The Packaging
Standards Compass
A shared view of how retailer packaging rules and state EPR laws interact.
Founding Partner: Atlantic Packaging
No one has a map of this landscape.
Extended Producer Responsibility is rewriting packaging economics state by state. Material choices, recyclability claims, and design decisions now carry real financial consequences. At the same time, major retailers impose their own packaging requirements, each with its own definitions, thresholds, and enforcement practices, each evolving at its own speed with little coordination.
The hard part is where the two meet. A brand has to design packaging that satisfies divergent state EPR regimes and the often contradictory expectations of its retail partners at once, and guidance can differ even between departments inside the same retailer. The result is higher costs, stalled innovation, and packaging that is recyclable on paper but ends up in landfill.
No company can see the whole landscape, and every company is working it out alone.
A compass, not a rulebook.
The Packaging Standards Compass is a facilitated series of closed-door conversations running through the end of 2026. We will convene the world’s largest retailers, consumer brands, and the packaging value chain to build a shared understanding of the standards landscape, so decision-makers can work out what to do about it.
A compass tells you where you are and which way is north. It does not tell you where to go. Every decision stays where it belongs: with each individual company.
Orient
Frame the landscape: how retailer packaging standards and state EPR frameworks have evolved, and where they visibly intersect.
Listen
Facilitated sessions where participants describe their own experience: the guidance they receive, where friction occurs, and what clarity would help.
Synthesize
Distill recurring patterns, terminology gaps, and areas where clarity could reduce friction. No company is named or ranked.
Decide
Close the year with a synthesis brief and a proposed design for 2027. The program continues only if participants find it valuable.
September to December, 2026.
Kickoff at SEE Change 2026
In PersonLaunch at the Packaging Matters track. Framing of the problem, introduction of the Compass, invitation to retailers and brands into the journey.
Launch session: Thursday, September 17 · 10:15–11:05am ET
Session 1 — The Retailer Standards Landscape
VirtualWhat packaging standards exist across retail today, how they evolved, and how they are experienced inside brands and supply chains.
Session 2 — The EPR Collision Point
VirtualWhere state EPR requirements and retailer expectations meet, and where they pull in different directions.
Session 3 — Alignment, Gaps & Next Steps
VirtualWhere natural alignment already exists, where shared terminology would help, and what participants want from a 2027 program.
Synthesis & Decision
A synthesis brief distilling what the journey surfaced, published to participants, plus a proposed design for a 2027 program if there is appetite.
How we will work.
Sessions are professionally facilitated and held under the Chatham House Rule. Participants speak only to their own practices and experiences. Nobody shares or solicits competitively sensitive information: pricing, costs, supplier terms, or forward commercial plans. The initiative sets no standards and takes no policy positions. Session protocols are reviewed against antitrust guidance. Outputs describe patterns and themes and are never attributed to a company.
This Is
A neutral, facilitated learning journey that builds shared understanding and surfaces where voluntary clarity is possible.
This Is Not
A standards body, a certification scheme, a lobbying effort, a benchmarking exercise, or a forum for collective decisions of any kind.
Convened by people who convene for a living.
The Circular Leadership Network (Circle)
Eight years of experience convening oppositional stakeholders, from the Global Plastics Treaty Dialogues to EPR Readiness Circles.
SCS Standards and Assurance Systems
Technical depth in sustainability frameworks and consensus-building, ensuring the journey is inclusive and accessible.
Sustainable Packaging Coalition
Anticipated PartnerThe industry’s broadest membership community across brands, retailers, and suppliers.
Atlantic Packaging
Founding PartnerCatalytic support and supply chain expertise, and host of the launch through the Packaging Matters track at SEE Change.
The ask is one honest conversation.
Through the end of 2026 there are no fees and no commitments. If the journey proves its worth, it becomes a program in 2027, designed by the people who took it.
Join the journey