Zero Waste Exhibition Stand

“Zero Waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. The goal is for no trash to be sent to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean.”

Source: Wikipedia

This set of principles have already found their way into many areas – and now also with Blickfang in trade fair construction! If you take the term literally, no waste at all should be produced. Since this is, however, utopian in most areas, it is more important for us to avoid garbage wherever possible, to conserve resources and to reduce CO₂ emissions when building our exhibition stands. We believe that we can all make a contribution to developing towards a zero waste society and have therefore made it our mission to make our industry, exhibition stand construction, more sustainable.

Foto Patrick Esser
Patrick Esser

CEO & Founder
BLICKFANG Messebau GmbH

Zero waste and exhibition stand construction - how does that fit together?

„For us, Zero Waste in exhibition stand construction means presenting the uniqueness of your brand while acting as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. From the storage of the components of an exhibition stand to the transport, assembly, dismantling and the materials used, waste and CO₂ emissions are generated which must be reduced drastically. After careful consideration of every single step that is involved in the implementation of a trade fair stand, we have developed alternatives that enable us to minimize the consumption of resources in our projects. The criteria explained below enable us to realize your sustainably built exhibition stand.“

If you decide to realize your exhibition stand together with us, taking into account all the criteria explained below, we will issue you our Zero Waste Certificate. You can decide whether you would like to place our Zero Waste seal on the graphics of your stand, in addition to a printout of the certificate, in order to demonstrate the sustainability of your presentation for all to see.

You have ideas for your stand that, at first glance, do not seem feasible with our Zero Waste alternatives? Let us work together to develop approaches and solutions that may be a step in the right direction.

It is time to make trade fair construction more sustainable – are you in?

Configure your Zero Waste booth now!

For the installation of electricity, water and wastewater in the exhibition stand, floor platforms made of glued chipboard are usually installed on a chipboard substructure. Due to the resulting drill holes and the cutting of chipboard, these platforms wear out comparatively quickly and can usually only be reused a few times. The system floors we use consist of modular boards which can be assembled individually for every stand size. This type of substructure does not need to be screwed together, as it is adjusted by means of adjustable feet. A further advantage of this construction method is that the system floor can be levelled to the millimeter.

Normally, laminate or carpet sheeting is used as floor covering. Laminate is subject to around 50 % cutting waste per stand and is often disposed immediately after the end of the exhibition. As carpet is glued, it is usually also only suitable for single use.

So-called self-lying SL carpet tiles made of particularly resistant merino wool and robust vinyl tiles show only minimal wear. Furthermore, due to the thickness and weight of the individual tiles, no gluing is necessary and the tiles can be used over and over again.

The walls of an exhibition stand are often made of plastic-coated or painted chipboard, which is fixed to steel supports for static reasons. This often results in damage during transport or assembly, for example in the form of scratches or drill holes, which makes multiple use difficult.

The use of a modular aluminum system as a basic construction facilitates transport and assembly, as it can be folded up to save space and can be assembled „plug and play“. Even if the frame system is damaged externally, it can still be reused without any problems, as the frame as such is not visible through the fabric covering. In addition, the transport causes much less CO₂ as the parts to be transported are much lighter and take up less space.

We print the graphics for your exhibition stand on fabric, which takes up only little space during transport. After the exhibition it can be stored and used again and again without any problems.

Due to the modularity of the wall system we can produce the fabric graphics in a grid pattern so that you can reuse the graphics even if the size of the stand area changes. If the wall area is reduced, fabric panels are omitted and added when the size is increased. We only use PVC-free fabrics that are recyclable.
Our graphic designers will be happy to assist you in placing changing elements such as dates or trade fair names on your overall graphic in such a way that as few fabric elements as possible have to be replaced for subsequent fairs.

Assembly is virtually waste-free, as the pre-fabricated graphic only has to be clamped in place and no drilling or screwing is necessary.

For our stand lighting, we exclusively use LED spotlights, which consume around 70 % less energy than conventional light bulbs for the same light output. In addition, with up to 50,000 h they have a ten times longer service life than HQI bulbs. Since LED lamps have a much higher efficiency, they require significantly less wattage for the same amount of light. As a result, they generate hardly any heat, which is not only ecological but also positive for the temperature on your stand.

For our Zero Waste exhibition stands we only use rental furniture, so that no new pieces of furniture are purchased. We offer a wide range of furniture in various designs. Due to the high quality and the careful handling of the furniture, it can be used for a long time and can be sold at a reduced price to end customers after it has been discarded. A proven and sustainable approach to our rental furniture.

Furthermore, when selecting suppliers, we attach great importance to proximity to the respective trade fair in order to keep transport distances as short as possible. On the one hand, this results in fewer exhaust gases being emitted and on the other hand, it reduces transport costs.

Our calculation basis for CO2 compensation is easy to understand. According to the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency), the cost of one ton of CO2 in Germany is currently 180.00 €.

We have determined the average fuel consumption of our transports of material and   assembly personnel and take this as the basis for the calculation. Thus, every kilometer driven, with a calculated average fuel consumption of 17 liters of diesel per 100 km, must be compensated with a payment of 0.09 €. Should a personal handover of the exhibition stand take place, the journey of the project manager will be calculated with an average fuel consumption of 9 liters of diesel per 100 km, resulting in a compensation of 0.05 € per kilometer.

 


 

Example: Exhibition stand 30 m² trade fair Munich

Vehicle: Mercedes Sprinter 3.5 tons

Assembly personnel: 2

Assembly: 580 km there and back to camp Cologne

Dismantling: 580 km there and back to camp Cologne

Total kilometers: 2320 km

Consumption: 17 liters of diesel/100km

Calculation: 2320 km x 0.09 € = 208.80 € compensation payment


 

 

It is of course our concern to have access to assembly teams and warehouses close to the trade fairs throughout Germany in order to minimize the CO2 emissions and costs arising from transport and travel. In addition, we try to organize the transport of the material, if reasonable, via the assembly team. In this way we have as few transports to the trade fair location as possible and no double journey of material and assemblers. In the course of project planning, we inform you about our transport and assembly planning so that you only pay compensation for the kilometers that actually occur.

The compensation is made annually via a proposed climate protection project of the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency).

In conventional exhibition stand construction, the materials required for transport are usually wrapped in bubble wrap, foam film, adhesive tape or stretch film – a method of packaging that produces a huge amount of waste for each transport as the film is not reusable. Packaging boxes, however, can be used over and over again and make it easy to repack or remove individual parts without using new packaging material.

In addition, our sustainable solutions for packaging, floors, wall systems and graphics require almost no consumables such as screws or adhesives. Wallpapering, painting and filling work, the necessary sheeting and other materials are also no longer required.

Green, all around the stand!

As a full service partner, we will of course also be happy to support you with all other services related to your exhibition stand. We can take care of catering, personnel and also personalized giveaways. Of course, always with the premise of acting as sustainably as possible. To achieve this, we work together with catering companies that pay attention to regional and organic ingredients for their dishes. We also offer coffee machines that work without pads or capsules as well as sustainable tableware and cutlery.

When recruiting staff, we rely on local personnel agencies to avoid long journeys.

If you would like to give the visitors of your stand a small gift that presents your company and at the same time is used sustainably, we would be happy to work out a solution for individual giveaways with you. From bamboo pens to cotton bags and reusable drinking bottles, there are numerous possibilities for gifts that benefit your customers and the environment!