Exhibitions and live events are clearly right at the cutting edge of environmental issues. The simple idea that you build something in a temporary environment and then throw it away a few days later means that exhibitions and events have been at the forefront of driving green marketing. So there are all sorts of solutions. The first is that exhibitions are intimately linked with on-line media. So there has been a huge reduction in print around exhibitions both in order to attract an audience and in terms of brochure hand out at the show. There has also been a growth amongst companies helping exhibitors and visitors and organisers offset their carbon footprint. Now that has done two things. One because you have to pay to offset your carbon footprint it has forced organisers and exhibitors to look at where the environmental impact is occurring and reduce that, but it has also made them more aware of the environmental message. In most exhibition halls now you will see lots of recycling. You will see lots of messages around the show about green sustainability and most of all, what you are seeing increasingly in terms of stand design and build is a real awareness of which materials are reusable, which materials are recyclable. So the old days of build and burn are fast disappearing. Now you are seeing stands made out of cardboard. You are seeing stands increasingly made out of aluminum system, because, of course, the aluminum is infinitely recyclable. You are seeing recyclable carpet. You are seeing better waste management in the venues. Of all the industries I work in, exhibitions have really attempted to address the sustainable and green issues in a hard and meaningful way, because they need to.
