Ease the EPR Burden: Automate Your Data, Model with Confidence

As U.S. packaging EPR moves from legislation into implementation, producers face a different kind of pressure: the data and modeling work behind reporting is still largely manual, fragmented, and stitched together across systems. Which workflows are creating real risk — and where is automation actually paying off?

The April Readiness Circle brings together cross-functional teams — sustainability, packaging, finance, regulatory, data/IT, procurement, and R&D — to compare how organizations are reducing manual workarounds and using modeling to inform internal EPR planning. Using upcoming reporting deadlines as a practical lens, producers will exchange what's working, what's breaking, and where they need help.

April 20: Learning Exchange

Monday, April 20, 2026 | 1:00–2:30 PM ET

A 90-minute Chatham House–protected session where obligated producers compare notes on the data and modeling challenges slowing their teams down — without advocacy, sales pitches, or pressure to share competitively sensitive information.

The session opens with an anonymized survey summary highlighting where manual workflows and system limitations are creating the largest operational burden, where teams are prioritizing automation, and how organizations are using modeling to plan. From there, a moderated producer group discussion — featuring producers across a range of organization sizes and operating models — will dig into where manual workarounds (spreadsheets, data stitching) are creating inefficiencies or risk, and how teams are linking data inputs to format exposure, scenario outputs, and reporting assumptions.

Hosted by Dave Ford, OPLN Co-Founder, and Rachel Ryan, Technical Program Lead.

Discussion leaders to be announced.

April 24: Expert Access Session

Monday, April 20, 2026 | 1:00–2:30 PM ET

A 90-minute Chatham House–protected session where obligated producers compare notes on the data and modeling challenges slowing their teams down — without advocacy, sales pitches, or pressure to share competitively sensitive information.

The session opens with an anonymized survey summary highlighting where manual workflows and system limitations are creating the largest operational burden, where teams are prioritizing automation, and how organizations are using modeling to plan. From there, a moderated producer group discussion — featuring producers across a range of organization sizes and operating models — will dig into where manual workarounds (spreadsheets, data stitching) are creating inefficiencies or risk, and how teams are linking data inputs to format exposure, scenario outputs, and reporting assumptions.

Hosted by Dave Ford, OPLN Founder, and Rachel Ryan, Technical Program Lead.

Discussion leaders to be announced.

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