Sustainability |
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a more holistic approach. ISLA is a think tank and“ sustainability action initiative” run by Anna Abdelnoor. We spoke to Anna to get her thoughts on Better Stands. She believes that it has the potential to change the industry for the better, but has substantial reservations about how far it can take us.
“ Better Stands is an initiative that seeks to wholesale improve the standards within the exhibition industry,” Anna said.“ It is bringing the discussion about waste to thousands of exhibitors and is an easy way to proactively engage in questioning how you’ re building your booth.
“ It has the potential to be quite transformative, but it is not the solution to the state of waste within the sector. I think it is an awarenessraising mechanism. It is not a golden bullet. It is not going to fundamentally change whether or not we are producing waste.”
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What Informa had to say To get a balanced perspective, we also spoke to Ben Wielgus, head of sustainability at Informa, and a key driver behind Better Stands. Ben gave us a very different angle.“ We ' ve got more than 400 events participating and the leading events are seeing double digit reductions in the percentage of the show floor that ' s built using single use booths,” he stated.“ That means a cleaner, faster and safer build. Even better, our customers seem to be responding very positively.”
He continued:“ One of the most exciting things about the programme is the fact that the programme gets more effective, and delivers higher returns for stand builders, exhibitors and organisers with each additional event that gets involved within a given city. That ' s because those reusable systems get higher utilisation rates, workers get faster, designers more
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Below: Vast quantities of exhibition waste end up discarded in skips |
skilled at creating great looking stands with the system and everyone benefits."
Better Stands does precisely what the name implies – it makes the industry a little better at disposing of materials. No doubt, many stands that would have been discarded have instead been reused. But many believe that it is not a solution. It seems to be the equivalent of placing a plaster over a gaping wound.
The frustration in the minds of some sustainability professionals like Nick and Anna lies in the fact that becoming truly sustainable could save us large amounts of money. To achieve this, something more is needed. A complete rethink, that takes us beyond the old way of thinking, beyond even tired terms like sustainability. But that is a conversation for another time. EW
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www. exhibitionworld. co. uk |
Issue 1 2026 35 |