Adrian Whyle, Sustainability and Innovations, British Plastics Federation

Biography

Adrian is an accomplished sustainability and innovation leader with over 40 years of international experience, primarily in the specialty chemicals industry. His career spans R&D, New Product Development, Manufacturing, Technology & Knowledge Transfer, Innovation Leadership, and International Marketing & Communications.

For the past 20 years, Adrian has focused on advancing environmental solutions through innovation, circular economy strategies, and industrial symbiosis. He recently retired from Plastics Europe, where he served as Senior Resource Efficiency Manager for 13 years, leading efforts to improve material efficiency and reduce environmental impact across the plastics value chain.

Adrian continues to work across sectors as a changemaker, collaborating with governments, academia, and enterprises to promote sustainable material use and support the transition to a circular economy to reduce mankind’s impact on the environment.

TBC

In this session, our speaker will discuss the current status of government initiatives related to the net zero mission, including the IETF, Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency, industrial decarbonisation and the Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS).

Biography
 

Helen Jordan, Sustainability Manager, British Plastics Federation
In this session, Helen Jordan will delve into the overview of the British Plastics Federation Net Zero Strategy including the BPF Energy carbon footprint tool.

Biography
Helen is the Sustainability Manager at the British Plastics Federation (BPF). Helen oversees all of the BPF’s many sustainability activities including Net Zero and Operation Clean Sweep. Helen also manages the activities of the BPF recycling group which she was previously the executive for. The Recycling Group focuses on issues such as food contact regulations, waste shipment regulations, legacy additives and promoting the development of recycling infrastructure within the UK. Helen is leading on the BPF’s work on Chemical Recycling. In 2021 Helen worked with a consultant to produce the BPF Recycling Roadmap which provided a forecast for what plastic recycling could be like in 2030.  

Before working at the BPF Helen spent 7 years in local government working within the Waste and Recycling Team.

Alexander Röder , Director Strategic Council - Climate and Production,  Plastics Europe

In this session, Alexander will share insights on the plastics transition and the key developments shaping a more sustainable future for the plastics industry.

Biography

Alexander Röder has been Director Climate and Production at Plastics Europe since 2023. In this position, he supports the sector in its efforts to drive life-cycle emissions to net zero, building on his vast experience in management of sustainability in general and climate change in particular. Before joining Plastics Europe, Alexander worked in various positions for a global manufacturer of heavy construction materials and as managing director of one of Europe’s largest programme operators for Environmental Product Declarations. Alexander holds both a Ph.D. and a diploma in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich as well as a diploma in business from the German correspondence university in Hagen.

Alexis Normand, CEO, Greenly

Alexis will explain how to mesure your carbon footprint and why is this important. 

 Biography

Alexis is a 37 year-old graduate of HEC and Sciences-Po. After his studies, he spent 2 years working in public policy consulting. He then spent 6 years at Withings, a leading company in connected objects. While there, he continued the companies operations in Boston, USA, and created the company’s health department. After the company was bought by Nokia, he joined the startup Embleema by working through Techstars, one of the best startup incubators in the United States, where he developed a taste for entrepreneurship. His return to France was an opportunity to put all his experience at the service of the environment, during a crucial moment in the climate crisis.

Katri Hastings, Senior Manager – Carbon Accounting MSc, BEng, Energy Saving Trust

In this session, experts from Energy Saving Trust will explore how to motivate your workforce to reduce carbon emissions and support your organisation’s sustainability goals.

Biography

Katri is a seasoned technical sustainability professional specialising in carbon accounting, corporate sustainability, and the use of data to drive practical climate action. She leads Energy Saving Trusts carbon accounting work with over a decade of experience across sustainability and expertise in carbon accounting, Scope 3 and net‑zero strategy, she brings strong technical insight and a practical, people‑centred approach. Katri is an active contributor to industry discussions, regularly speaking at events and as Chair of the Carbon Accounting Alliance’s working group on market instruments, she brings deep expertise in offsetting, removals, and voluntary carbon markets.

David Lever, Sustainability Manager, Altro Limited

David will cover where Altro are on their net zero journey. What measure they have taken to reduce their carbon footprint, lesson learnt, future plans etc.

Biography

David Lever is Sustainability Manager at Altro Limited, a global manufacturer of flooring and wall cladding solutions headquartered in Letchworth, UK. In his role, David leads initiatives to reduce environmental impacts across the business and its supply chain, helping to embed sustainability and circular economy principles into product design, manufacturing and customer solutions.

With a background in environmental compliance and sustainability within the materials sector, David works at the intersection of industry, innovation and environmental stewardship. He focuses on practical approaches to decarbonisation, responsible sourcing and resource efficiency, and on helping businesses transition from linear models of production and consumption to more circular systems.

Paul Byrnes, Mavarick AI, Professor Cedric John, Mary Queen University, Prof. Hywel Williams 

In this panel discussion our speakers will explore how AI can support sustainability initiatives and they will be available to answer your questions.

Biography 

Professor Cédric John

Professor Cédric John is the head of the Data Science and the Environment research theme at the Digital Environments Research Institute (DERI), Queen Mary University of London. Cédric holds a MSc in Geology from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland and a PhD in carbonate sedimentology from the University of Potsdam (Germany). His academic career includes a postdoc position at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the position of staff scientist with IODP at Texas A&M University, followed by a faculty position from 2006 to 2018 in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. Cédric joined DERI as Full Professor I in January 2024.

Cédric’s research encompasses carbonate systems, field geology, clumped isotope geochemistry, alongside computational methods, and data science (including artificial intelligence). He works on two inter-related problems: understanding past and current climate change and using the subsurface to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy. For more information on Professor John's research and his team's work, visit www.john-lab.org

Paul Byrnes

Paul is the CEO of Mavarick, a technology company that delvelops AI solutions for supply chain optimisation. He has previously held senior AI positions at Apple and IBM. He holds a PhD in Machine Learning and is a published author in several academic peer-reviewed journals.

Professor Hywel Williams 

Professor Hywel Williams is a computational scientist focused on challenges around sustainability and environmental change. He is a Professor in Environmental Data Science in the Department of Computer Science at University of Exeter, where he is PI for the SEDAlab research group. He is Director of the Centre for Environmental Intelligence and also affiliated with the Institute for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence and the Global Systems Institute.

Adrian Whyle