Update: 20 October 2022
That sounds like a contradiction at first. Especially when you think about the huge piles of waste that are generated when conventional stands are demolished after the trade fair. The trade fair industry can probably never be climate-neutral, but by taking various parameters into account, there is still enormous potential to reduce CO2 emissions and thus come a big step closer to sustainability.
This is one of the reasons why I myself, as a big critic of this industry, decided to pursue a career as a project manager in this company - the drive to work with an innovative company on solutions for the realisation of sustainable projects in trade fair construction.
By using recurring system components, it is possible for a professional and financially strong exhibition stand construction company to build up a large contingent of different components. This means that recurring modules can still be used in a wide variety of applications, whereby the high rotation of items greatly improves the eco-balance of each of these long-lasting products.
Globally distributed service partners with a large rental contingent of these standardised stand construction items enable short delivery routes, which prevent us from having to send the pure substructures for the exhibition stand on an unnecessarily long journey with high CO2 emissions. On the one hand, this keeps the air in our environment and, on the other, our motorways largely free.
Aluminium frame in stock
If we want to improve the trade fair logistics of an exhibition stand, the use of the lightest possible construction is also an enormous advantage over a massive design - because a lorry is not only limited in volume, but also in its payload in weight. Due to this criterion, aluminium is quickly chosen as the main element of the structural components in order to reduce CO2 emissions due to the low weight and without reducing the quality of the trade fair appearance. However, aluminium frames not only have the advantage of low weight, as they are also extremely stable and reusable.
The choice of material gives us a further advantage over conventional building materials: In addition to its durability, it can also be recycled. Once an aluminium frame has passed its zenith, the solution is to return the product to the product cycle. The frames are completely melted down and can be processed into new raw material using around 5% of the energy required for initial production. It is also a great advantage to use unalloyed and unpainted components for this, as the aluminium can be recycled without any loss of quality if it is melted down by type.
Despite all our ecological caution and our endeavours to make trade fair construction as sustainable as possible, we naturally want the trade fair stand to meet our design requirements. After all, the trade fair presentation should not be overshadowed by its ecological justifiability, but should still achieve maximum external impact and aesthetics. To achieve this, the use of high-quality printed textiles makes the ecological intention a unique feature.
The realisation of continuous print runs allows us to apply graphic elements to the entire surface of the stand without interruptions and without having to laminate plotted and cut-out films on a painted wall - even across doors. Reusable wooden panels are used as a substructure in the necessary places so as not to lose the possibility of screw connections on the wall surface. However, the effect of a uniformly painted exhibition wall for a trade fair presentation can also be achieved without any problems. In addition, there is another design option: exhibition textiles can be backlit.
MHK - IMM - Executive office: All exhibition walls are made of textile
Nach der Verwendung können die Textilien platzsparend gefaltet und gelagert werden. Textilien können der Umwelt zuliebe bei Verschmutzung gereinigt werden, anstelle sie direkt zu entsorgen und neu produzieren zu lassen. Somit werden auch die Ressourcen der Umwelt geschont. Durch das Spannen in den Rahmen ziehen sich alle Falten wieder heraus. Die logistischen Vorteile der Verwendung von Textilien gegenüber Holz- oder Gipskartonplatten bedürfen wohl keiner näheren Erläuterung, denn der geringe Platzbedarf spart bei der Einlagerung auch bares Geld.
Wenn Sie hilfreiche Tipps und Lösungen für die Auswahl von Messegrafiken auf ihrem Messestand erhalten wollen, finden Sie hier einen tollen Beitrag zu dem Thema: "Gelungenes Grafikdesign auf Messeständen"
In order to be able to offer suitable stand equipment for most design requirements for a wide variety of stand concepts, it also makes ecological sense to offer some trade fair elements for hire as a basic repertoire or to hire them from other suppliers. By adhering to certain standards, these elements are easy to repair, modular, transportable and of high quality. By producing in large quantities, material waste and residual quantities of paints and laminates can be kept to a minimum.
Despite all the standardisation, there is undoubtedly no getting around a certain degree of individuality in the project - because the standard of the trade fair presentation should of course remain in the background (i.e. under the wall surfaces) as much as possible. Textile graphics on the one hand, but also customised furniture can help to make the trade fair stand unique. From an ecological point of view, this type of production is not at all questionable if we take a sustainable approach to the customised items.
Recurring and, as far as possible, consistent stand constructions or modular stand construction concepts mean that individually manufactured items such as textiles, but also exhibition furniture and possibly even the stand floor, can be used several times for a wide variety of trade fairs.
For stand builders and exhibitors, it is therefore extremely helpful for the realisation of sustainable trade fair concepts if the same stand locations are booked for successive trade fair appearances at an event. In some cases, it is even possible to select the trade fair stand location across events in such a way that most parts of a trade fair concept can be reused. To simplify this option - and to gain an economic advantage as well as an ecological one - it can make sense to agree a framework contract for several events with the same investment items.
Exhibition stand construction will never be 100% climate-neutral. Nevertheless, everyone involved in the event industry is willing to protect the environment as much as possible and to use long-lasting resources without compromising the quality of the exhibition stand construction.
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