TRBusiness is delighted to host the second instalment of the Travel Retail Sustainability Forum during the upcoming virtual Summit of the Americas, organised by ASUTIL and IAADFS (5-9 April).

The Travel Retail Sustainability Forum will be held at 12:00pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday 8 April during the Summit of the Americas. The inaugural event was due to take place during the live 2020 Summit, which was postponed due to impact of the coronavirus.

The inaugural Travel Retail Sustainability Forum eventually took place later in the year during this publication’s TRMarketplace digital event and drew huge interest from across the channel.

This year’s Travel Retail Sustainability Forum will feature high-level discussion and debate with senior executives from three leading Americas travel retail stakeholders.

These are Cheryl Nashir, Revenue Development & Management Director, San Francisco International Airport, Mark Birnie, Business Development Director and Deputy Managing Director, Harding Retail, Andy Battjes, Director of Environmental Health and Safety, Brown-Forman and Jill Stoneberg, Director, Social Impact & Sustainability at Virgin Voyages.

Registration for the session is complimentary. Click below to register.

Nashir will discuss how San Francisco (SFO) — the fourth largest international airport in the US in terms of international passengers — has driven its sustainability agenda.

Sustainability at SFO is deeply embedded within the airport’s DNA but has also been driven by local city-wide legislation, particularly regarding single-use plastics (SUP). Nashir will explain how the airport has worked with commercial tenants to eliminate SUPs from its retail and F&B areas. She will also highlight the challenges associated with such policies and those relating to future sustainable retail initiatives.

Birnie and Stoneberg will share some ground-breaking concepts which Harding will implement with cruise company partner Virgin Voyages when operations resume.

In doing so, Birnie and Stoneberg will reveal the cruise company’s approach to sustainability and outline how this has influenced Harding’s approach to developing a bespoke sustainable retail proposition.

Meanwhile, Battjes will present Brown-Forman’s sustainability journey and address some of the challenges. He will share insights on how the company’s sustainability focus has evolved and describe how Brown-Forman works with its partners to advance sustainability.

Partners include those in the beverage industry, raw material suppliers, NGOs and other non-profit organisations.

The Travel Retail Sustainability Forum session during the Summit of the Americas precedes the inaugural Travel Retail Sustainability Week organised by TRBusiness (19-23 April).

This five-day online networking and insights forum will bring together major stakeholders from within and beyond the GTR industry to participate in an intensive series of webinars.

Stakeholders will share best practice, debate the most viable alternatives to SUP and showcase innovation in sustainability across all channels, sectors and travel retail categories.

A number of companies will be vying to become Travel Retail Sustainability Heroes by taking part in the Sustainability Pitch initiative. All pitches will be broadcast during the week, along with Q&A sessions between our stellar line-up of judges and pitch partners.

Access to the webinar programme and networking platform is free. To register for the event, please click below.

For more information about Travel Retail Sustainability Week, contact [email protected].

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