Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

 

I asked Sandy Cunningham, Regional Operations Manager, UBM Asia, and presenter at the UFI Focus meeting on Sustainable Development, in Bangkok his perspective on the issue of sustainability. The questions were the same ones  I asked all the speakers.  Here is his response.

Barry: Sustainability has been an area of focus for the past decade. Why do you think it has taken so long for the industry to adopt more green technologies?

 

Sandy: In Asia I do not think there has been too much awareness/concern about this until fairly recently.  There are less environmental regulations in most of the countries where we run events. There has been a great emphasis on growing or launching events and many exhibitors have been scaling up from initial shell scheme stands to large raw space (or in some cases double-deck) stands as events (and their business) expand.

 

Our industry has not generally been perceived as particularly wasteful, but when you look at what we actually do – the amount of printed matter, stand material, carpeting, garbage etc. that is created per show and what happens to much of this, and then look these figures on an annual basis, it is an issue and concern.

 

Barry: Do you see an increase or decrease in interest in green technologies?

 

Sandy: Certainly an increase.  We have some exhibitors who have quite stringent guidelines for the construction and reuse of stand materials and there are individual organizers, venues, contractors and suppliers who are making improvements/investment in work processes and materials.

Barry: What affect did the recession have on the industry’s ability to embrace green?

 

Sandy: It did enable us to take some bold steps, such as eliminating aisle carpeting in some events, as Michael mentioned.  Also reducing print runs, rethinking custom-made features (lounges etc) and signage and instead using more system-based material.  We’ve managed to retain a number of these steps.

Barry: Are green initiatives something the industry should adopt for altruistic reasons (it’s the right thing to do) or is there a business case?

 

Sandy: Certainly the correct thing to do, but that will not be sufficient unless business driven.