In 4 steps to sustainable standbuilding

Sustainability and standbuilding. Two words which are rarely used in the same phrase. Until now! With an eye on the future, we believe it is incredibly important to not just think about sustainability, but take action. But where to start? In this blog we discuss four easy ways to make your exhibition more sustainably. In addition, we discuss what you can expect from a standbuilder when it comes to sustainability.

DIY sustainability

Nowadays we separate our trash, travel more often by bike and we try minimizing the use of plastic bags when we go grocery shopping. Still, we are using tons of paper, waste plenty of food and throw away all kinds of material during exhibitions and events. The following tips will help you breaking your polluting exhibition habits and turn them into something more sustainable. 

1. Reduce paper waste

When you take a good look we still use quite a lot of paper on a daily basis. The average trade show visitor comes back home with a bag full of flyers, brochures, notebooks and more paper stuff. Ofcourse it’s a good thing that companies promote themselves, otherwise they wouldn’t be at the trade show, but there are other ways to do promote your company in a more sustainable way. So marketeers: time to expand your horizon!

Possibilities:

• Work with an exhibition lead app to collect visitor data, instead of using business cards. This has the additional advantage that you can save extra information about the person you talked to during the trade show.
• Develop or use an app or landingspage which stores information about your products or services which you would otherwise have printed on a flyer.
• You want to give your visitors a goodiebag? Don’t fill it with stuff made of paper, but give something meaningful or a sustainable giveaway instead.

2. Good food & drinks

Many exhibitors choose to take care of their food and drinks themselves. It’s just a great way to create more ambiance and to have more informal chats on your stand. But have you ever thought about the amount of food that is going to waste during and after the show? Each trade show hundreds or thousands of sandwiches, cakes and appertizers are going to waste because of many different reasons. So next time you attend an exhibition, try to think about the amount of food you will be serving so you will prevent having to throw away much at the end of the exhibition. Another idea is to work with seasonal products or a local/sustainable caterer. Food or drinks left? Charity is the way to go!

3. Recycling: not that difficult

Even the smallest efforts can decrease your footprint during trade shows. Think about re-using badges, posters, water bottles, straps and keycords. 

4. Let’s go green!

At the moment it is a huge trend: incorporating living green into the stand. No plastic soccer field but actual plants and herbs which enhance the ambiance of the stand. From a banana trees till small basil plants: get as creative as you want. The nice thing about using plants is that you can give them away to colleagues, grandma’s or take them to the office. Anyway, it is going to be a win-win situation for everyone.

What do we do to operate sustainable?

• We choose material that we can use over and over again, so that it doesn’t go to waste right after the exhibition. Think about wooden doors and walls.
• Our customers usually rent the exhibition stand for several years, after which we re-use the material in other projects, or we make sure to recycle it.
• When you have LED lightning at home, why wouldn’t you use it at your exhibition stand? This is the reason 100% of our lightning is LED.
• We advise and guide our customers in the process of developing a sustainable exhibition strategy. We encourage them to make conscious decisions.
• We are continuously looking for ways to increase the level of sustainability into our thinking and business operations.

Endless possibilities with customized stand building

When you are open to using exhibition stands that are better for the world, anything is possible. It actually opens up a new world of possibilities in terms of shape, materials and brand awareness. A recent case of ours is the stand for the Rabobank. We used materials like cork, seagrass and cardboard. Another possibility is having a modular stand which enables companies to use elements of the original stand in other formations at multiple events.

Read more about the modular stand for van de Moortele

Your turn!

You might feel like this is a good thing to do, but don't know where to start. If so, give us a call and we will provide you with advice, ideas and a good cup of (sustainable) coffee. Just click to get in contact with us!