Events have ‘huge power’ to cut CO2, but minds must change

Eventprofs have a “huge amount of power” to make our industry more sustainable – but mindsets must change, according to an industry expert.

Anna Abdelnoor, CEO of isla, told how the vast majority of impactful decisions can be made in the planning stage, rather than trying to work out how to reduce waste after a show.

It comes as studies suggest the annual carbon footprint for the global event industry are of the same order of magnitude as the entire US – which is responsible for more than 10% of global CO2 emissions.

She told ExpoPlatform: “As event professionals, we tend to forget that 90% of the work comes in the planning stage.

“We’re so used to doing things in a certain way that we think about what happens after the event, what happens after the downstream – so by that point, we’ve already created the waste.

“But it’s actually really important for us to think before that – not where will my products or my booth or my materials end up – but how can I prevent my materials ending up as waste.

“So it’s really in that concept, that creative space.

“The upstream is a really important space to be looking at because that hasn’t happened yet, which means we’ve got a huge amount of power to create change to do things differently, to choose a different route.

“That means we don’t necessarily have to worry about the what happens after – we deal with the what’s coming before.”

isla is a non-profit organisation founded by event professionals and industry leaders focusing on a sustainable future for events.

It works work with agencies, brands, organisers and suppliers providing practical guidance on environmental issues.

This is done by drawing on expertise from across the sector to create a powerful network with the knowledge and confidence to facilitate change.

The rapid expansion of the global event industry over the last few decades has brought about tourism growth and socio-economic development – but also exerted surprisingly large pressure on the goals to mitigate global climate change.

Anna set out how organisers can begin to think differently about planning their events so they can have this pro-active approach to tackling CO2 emissions.

She said: “Interrogate why you are running your event – what is the outcome that you’re actually looking for?

“Is it that you want to be educating people? Is it that you want to be bringing people together for a specific reason? What is the purpose and outcome of the event that you’re actually running?

“When you start with that question, you can start to think about different ways of delivering it.

“So rather than ‘we’re used to doing the event in this way of bringing people together in this way’ you start to say ‘what do we want to achieve?’ and plan for that.

“I think asking that question – what’s the outcome that I want from doing this – really starts to lend into being more creative, being more innovative and finding new ways of doing things because you know what your goal is and you know what you’re really working for.”

One example of how this approach can be taken can be seen in a project launched by isla alongside partners.

The company recently unveiled a prototype of an innovative reusable zero-waste stand at the Meetings Show 2024 in ExCeL London.

It came as part of collaboration with the event, creator Paradigm as well as partners the Bulb and Informa.

The walls and floor of the truly circular and sustainable stand are built out of Reform, a recycled plastic tile made from old exhibition carpet, with the flooring made using post-consumer ocean plastic fabricated using renewable electricity in the UK.

The substructure of the stand is built out of repurposed metal from disused shell scheme, meaning the structure of the stand is made from 100% post-consumer materials.

Further work was done taken to ensure no toxic impacts from paints and glues as well as no miscellaneous waste from screws and nails.

The Reform tiles click together by hand and can be rolled up like carpet at the end of a show, ready to be reused.

No protective single-use plastic pallet wrap is required to protect the stand during transit.

“It’s made from waste exhibition carpets to make the walls, the flooring is made from waste ocean plastic and it’s a fully closed loop system – so it’s totally circular.

“It’s truly zero waste  – and not just zero waste to landfill, water zero waste incineration. Lightweight, amazing system and yeah, brilliant concept. How easy would it be? For exhibitors to

Anna added “It’s super easy for other people to kind of pick up on the solution and run with it.

“It is so important for us to be addressing this kind of waste question because the production chain of producing the materials that we use on stands is really, really long. It’s so carbon intensive as a process.

“Before you even get to the waste journey, you’ve already created most of the emissions and then we don’t really know how to deal with the waste.

“We don’t have the solutions for a scale so the best way to address it is to prevent it from being created in the first instance – solutions that look at the circularity before you even go on site and look at reducing and preventing waste before you can get on site.”