XPAND2018, the annual meeting of the Household & Consumer Products Association (HCPA), which was held at the beginning of last month, from December 2-5, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was a great success once again. The official opening session, presided over by Steve Caldeira, President and CEO of the association, was part of the general session and provided a preview of the well-organized, exciting program that awaited the more than 400 participants. Caldeira highlighted some elements the multi-day event before presenting his annual report. Several guest speakers from the realms of economic and politics, the presentation of numerous awards — in particular the Charles E. Allderdice Memorial Award, which is presented each year — were some of the highlights of this meeting.
“When I was named President & CEO of CSPA, now HCPA, in December of 2016, I was excited about both the challenges and opportunities we had in front of us with a new Congress and new Presidential Administration. Reflecting on the issues that we have proactively and aggressively addressed over the last two years, I couldn’t be prouder of the HCPA team (along with the unwavering support of the board) for their tireless focus to protect and promote this great industry, Caldeira emphasized in his opening address.
“Our member companies (your great companies) and products help consumers to lead cleaner, healthier, and more productive lives each and every day. And on behalf of the HCPA team, we are proud to be a part of something bigger than ourselves – an industry that supports 200,000 direct jobs, represents just under 1 percent of U.S. GDP, and that in 2017 contributed 180 billion to the U.S. economy”
Caldeira explained that in the last two years, “we’ve gone through an organizational reset, reenergized the team and the culture, commissioned critical and much needed economic impact data to better tell our story, and reconnected and strengthened relationships with our allied trade associations (many of whom are represented here today in this room), while also strategically engaging with major retailers, highly-respected NGOs, Congress and the trade and consumer media.Not to mention rebranding the association by changing the name, creating a new tagline, and passing a landmark ingredient communication law in California that we hope will serve as the basis for a federal solution discussion, moving forward.
But none of this would be possible without you. Those of you sitting in this room today recognize the value that HCPA provides, which is why you dedicate so much time and effort to giving back to the organization.”
Caldeira proudly announced that membership numbers are increasing. “More companies continue to join HCPA and our membership development efforts are now beginning to pay measurable dividends. I am also very pleased to report that due to the extremely hard work of HCPA staff and many of HCPA’s
board members, just last month we passed the ambitious membership recruitment revenue goal for calendar year 2018, adding 25 new members which now brings our total membership roster to 238. This is a tremendous accomplishment that we should all be proud of.
As all of HCPA’s hard work continues, we’d like your help in getting more people engaged from your respective companies. The leadership, expertise and resources of our member company volunteers cannot be understated and it is how we can most effectively leverage and amplify the power of the association—which is why I respectfully encourage everyone here to attend as many Division, Council and Committee meetings as possible, to learn more about the important work of each part of the association and to also add your much-valued thoughts and ideas”.
First he thanked the companies and their representatives for their tireless efforts on behalf of the association and the industry in the past year. Caldeira sketched the successes achieved in the past year and continued: “HCPA has, in fact, brought in highly-regarded and much-needed issue expertise to fit the evolving needs of our member companies, in what can at best be described as a very unique political environment.
We also continue to expand and strengthen our advocacy footprint at all levels of government, which is why we’ve added Allyson Azar as the new Manager of State Government Relations & Public Policy for the West region.
He was also pleased to announce that Andrea Mojica, will be joining HCPA in January as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs reporting directly to Jim Jones, and will be the Division Staff Executive to both the Antimicrobial and Cleaning Divisions.
Furthermore, he congratulated Dr. Steve Bennett on his appointment to the EPA Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC), which provides counsel to the EPA on risk assessments within the TSCA implementation process.
Caldeira added: “HCPA was also among the first trade associations to aggressively throw down a marker on the debilitating tariffs on imported steel and aluminum and with China. HCPA has also signed onto multiple coalition letters to Congress, including: The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) coalition related to the Chinese tariffs, the National Foreign Trade Council’s (NFTC) coalition related to the tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports, and the Americans for Free Trade coalition, which is a bipartisan group representing a broad collection of American business interests”.
“HCPA has also been working collaboratively with allied international trade associations from Canada, the European Union and Mexico and we also supplemented our external lobbying efforts by hiring one of Washington’s most respected bipartisan public affairs firms to strengthen and supplement the great efforts of the HCPA government relations & public policy team”, said Steve Caldeira.
Our strong and mutually respectful relationship with the EPA continues to give our members direct access to officials at every pertinent level of the agency. I am pleased to share that we recently met with Andrew Wheeler, the Acting Administrator of the EPA not once, but twice, over the last couple of months”, said Caldeira.
He continued: “While we are increasingly finding common ground with retailers, numerous ingredient communication bills popped up at the state level in 2018, but thanks to the excellent work of our state government relations and public policy team, we were able to step in and prevent a patchwork quilt of conflicting laws. However, despite our good faith efforts to find common ground through dialogue, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released their final ingredient communication guidance, and in our respectful and legal opinion, we believe they exceeded their statutory authority, and most disconcerting, they refuse to work on, or even acknowledge that their current ingredient disclosure guidance has unworkable testing thresholds for unintentionally added ingredients”.
Caldeira concluded: “Looking forward, HCPA is operating from a position of good standing with key stakeholders (including highly-respected NGOs) on ingredient communication. In fact, a recent report from the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners lauded HCPA for these efforts. I (and we) truly believe that communicating positive messaging (and yes, also dispelling misinformation about our members’ products when instances warrant) will help consumers and workers to better understand that our products, when used correctly, are safe, beneficial and sustainable choices for their families”.
For many years, high points of the “General Session” have been guest speeches by prominent personalities from politics, business, and culture. Here is a list of the individual keynote speakers including Jennifer Duffy, Senior Editor of The Cook Political Report; Robert Fry, Chief Economist, Robert Fry Economics LLC; Michael Goodis, Director, Registration Division, Office of Pesticide Programs, EPA; Anita Pease, Acting Director, Antimicrobials Division, Office Of Pesticide Programs, EPA; and consumer trends analyst Paco Underhill, author and founder of Envirosell.
Jennifer Duffy started things off and following her lecture, there was a podium discussion between her and Caldeira, which greatly excited the trade public.
For the subsequent presentation of the Charles E. Allderdice, Jr. Memorial Awards, David Campbell, Chairman of the Board, took the floor. This highest award, which the association presents each year, went to Bill Auriemma, President & CEO, Diversified CPC International. Named after a former president of HCPA, the Allderdice Award is presented annually to the individual who has made exceptional contributions to the advancement of the household and commercial products industry.
In course of the “General Session” HCPA has awarded its prestigious Chairman’s Award to Wendy Kennedy, Global Air Care and North America Home Care Senior Communications Manager, The Procter & Gamble Company.
Selected by the Chairman of the HCPA Board of Directors, the Chairman’s Award goes to a member volunteer whose strategic engagement, enthusiasm and commitment to excellence has earned them a reputation as a visionary leader in both HCPA and the household and commercial products industry.
HCPA has also awarded seven individual member company executives with Volunteer Recognition Awards honoring their outstanding work in one of HCPA’s seven product divisions:
HCPA Air Care Products Division, Wendy Kennedy, Senior Communication Manager, Procter & Gamble Company Global Air Care and North America Home Care
HCPA Aerosol Products Division, Michelle Rudnick, Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, CRC Industries, Inc.
HCPA Antimicrobial Products Division, Lisa Amadio, Principal Regulatory Consultant, Chemicals, Pesticides; Technology Sciences Group Inc.
HCPA Floor Care Products Division, Rebecca Kaufold, Chemist, Spartan Chemical Company, Inc.
HCPA Pest Management Products Division, Rick Kingston, President, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, SafetyCall International PLLC
HCPA Industrial & Automotive Products Division, Jean Mayszak, Regulatory Compliance Manager, Turtle Wax, Inc.
HCPA Cleaning Products Division, Joe McCarthy, Lab Services Manager/Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist, Dell Tech Laboratories Ltd.
The association also announced that Pamela Lam, Vice President of R&D Home and Laundry Care at Henkel will become Chair of the HCPA Board of Directors. Hal Ambuter, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Policy, RB; George Buckland, Vice President-Commercial, CAPP Division, Crown Holdings (formerly known as Crown, Cork and Seal, Inc.); Luciana Castro, Sr. Vice President, Global Regulatory Services, Firmenich Inc.; John Dowd, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Diversified CPC International; Nick Ferring, General Manager PLZ Aeroscience; Richard Stepan, Director, Consumer Products North America, Stepan Company were also newly elected to the Board of Directors.
The general session set a positive mood for the full lecture program that extended across the next few days. The lectures and sessions began very early in the morning and usually ended late in the evening because the many topics were continued in deep-ranging discussions. All lectures as well as the committee sessions of the seven divisions (Aerosol Products Division, Air Care Division, Antimicrobial Products Division, Cleaning Products Division, Industrial and Automotive Division, Pest Management Division and Polishes and Floor Maintenance Division) were always well-attended and the discussions afterwards once again demonstrated the commitment with which the members of the CSPA support this organization. In addition to legal and technical topics, the focus of the lectures was once again on professional topics. In particular, it was noteworthy that lectures about trend developments and those based on empirical data were warmly received because they loosened up and in many cases even complemented the lectures about other professional topics.
This extensive lecture program was, as usual, complemented by an exhibition and poster session in the foyer of the event location, the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa, Fort Lauderdale. Many international companies were represented.
