s been so uplifting. It made me feel really optimistic to be in an auditorium full of people who are all contributing to make the industry more sustainable. Taking place on the same day that it was announced that Donald Trump became US President, the POC Conference was a perfect antidote to all the negativity, providing hope for the future.”

This year marked Products of Change’s second Member Awards, inaugurated at last year’s conference, and continuing to celebrate the individuals and companies exemplifying the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

A group of people standing on a stage with the POC logo in the background
POC Conference 2024 award winners and speakers

The award trophies were created by Waterhaul, which recovers and recycles marine plastic and waste fishing gear and turns it into new products, such as sunglasses. These awards were crafted from discarded PPE and recycled wood, and perfectly embodied the ethos that their recipients have demonstrated.

The awards were as follows:

  • Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Anita Majhu, BBC Studios.
  • Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Lisa Foster and Andrew Hajithemistou, TMSW.
  • Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action – Maxine Lister and team, Natural History Museum.
  • Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure – Members of the Children’s Magazine Forum from Seymour Distribution, Immediate Media, Redan Publishing, Story House Egmont, Kennedy Publishing, DC Thomson and Frontline.

“The team at the Natural History Museum are thrilled to have won a Sustainability Award at the Products of Change Conference, we are incredibly proud of our licensees and collaborators who work with us on our sustainability journey and to be awarded this by our peers,” said Maxine Lister, NHM, on winning an award.

For the first time this year, Products of Change was pleased to invite a select number of young professionals in the industry to attend the conference with a complimentary ticket, ensuring their voices are being heard in these conversations about a future that will chiefly affect them. POC was delighted to have in attendance, Rebecca Meier from Smiley, Charlie Monk from Moose Toys, Charlotte Harman from D&AD, Katie Moran from Tottenham Hotspur, and Joe Bradford from Poetic Brands. Charlotte commented that the conference had been so valuable to her in clearly setting out the regulations that are on the horizon, and by helping the audience engage with the complex changes. Charlie added that the conference offered him a wave of reassurance that Moose Toys was doing well on its sustainability journey and could take inspiration from the insights that he’d heard.

A group of five people standing in a row smiling at the camera
POC Young Green Leaders. Right-left: Charlotte Harman, D&AD; Kathryn Brand, Products of Change Editor; Rebecca Meier, Smiley; Charlie Monk, Moose Toys; Joe Bradford, Poetic Brands.

“POC Conference 2024 was our best yet. It was inspiring to see people from across the industry, united by shared interests, collaborating to shape the future. I can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring!” commented Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder and CEO of Products of Change.

Want to relive some of the fantastic presentations at the Conference? Or miss anything? Recordings of every session from the Conference will be live on the website.

POC is already looking ahead to next year’s Conference and would love to hear from you about what you would like to see on the agenda, as well as some of the best bits from this year’s event. So please take our short survey – it will only take 7 minutes – to fill us in.

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