Roundtable
industry. We already use
lots of the parts to deliver a
show again and again. We
have a business model that
brings lots of people together
in one go. I’ve been a buyer
for 20 years and the amount
of airmiles I did seeing
suppliers I can now do six
months of work in four days.
Apart from reusing materials
Covid-19 has made us look at
how we rewire the business
and challenge that habitual
thinking. Because a lot of
our events are annual, it is
so long before the next one
that we do not often focus on
solving some of those things
right in front of us. We
worked hard with Informa to
get rid of PVC at their shows.
Everything we print now
is with water-based ink on
fabric and we recycle all of
that fabric. Even the flooring,
which is one of the biggest
challenges with millions of
meters of that being used
every year, gets recycled.”
Jason explained that GES
investigated what happened
to the carpet being recycled
in Poland and discovered
that it was being used to
make hotel slippers.
Stead added: “This is a
good opportunity given that
we all have limited revenues
coming in to understand how
we become more efficient
and efficiency is generally
quite green because you
find better ways of doing it.
Transport is still a challenge.
It personally hurts me when
I see wagons and trailers
leaving our compound with
a couple of stillages on them
because someone phoned
in for an extra 40 meters
of wall, so we are trying to
bundle things together.”
‘It personally
hurts me when I
see wagons and
trailers leaving
our compound
with a couple
of stillages on
them because
someone phoned
in for an extra 40
meters of wall,
so we are trying
to bundle things
together’
Iain Pitt
Kerrie Kemp, operations
director at Informa, a
company at the forefront
in driving sustainability,
explained that they have
been working on improving
sustainability since 2013.
She added: “We had some
big ambitions as a company.
We have just been carbonneutral
certified, we are
pushing for waste-free
features at our events and we
want to be PVC- and plasticfree
at all of our events.
There is a very distinct
difference in approaches
to sustainability between
the UK and Europe versus
the Middle East events and
emerging markets, not just
necessarily from approach
but local capabilities and
what is available to us.”
Piers Kelly, operations
director at Reed Exhibitions,
gave an honest assessment
of where they are as a
business. He said: “We
are further behind than
Informa. We were quite
early adopters when the
first British Standard came
out for sustainable events
and then the ISO Standard
and I’m not sure if we went
about it in the wrong way
by working for the standard
rather than it working for
us. Over a period of time it
petered out and we dropped
individual activities from
different shows, but over the
past year we’ve reformed
a sustainability group and
we have quite a large team
across the business that is
getting well organised. I
think we’ll start catching
up with some of the work
GES and Informa have been
discussing.”
“We see a variation globally
and we have a lot of shows
overseas and we are hugely
dependant on the local
venues and local suppliers
and we have to use what they
have got and it is difficult to
influence change if we are
dropping in once a year.”
Victoria James, event
director for Bett (Middle
East) at Hyve Group echoed
the general sentiment that
the business is at the mercy
of local suppliers. She
explained: “It’s really hard
to push the sustainability
agenda when the
infrastructure is not there.
Hyve Group London can do
24 — August