Introducing the ISPA Sustainability Conference

BedTimes Managing Editor Waynette Goodson catches up with Ryan Trainer, ISPA president, at the Las Vegas Market to talk about the upcoming Sustainability Conference, Nov. 16-17, in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information or to register for the conference, go to ISPAsustainability.com.

Transcript

Waynette Goodson
It’s Waynette Goodson. I’m your managing editor of BedTimes Magazine. And today I have Ryan Trainer, none other than our president of ISPA. Ryan, thank you so much for being here today. And if you look in this issue of Sleep Savvy, also in BedTimes and on our website, we are talking about a new initiative. It is the ISPA Sustainability Conference and it’s coming up November 16th and 17th.

So can you tell us a little bit about what the conference is going to be like?

Ryan Trainer
Sure. We want to make sure that everybody in the industry throughout the whole value chain has a common vocabulary when it comes to sustainability. What is carbon neutral mean? What is a carbon footprint mean? We want to make sure that the whole industry understands these concepts. I think that that will help create more collaboration throughout the supply chain and it will really put us all on an even footing.

We’ll be having speakers talk about the basics of sustainability, why we’re here. We have a gentleman who used to be with the U.N. who helped negotiate some sustainability agreements speak to us. We’ll be talking about greenwashing. We’ll have two industry panels, one to talk about how we’re taking these general concepts and putting them into practice. And another to talk about what we’re doing on the recycling front.

Ryan Trainer
So I think it should be a really good conference for the sophisticated companies who are already active in sustainability. But those who really wanted to find out how can they contribute to the whole process.

Waynette Goodson
So the conference is coming up November 16th and 17th in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. Just talk about who you feel should be there, who is going to benefit from this.

Ryan Trainer
Some companies have individuals who are specifically responsible for improving the sustainability of their companies. Those tend to be technical people. They definitely should be there. We should also have people who are involved in new product design, purchasing for raw materials as well as marketing people. Sustainability is something where there’s a technical side to it. There’s also the sales and marketing side.

Ryan Trainer
So I think this will apply to the many, many different people within the industry.

Waynette Goodson
Wonderful. But we extend our invitation to you to please be there and join us. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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