The licensing industry is undergoing a transformative journey towards sustainability, as revealed in a candid panel discussion at Licensing Expo 2025, featuring industry experts Anne Bradford from Difuzed, and David Sprei from Penguin Ventures.
The conversation highlighted the critical need for businesses to integrate sustainability not just as a compliance requirement, but as a strategic business opportunity.
Sustainable integration
David, representing a global publishing house that sells 712 million books annually, emphasised the importance of looking beyond minimum requirements and finding authenticity within the brand for sustainability – finding the story and the meaning. “Certification and legislation is a minimum,” he stated, beyond that, companies have to look at: “What do we want to do? What’s our North Star?”
Anne shared how sustainability can be embedded throughout a business’s operations. “It’s coming up with the idea that actually this is a huge thing to bring together. I think sometimes the licensee forgets how many people we’ve got to deal with to keep all the cards moving. It’s a huge supply chain,” said Anne.
“Rather than us being told what we need to do from different places, we actually need to drive ourselves internally first, put our own pillars in place,” Anne added.
A shared goal
One of the key challenges is standardisation of requirements: “People are at different levels, the standard interpretation is different, the requirements are different,” David explained, “There is no standardisation, and I think that’s something collectively as an industry we are craving.”
And this is where the importance of collaboration and sharing of information comes in, particularly through POC which is working to pull the industry together and implement the appropriate methodologies.
The panel agreed that collaboration is crucial. As Anne noted, “We need to be able to have conversations” and share experiences, even when things don’t go perfectly. “I think it’s just about having that open communication.”
Technology emerged as a potential solution for tracking and implementing sustainability efforts. David highlighted the importance of “having a fantastic technology partner system” to collect data efficiently and audit practices without constant physical inspections.
Looking forward, both speakers saw immense potential. David described feeling “excited” about understanding the direction of sustainability, while Anne emphasised the need to overcome fear and be open to sharing knowledge.
The panel concluded with a powerful message: sustainability is not just an environmental imperative, but a business opportunity that can drive innovation, brand loyalty, and long-term growth.
Read more about Penguin Ventures’ sustainability journey in an exclusive interview with David Sprei for the latest issue of POC magazine. Find it here.
