Page 25

Spray February 2016

Working Together The CSPA celebrates collaboration at its 102nd Annual Meeting The theme of the Consumer Specialty Products Association’s (CSPA) 102nd Annual Meeting, held Dec. 7–10 at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, FL, was Collaboration 2015. More than 500 industry executives from 250 organizations attended the event. CSPA added 22 new members during 2015, bringing the total number of member companies to 246. After two years as Board Chair, Paul Siracusa of Church & Dwight Co. Inc., turned over the Chairmanship to Bill Auriemma, President & CEO of Diversified CPC International, Inc. “We have members of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the front row here today—now that’s collaboration,” commented outgoing CSPA Chairman Paul Siracusa. “Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together toward a common purpose with an end result of a business benefit. This week, we will focus on the importance of working with the many partners involved in getting safe and effective products to market. We’ll have NGOs, competitors, customers, retailers and regulators around the table and I, for one, look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.” “Our members are the hardworking leaders who, in addition to your full time jobs, make time for CSPA; I realize the enormous contributions many of you make to the betterment of the consumer and institutional products industry,” Siracusa concluded. CSPA President & CEO Chris Cathcart challenged attendees to build trust with consumers by increasing transparency about product ingredients, processes and business practices. “As an association, we must continue to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to build trust and credibility on behalf of the industry,” Cathcart said. “We have built and continue to burnish a solid reputation as an honest broker and trusted partner in advocacy because we are willing to listen and try to identify common ground to get things done.” Consumers demand transparency, Cathcart emphasized, and referred to the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual online global survey of 27,000 consumers, as a fundamental element to what CSPA expects to achieve within the industry. It found that there is a tangible business impact associated with trust and lack thereof. Almost two-thirds of online respondents to the Trust Barometer refuse to buy products and services from a company that they do not trust. However, they say that if they trust you, consumers will buy from you and will recommend your product. Cathcart also commended the CSPA for winning the EPA 2015 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award. The Safer Choice Program, formerly known as the Design for the Environment (DfE) Safer Product Labeling Program, is a labeling initiative that works to increase ingredient communication transparency. CSPA established its own voluntary consumer product ingredient communications program and worked with DfE as it developed its ingredient communication requirements. Three CSPA member companies also won the award: Osprey Biotechnics, Stepan Co. and Wexford Labs. There’s a Starman waiting in the sky Collaboration 2015’s General Session was off to Mars and back with NASA rocket scientist and keynote speaker, Adam Steltzner, who told the spellbinding story of how his team innovated to get the Mars Rover, Curiosity, safely onto the Red Planet. Steltzner was a west-coast musician, who after observing the stars move across the sky one night after a gig, decided to go to community college and assuage his curiosity. This led to a PhD in engineering and by age 35, a job as one Keynote speaker Adam Steltzner February 2016 Spray 25 The CSPA awarded its Charles E. Allderdice, Jr., Memorial Award to Larry Nouvel. He chaired the association’s Board of Directors in 2000, led a team that restored financial stability to the CSPA and its affiliate, the Consumer Specialty Insurance Company. He rebranded the organization and directed the development of several significant new programs. At that time, he was President of Speer Products in Memphis, TN. Today he heads his own consultancy group based in Plano, TX. He is a graduate of The University of Texas, El Paso with a degree in chemistry and graduate work in biology and political science. From left, CSPA President Chris Cathcart, Nouvel, and Outgoing CSPA Chair Paul Siracusa.


Spray February 2016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above