Product Stewardship Society President Sets Stage for Product Stewardship 2018

Product Stewardship 2018 started with a bang as Kate Sellers, President of the Product Stewardship Society, highlighted the many exciting developments that have taken place in the last year.

The big news was the launch of a partnership with the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) to create a product stewardship credential. This program will not only develop standard qualifications across the profession, but it will also help other industries understand what product stewardship is and how it benefits them.

The Product Stewardship Society was also excited to highlight the publication of Professional Practices of Product Stewardship, the first reference for the product stewardship field. Where product stewards often had to search through several resources to find information about a particular topic, they now have a central resource that answers many common subjects.

Appropriately, Gailen Hart, editor and coauthor of Professional Practices of Product Stewardship, received the first Alan K. Fleeger Distinguished Service Award. Named for the founding President of the Product Stewardship Society, the award honors product stewards who have made a material impact on the Society and the profession.

Networking is one of the most popular aspects of the Product Stewardship Conference and Sellers highlighted several new features of this year’s gathering that fostered connections among attendees. The biggest innovation was The Exchange, which provided a comfortable space to network and gather between sessions. Attendees could also vote through the conference app on discussion topics for lunch, making it easier to connect with peers who had similar interests.

A new membership model also debuted in 2018. It’s never been a better time to be a member, with new webinars launching in 2019.

With so many exciting developments, it was hard to believe that this was just the start of Product Stewardship 2018. Check the Full Circle Blog again soon for more recaps and insights from this year’s conference!