Opinion
Environmental
change takes
time, but we must
keep going…
Nexus Collections’ Howard Lawton reflects
on 12 years of environmental activism
O
n 19 September 2007, Nexus
Collections launched the world’s
first green conference bag. This was
followed by an environmentally friendly
exhibition bag and the success of these
changed the face of our business.
Within a couple of years, we had
changed suppliers, opened a fair-trade
factory in China and started investigating
a variety of different ways to ensure our
products, business practices and attitudes
all focused on social responsibility and a
positive approach to the planet.
This year 30 per cent of everything
we produced has been environmentally
friendly (up from 11.5 per cent last year) –
something we expect to continue.
Making an environmentally friendly
bag isn’t as easy as you might think. First
you need to decide in what way the bag
is to have a positive impact – should it be
recyclable, made from recycled products,
not use plastics, use jute rather than
cotton, use fixings made from coconut or
wood…the list goes on.
At various points all of the above have
been part of our line-up or at least spent
time in research and development.
Now the top end of the range includes
bags made from recycled plastic bottles
that look no different to products you
would find in high street luggage shops.
However, there is still much work to be
done. Like so many other manufacturers
working at the cutting edge of socially
responsible products we are continually
looking for ways to improve. Though
our current bags are incredibly durable
and last for an incredibly long time,
one day I hope to have a bag made from
recycled materials that is 100 per cent
compostable, we are close but there is
the fastenings issue – zip and buckle
materials aren’t there yet!
Like the whole of the event supply
chain, the process of becoming
environmentally responsible is
incremental. We are re-engineering the
plastic poppers on our foldaway bags. To
keep them small and tightly packed they
need a secure fastening.
Plastic and metal are the most effective
and secure methods when it comes
to achieving the product quality our
customers are used to – but they are not
the best choices for the environment, so
we are currently investigating sustainable
wooden solutions. Watch this space for a
solution in the near future.
As an industry conferencing and
exhibitions has taken great strides to
clean up our act and improve our social
responsibility. There is, however, still
work to be done across the board. We
need to look at everything from shampoo
bottles in hotel rooms to the packaging
we use to ship products to our events.
We need to consider the risk of child
labour in the factories creating our trade
show uniforms and the fair rates of pay
received by the coffee growers for our
morning pick-me-up.
We as an industry have incredible
influence on our audiences, we gather
them in one place and have a chance to
educate them on so many topic – social
and environmental good must be a part
of those stories.
The Name in EVENT HIRE
0800 458 5701
[email protected]
Charles Wilson Engineers Ltd
62 — September