Join your peers in the sustainability community for a hike and happy hour to ease into the conference. Good trails, good company, and a chance to put faces to names before the work begins.

We’ll kick off the day by setting the stage for what’s ahead: the ground rules for our time together, an introduction to OIA, and a look at the latest data from the Climate Action Corps (CAC) and Clean Chemistry & Materials Coalition (CCMC) that is shaping the work of compliance and sustainability practitioners.

Expect a grounded but hopeful picture of where the industry stands and where it’s headed, framed by a keynote that sets the tone for the conversations to come. Throughout the day, we’ll check in with live polls on the tools and initiatives you’re using, so the conversations resonate with the people in the room.

The regulatory environment for outdoor and textile brands is shifting fast — and the next 12 months will be critical. This session opens with a focused briefing on the compliance milestones, deadlines, and emerging requirements practitioners need to have on their radar right now.

Then we go deep on California’s SB 707, the landmark extended producer responsibility legislation that will reshape how brands think about end-of-life for apparel and textiles. A moderated panel will break down the process toward implementation, how industry can engage, and what your organization should be doing today to prepare.

Many companies set ambitious climate targets. Fewer are on track to meet them. This session creates space for the kind of honest conversation that rarely happens on a conference stage. Hear companies share unfiltered progress reports on their 2030 climate commitments — what strategies are gaining traction, where they’ve hit walls, and how they’re recalibrating.

Whether your organization is ahead of the curve, behind it, or somewhere in between, you’ll walk away with real-world perspectives, hard-won lessons, and practical ideas you can bring back to your team.

Building on the morning’s compliance briefing, this hands-on workshop moves from information to conversation. Groups will focus on a specific sustainability regulation affecting the outdoor and textile industries. Guided by a table facilitator, each group digs into the practical reality of compliance: how companies are interpreting scope and requirements, the data collection methods that are (and aren’t) working, and the internal alignment challenges that rarely make it into presentations.

The conversation also covers how practitioners are communicating requirements across teams and supply chains, and what changes to the law would make compliance more achievable. Come ready to share your experience, compare notes with peers, and leave with insights you can actually use.

Circularity gets a lot of attention — but without durability, it’s incomplete. A product that lasts longer doesn’t need to be replaced or recycled as quickly. Yet durability remains underleveraged in both corporate sustainability strategies and policy frameworks. This session makes the case for putting durability at the center of the conversation. Companies share case studies on how they design, test, and communicate for longevity — and what they’ve learned along the way.

Speakers then examine the legislative gap: where current regulations fall short in incentivizing or requiring durability, and what a more durability-forward policy landscape could look like. The session closes with a discussion of how the outdoor and textile industry is working together to advance durability — as a business strategy, a design principle, and a policy priority.

Solvents are everywhere in the apparel and textile supply chain — in adhesives, coatings, cleaning processes, and finishing treatments — yet they rarely get the attention they deserve. Many are hazardous to workers, and brands that aren’t asking about solvent use may be exposed to risks they don’t fully understand.

Speakers explain why solvents are a critical worker health issue, where they are most commonly found across the supply chain, and what brands can do to assess and reduce risk — from supplier engagement and chemical inventories to safer substitution strategies.

This session cuts through the hype and gets practical. We’ll explore how companies are deploying AI across supply chain traceability, emissions measurement, and end-of-life product planning — and what’s actually working. Expect real-world examples, honest lessons from early adopters, and a clear-eyed look at where AI delivers the most leverage.

You’ll leave with concrete next steps you can bring back to your organization (no engineering background required!).

Sustainability initiatives aren’t just good for the planet — they’re good for business. From risk reduction and operational savings to brand equity and regulatory preparedness, the ROI is real. The challenge is knowing how to surface it in ways that resonate across finance and the broader leadership team. This panel breaks down how to build a compelling business case: which metrics cut through skepticism, how to connect sustainability outcomes to the KPIs leadership already cares about, and how to reframe long-term returns so they don’t get deprioritized in the next budget cycle.

You’ll leave with practical tools to translate sustainability value into the language of business — and the confidence to make the ask.

We’ll close the day by pulling together the threads: the key takeaways across compliance, climate, durability, worker safety, AI, and strategy, and what they mean for the work ahead. A chance to step back, connect the dots, and leave with a clear sense of where to focus next.