What If We Saved the Earth?

If it seems like you've heard more than enough lately about attendance audits, the Brookings Institution's convention center report or the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management-Society of Independent Show Organizers merger, just imagine how it feels to us.

Lucky for all of us, tech-sector exhibitors and Reed Exhibitions have thrown open the door to what could be the North American tradeshow industry's first serious foray into auditing. The Brookings Institution report has been responded to by just about every industry organization, publication and blog. And the SISO and IAEM boards have decided against taking the plunge and merging the organizations.

We're ready for some new fodder for conversation.

Moving on: What if we saved the Earth?

Social responsibility, a buzzword in 1990s political campaigns, has evolved into corporate responsibility, a buzzword in the post-Enron 2000s. As executives are caught raiding employees' retirement accounts to pay for their own Learjets, many companies have turned to charitable efforts to generate good public relations.

The exhibition industry is no exception. The last few years have seen a spike in goodwill, with shows donating unused food and materials to local schools and homeless shelters, contractors leading volunteer projects that leave a positive mark on the towns where their shows take place, and associations doing everything from helping teenagers design furniture to teaching single moms to design semiconductors.

Still, there's one area where the exhibition industry is far, far behind: sustainability.

Nobody with a conscience could walk a tradeshow tear-down without feeling some measure of guilt about the tons of materials used once and thrown into Dumpsters. In an age where even the makers of the most gas-guzzling SUVs are developing gas-electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells, there's no excuse for contributing to the rape and pillage of the world's natural resources and excusing it by saying, "That's just the way it's always been done in this business."

There are alternatives.

At last December's Expo! Expo! in San Antonio, IAEM invited the founders of Green Event Management to talk about some of these alternatives. Organizers attending GEM's session were shocked to learn that they can have food served on corn-based plastic cups and plates that can then be put back into the ground and used as compost.

Facilities are leading the way. Following a trail blazed by the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the David L. Lawrence in Pittsburgh became the first convention center in the country to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The National Trade Centre in Toronto has its own wind turbine and is exploring other techniques for renewable energy, in addition to creating a large area outside the exhibit halls where show materials can be sorted for recycling.

But the impetus behind these projects comes from the architecture world's devotion to sustainable building — not from the convention industry. In this business, there is less real interest in environmentalism.

If the tradeshow industry wants to be taken seriously, it has to catch up with others, like architecture and automotive, which have dedicated institutions to researching sustainable options.

At Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in February, VNU Expositions proved it can run an entire TSW 200 show off 100-percent clean wind energy. The show's Green Steps program was so successful it inspired VNU to pledge it will implement similar programs at 60 of its other exhibitions.

It's up to other organizers to make this the start of something new and meaningful, not just another PR campaign.