The State of Sustainability

Michelle Carvell is the current COO of Lorax EPI. She has 15 years of experience working in the environmental compliance sector, building an extensive knowledge of the industry. After graduating from Cardiff University in 2002, she developed her career specializing in product stewardship, producer responsibility programs and their impacts on the producers. Co-founding Lorax Compliance Limited in 2014, Michelle supports a diverse range of businesses with specialists and extended producer responsibility, as well as tailored consultancy covering all aspects of environmental legislation. Michelle's focus within Lorax is to promote and simplify the vast range of reporting requirements their clients find themselves obligated by.

John Blake is a Senior Research Director in the Consumer Retail team. John covers packaging, artwork and labeling in Gartner Supply Chain Research. He specializes in consumer and industrial packaging innovation and development process, packaging trends, packaging organization and talent management, packaging strategy across sustainability and e-commerce, IP, growth and cost optimization. He covers specification data management, label and artwork management vendors and best practices.

Matthew Wright is the founder & CEO of Specright, the first cloud-based platform for Specification Management. Specright has been recognized by Fast Company’s prestigious Most Innovative Companies list, named a Gartner Cool Vendor, and as one of the Top Places to Work by the OC Register and Built in LA. Wright is also a published author and his book, “The Evolution of Products and Packaging,”was named to the Amazon Hot New Release List for Industrial Relations Business and has a five star rating. 

Prior to founding Specright, Wright spent more than 25 years in the packaging industry, holding leadership positions at International Paper, Temple Inland, and rightPAQ — a packaging company he co-founded. He has also been involved in leading multiple M&A deals in the packaging industry, currently sits on the MSU School of Packaging and Industry Advisory Board and previously served on the Packaging Advisory Board at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.