An internationally recognised expert with almost 40 years’ experience of setting quality standards for sports surfaces and sports facilities. During my career I have participated in the development of all leading international and UK standards including the FIFA Quality Programme for Football Turf, IRB Performance Standard for Synthetic Turf Rugby Surfaces, Rugby Football League Performance and Construction Standards for Synthetic Turf Pitches, European and British Standards, World Bowls Board Performance Standard for Artificial Flat Green Bowls Surfaces, The International Tennis Federation Initial Study on Performance Standards for Tennis Surfaces, The All England Netball Association Performance Requirements for Netball Courts, UEFA Requirements for Artificial Football Surfaces (2004), GAA Performance and Construction Standards for Synthetic Turf Pitches and the ECB Performance Standard for Non-turf Cricket Surfaces.

I am currently Facilities and Quality Programme Manager at the International Hockey Federation (FIH), advising on all aspects of facilities infra-structure and hockey equipment. I also provide technical support to the England Netball, European Synthetic Turf Organisation (ESTO) and the UK's Sport and Play Construction Association (SAPCA). I also chair the European Standards working groups dealing with standards for outdoor sports surfaces and test methods for sports surfaces.

During my career I have provided consultancy services to FIFA, UEFA, The Football Association, Football Association of Wales, Football Association of Ireland and Rugby Football Union (RFU), Lawn Tennis Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). I am privileged to been elected to serve two terms on the Synthetic Turf Council (USA) executive board.

Colin Young has over 20 years’ experience in the synthetic turf industry, he received an PhD from Loughborough University, UK investigating the performance of synthetic turf. Since then he has worked in research, testing, regulation and now product development within the sports surface industry.

His employment history is as follows:

Loughborough University – Post Doctoral Research Associate

The Sports and Play Construction Association – Technical Manager

Labosport Ltd – Operations Manager then Managing Director

TenCate Grass - Research & Development Director

My mission is to support organizations in their transition towards sustainable business. For that, I strongly believe that sustainability can only the achieved on basis of solid metrics and if this becomes an important aspect of a company’s business strategy. Life cycle assessment and environmental footprinting are my core expertise.

The greatest reward is seeing when I succeeded in helping an organization take a step forward in their sustainability journey. I hope to continue to do this with many organizations because there is still plenty improvement opportunities out there.

Eric O'Donnell, MPhil, is a Global Synthetic Turf Consultant and the Managing Director of Sports Labs Ltd. With over four decades of experience, Eric's journey began as a civil engineer involved in the testing of highways, geotechnical investigations and remedial works on environmentally challenging sites. His journey into synthetic sports surfaces started in 1988. He founded Sports Labs Ltd, in 1998 a renowned global entity specializing in the evaluation, research, and testing of sports surfaces and technology now celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Eric's invaluable contributions extend to shaping international standards, including pivotal roles in contributing to the FIFA Quality Concept for Football Turf, FIH Handbook of Performance Requirements for Synthetic Turf Pitches, and World Rugby Performance Standard for Synthetic Turf Rugby Surfaces. He also lends his expertise to EN norms and guidance documents, and serves on the board of the ESTC as chair of the Technical Committee and in particular chair of the End of Life interest group for synthetic turf and shock pads.

Christoph Katz has broad global experience in a business-to-business environment with small, medium and large business in the areas of chemicals, energy and resources, Engineering Plastics, composites as well as food & beverage ingredients - plus a broad array of customer industries and applications in all these fields – be it more industrial or more consumer-oriented.

Before partnering with EPPA, Christoph held international leadership positions in producing industries for more than 20 years.

Through actively managing public policy interfaces to the business (e.g., regulation of products, trade agreements and defense), Christoph has developed a deep understanding of the interdependency of these two areas - and the importance of managing these processes and interfaces well in order to have a good position in innovation and competitiveness, and ultimately business success.

Overseeing innovation management and new business development several times has helped Christoph to understand that it is essential for innovation and commercial success to manage international trade, its supply chain and its regulations well – especially when dealing with cross-border business and market access as well as meeting customer needs and expectations.

Christoph studied business administration at the universities of Berlin and Nuremberg, Germany. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and wrote his thesis in Montréal, Canada. ​

He operates in German, English, and French, and has working knowledge in Spanish.

Alex Bobeica (EMBA) has a 15 years’ experience in selling modern machinery for the installation of synthetic surfaces, synthetic turf and maintenance of this areas.

He has been previously involved for some years in the tires and rubber articles industry being after consultant for the development of the first SBR producing factories in Eastern Europe.

Małgorzata Gołębiewska is a team leader for Environmental Footprint and Green Claims in DG Environment (since 2022), responsible for the preparations and negotiations of the Green Claims Directive proposal and on coordination and promotion of application of EF methods and a life-cycle perspective across EU policies. 
She has been working on EU environment and climate policy within the European Commission since 2008. Prior to current position at DG Environment Małgorzata worked (1) in the Secretariat-General on policy co-ordination of the European Green Deal with a focus on circular economy, waste management and chemicals policy, (2) in DG Environment’s waste management unit on implementation of the Waste Framework Directive, and (3) in DG CLIMA where she was responsible for preparations and negotiations of legislation on CO2 emissions from passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

In 2019, after working for many years with a contractor and municipality in the field of sports fields, I joined NOC*NSF. My task at NOC*NSF is to make the certification system future-proof in line with government-set sustainability goals. A key part of this is developing a sustainability label for artificial grass sports surfaces, ensuring that customers are informed in a clear and fair way about sustainability performance in the broadest sense. The PEF project of the ESTC helps us achieve our goals regarding the label. I would like to discuss the progress of the label project and the opportunities that PEF offers us in this area.

Adnan joined Carpet Recycling UK as Manager in 2018.  He holds a Chartered Membership of the Institution of Wastes Management (MCIWM), a BSc (Hons) degree in Manufacturing Management and a PRINCE2 Project Management Qualification. 

Adnan has a wealth of Waste Management experience working with public, private and community sector organizations spanning 25 years.  Adnan is also Owner and Director of Globe Environmental Consultancy Ltd, an independent specialist waste management consulting company providing consultancy services to both the Public and Private Sectors throughout the UK and the Middle East.

Jorge Garcia-Unanue. Ph.D in Sport Sciences and Professor in University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Project coordinator in IGOID Group, Test Laboratory FIFA, FIH, WR and FIBA, and Research Centre for Sport Surfaces. His lines of research focus on surface-player interaction, surface performance and upcycling in sports flooring (technical manager on LIFET4C project and researcher in different national and European projects).

Wouter is a sustainability consultant with a specialty in product footprint and sustainability regulations/policies. He has in-depth experience in LCA studies, including the development of EPDs and several PEF projects. He can also support companies with Green claims, End-of-Waste status and calculations of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Wouter joined Ecomatters in July 2021, after obtaining a master’s degree in Industrial Ecology at TU Delft & Leiden University, and prior obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Science & Innovation Management at Utrecht University.