Yesterday, Products of Change hosted its annual Conference at the Royal Geographical Society, where over 300 in-person attendees and over 100 digital attendees from the brand licensing industry and far beyond came together with the commitment to do business better.

The room was filled with the biggest names in brand licensing, from The LEGO Group and Mattel to The H&M Group and Asda, and a huge variety of brand owners, retailers, licensees, and innovators, but what united each and every one of them was the ambition for a more responsible future of product creation. Both on stage and in the audience were the doers: the people already moving mountains in their businesses towards this shared goal, so the energy in the room was full of optimism.

A recurring theme that was landed upon by numerous speakers throughout the day was the pre-competitive nature of the sustainability world, something that Products of Change exists to facilitate. Bringing together companies that usually compete for market share to tackle challenges they are all facing together, and that is what we saw in droves by the honest and collaborative conversations that the speakers shared.

Live illustrator, Andy Gray, and his son, Reuben Gray, drew the key points from each presentation throughout the day, pictorially representing the conversations and providing a visual and memorable way to interact with the sessions.

In addition to an impactful speaker line-up, the Conference offered an extensive table-top exhibition of companies from across the Products of Change Community in its networking area, connecting innovators with the industry and showcasing the very best of the products and solutions that are changing industry for the better, enabling buzzing and fruitful conversations for all attendees.

The day was opened by climate comedian, Stuart Goldsmith, who offered a sharply humorous take on the sustainability landscape, including what he termed the elephant in the room of imperfection, encouraging the audience to share their climate confessions.

The content sessions of the morning largely focused on the retailer perspective, with Decathlon, The Works, The H&M Group, and Asda sharing the steps and journeys they are each on to implement circularity into their operations. Decathlon, in particular, impressively shared how it has successfully adopted repair services, buy back schemes, and second-hand purchasing options for its customers, which are seeing huge take-up, benefitting customers by offering them money savings at a time when price consciousness is at an all-time high. All the retailers discussed the importance of embedding sustainability into the decision-making every step of the way.

Sustainability as a catalyst for innovation, rather than a restriction was an inspiring takeaway from UK Greetings’ presentation, where Chris Shaw shared how phasing out the numerous plastic elements previously adorning greeting cards gave its designers the opportunity to develop far more exciting designs, simply out of paper, but with the same, or even heightened visual impact, all underpinned by a greater company ambition to dramatically reduce their overall impact over the next few years.

It was clear this year that the demand for sustainability from consumers is not going anywhere, especially from the youngest of them – the so called “Blue Planet generation.” GirlGuiding and Wayne Hemingway MBE, of Hemingway Design shared how their recent project to completely redesign the organisation’s uniforms involved 55,000 of its girls sharing their ideas, the vast majority of which asked for sustainability. And that is what they delivered, with preferred materials and 75% of the range by volume being certified by the Circular Textiles Foundation.

The morning was concluded with the POC SDG Member Awards. The awards celebrate companies that are going above and beyond in reducing their environmental impact and positively affecting industry.

The POC SDG Awards highlight four key SDGs most relevant to the brand and licensing industry: SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals, SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 – Climate Action, SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

In true POC style, the trophies are not your average trophies, and themselves tell a story about circularity and responsible resource management. This year, for the first time, Products of Change partnered with Dorset, UK-based Brothers Make, two brothers, Matt and Jonny, who collect discarded plastic from local communities, businesses and beyond, transforming it into high-quality, practical and thoughtfully designed products.

Brothers Make strives to shift perceptions on plastic waste, encourage people to ditch single-use and move towards a truly circular economy. So, this year’s trophies, made by Brothers Make, continued this story.

The 2026 award winners are:

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure – Teemill

Teemill has been challenging the operational infrastructure of industry, then open sourcing that technology for the global industry to benefit from. They have not only extended this outside their own platform but have enabled competing businesses to use their infrastructure to enable further environmental impact reduction. They have been expanding their work into the brand and licensing sector for the last five years.

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – The Works

Retail is at the heart of true sustainable transformation. The Works has been creating the systems to enable progress and today has showcased to industry how much progress can be made.

SDG 13: Climate Action – GirlGuiding and Hemingway Designs

They have pushed the boundaries of what is commercially and creatively possible, listening to their young customers and helping to safeguarding their future and give them a voice to advocate for what they care about.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Thomas Saurén, sustainability and content director, Rights & Brands and the team.

Our fourth and final award went to Thomas who has quietly been building the infrastructure, working across the supply chain and supporting Rights & Brands’ licensees to reduce their impact.

Matthew Graham, head of quality assurance, sourcing & sustainability, The Works, commented: “Our highlight is the award we’ve just won – a total shock! It’s nice to recognised for the work that we do, we didn’t expect it have been sitting with Decathlon and H&M, but it’s not about being the best and most improved, it’s about trying to make the change.”

The afternoon session saw industry’s brand owners share the stage in a first of its kind panel, bringing together: Greg Simmons, Moose Toys; Siobhan Gardiner, the LEGO Group; Eszter Csicsai, Mattel; Theron Grim, Hasbro; Anita Majhu, BBC Studios; Candace Hodder, Disney Consumer Products; Marcus Parry, Tottenham Hotspur; and Thomas Saurén, Rights & Brands.

This candid conversation highlighted the willingness of the brands to work together and ask for the same things from licensees, to create economies of scale and push industry forward as a collective effort. “If we put physical products into the world, we have a responsibility to do it with care,” said Thomas Saurén, Rights & Brands.

The day concluded with a fast-paced string of innovator pitches, each offering exciting and groundbreaking solutions to the challenges discussed earlier in the day, and providing attendees with a new perspective on waste, material use, and the almighty power of plants. This final session left the audience buzzing and inspired as a day of genuine collaboration, collective energy, and an absolute showcase of the movers and shakers making change happen drew to a close.

Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder and CEO of Products of Change, commented: “This year was our seventh Products of Change Conference, and it was so exciting to see so clearly how far we have come as an industry in that time. When we began this journey, we knew there was an enormous journey ahead. But we also knew that the creativity, influence and collaborative spirit of this industry could become a powerful force for change. And it has: change is happening and it’s gaining momentum, and that couldn’t have been clearer than it was in the room today.”

The event is made possible by leaders in the brand and licensing industry that pledge their support for this invaluable event and the role it serves in collaborative and tangible sustainable advancement. This year’s supporters included: Dreamtex, Character World, Warner Bros. Discovery, Natural History Museum, TDP Textiles, Mattel, Fabacus, Brand Licensing Europe, The Wombles, Bravado, RDP Creative, Disney Consumer Products, Worldly, Poetic Brands, Hasbro, Rights & Brands, Teemill, io.tt, Sun City, Rainbow Productions, Qarma, and UK Greetings.

Viviane Paraschiv, COO, BioFluff, commented: “This is my second POC conference and one of the most inspiring things is the tangible confidence that you can feel; there are real cases, real companies, talking about real products, so it really is a good use of your time. You come away feeling really inspired, that’s what I take away from it – and try to convince people to come! It’s full of positive energy.”

Dean Greasley, director of licensing, TDP Textiles, commented: “For me the highlight is the fact you have the guys from H&M and Decathlon on stage and turned to each other as people that work for different retailers but they want to work together to evolve best practices.”

Lauren Stallard, creative lead, Gibsons Games, commented: “I’ve seen how the overlapping threads of collaboration weave together, and all are working together. We’re in similar industries and aiming for the same things, and this has helped me understand it more and with transparency.”

Angharad Moynes and Elliot Moran from Hearst, commented: “Anyone thinking about coming next year should do so because it’s really informative and educational, you learn a lot […] It’s a shared responsibility so we all have to take part.”

Tickets are already open for the next Products of Change Conference on 3 November 2027 at the Royal Geographical Society. Earlybird discount prices will be available until 31 December 2026, with POC Members receiving an additional 20% discount on ticket prices. Book your place and join us next year for another inspiring event.

About Products of Change
Products of Change is a purpose-driven organisation, structured around its not-for-profit membership, its educational resources and media arm, as well as its advisory team to support its members and the brand licensing industry on its sustainability journey. To find out more about becoming a member, visit: productsofchange.com/membership