Audience:
Open industry. All apparel and footwear industry professionals, regardless of AAFA membership, are encouraged to participate.
Description:
Packaging is emerging as a critical touchpoint for environmental impact—and consumer perception. From fiber to finish, brands are now expected to extend their sustainability commitments beyond the fabric and into the materials that carry, protect, and present their products. This shift is fueling momentum toward a circular economy with circularity-focused certifications leading the charge in driving innovation within textile packaging.
Join us for an engaging webinar, where we’ll explore the growing importance of sustainability certifications tied to circularity, discuss emerging trends in certified packaging solutions, and address the unique challenges of certifying packaging from source to shelf. Whether you’re a sustainability lead, sourcing director, packaging engineer, or brand strategist in the textile space, this webinar will equip you with the knowledge to package your products with purpose—and credibility.
Attendees of this webinar will learn:
- How circularity-focused certifications are driving innovation in textile packaging.
- About certifications that are supporting closed-loop models and material recovery in packaging.
- Insights on how to overcome challenges in certifying every link in your packaging supply chain, ensuring transparency, traceability, and impact—from raw material sourcing to final shipment.
Speakers:
Callie Pople
Business Developer - Textiles
Control Union
Callie Pople is the Business Developer for Textiles at Control Union. She brings extensive experience in environmental reporting and business development, having worked in outdoor and sustainability-focused industries. As she grows her experience in textile certifications, her expertise centers on building partnerships and collaborating with brands and manufacturers to strengthen their commitment to transparency and sustainable practices.
Gerardo Marenco
Business Developer - Forestry and Biomass
Control Union
Mr. Evan has over 30 years of experience counselling companies on customs and international trade law matters. He advises clients in connection with all substantive issues handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including the identification of duty savings opportunities, complex customs valuation matters, free trade programs, tariff classification, marking, customs audits, broker compliance and forced labor issues.
Joshua Jarman
Senior Auditor
Control Union
Joshua Jarman is a Senior Auditor at Control Union. As a certifications and inspections guru, he brings a positive auditing experience where both parties come away empowered and knowledgeable. Joshua evaluates many Control Union clients across numerous industries for adherence to multiple ISO 9001 based, chain of custody, animal welfare, and social accountability standards including RDS, GOTS, GOLS, OCS, GRS, RCS, RSPO, and SMETA. He has led many trainings and offers insightful knowledge in the certification process!
AAFA Host:
Nate Herman
Senior Vice President, Policy
AAFA
Nate Herman oversees AAFA’s Policy department, managing the association’s lobbying, policy, and regulatory affairs activities. Nate leads AAFA’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, formulating and implementing CSR policy and representing AAFA and the industry on CSR issues before governments, NGOs, and other key stakeholders. In addition, Nate develops all apparel and footwear industry data and statistics as AAFA's resident economist. Prior to joining AAFA, Nate worked for six years at the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration assisting U.S. firms in entering the global market. Nate spent the last two years as the Department's industry analyst for the footwear and travel goods industries. Nate received a Masters of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics from the University of Delaware in 1992.
Unable to join on July 30?
Register for the webinar to receive an email containing the direct links to access the recording and the PDF version of the presentation. The email will be sent 1-3 business days after the webinar.
CONTACT | QUESTIONS
Stephanie Paendong