Environmental Protection: Before Green Was Cool

Germany, with its enormous exhibition industry, got on the green bandwagon early.

Peter Neven, managing director of AUMA — the Assn. of the German Trade Fair Industry, said protection of the environment has been high on AUMA's (and the industry's) list of priorities for years because conventions and exhibitions are such environmental challenges.

For instance, as far back as 1994, AUMA published a brochure entitled "The Ecological Way to Appear at a Trade Fair." It was the result of research carried out by the German exhibition industry and a study commissioned by AUMA and funded by the German government. Its aim was — and is — to support the exhibition industry's efforts to protect the environment.

Neven said the brochure's suggestions were still valid, and consist of three general steps: avoidance, reduction and recycling.

"Environmental protection is a constant concern," Neven said. "The individual trade fair and exhibition organizers have evolved plans of their own which are continually being improved."

In addition, industry members have implemented schemes to reduce water and energy consumption, and they are constantly developing new transport concepts in cooperation with local authorities.

By educating exhibitors, and even imposing punitive measures when they do not cooperate, the German trade fair industry has set the standard for minimizing tradeshow waste, Neven said.

He added that perhaps the most effective recycling practice in the German tradeshow business was the use of fees that make behaving irresponsible costly. Everybody pays for exactly what they leave behind on the showfloor. Most German facilities base their fees on the type of waste produced and how it will be handled — either destroyed or recycled.

New exhibition venues in Germany are built according to the latest standards of energy efficiency, power and water supply, waste management, environment-friendly materials, ecology and sustainability, Neven added. Logistics and support facilities also are working to adhere to the latest standards, he said.

AUMA has a task force called Technology and Logistics. On it, technical managers from tradeshow management firms, and representatives from the exhibit design, construction and services sector discuss issues of sustainability in the interest of all parties involved in the business.

According to Neven, Germany has a number of international and regional exhibitions serving the environmental sector that attract increasing numbers of exhibitors and visitors. Some of them are E-world energy & water in Essen, IFAT in Munich, TerraTec and enertec in Leipzig, Energy at Hannover Messe, CMS — Cleaning, Management Services in Berlin, Entsorga in Cologne, Intersolar in Freiburg and Husumwind in Husum.

One fairly typical story is that of Messe Duesseldorf, which started its sustainability programs — including waste management — in the early 1990s. It coincided with new legislation in Germany concerning the collection, sorting and disposal of waste. This, in addition to a drastic cost increase for waste disposal, caused Messe Duesseldorf to re-examine its waste collection and disposal procedures.

Messe Duesseldorf also made changes in its exhibit construction department and convinced exhibitors in its events to become more environmentally friendly.

Initially, Messe Duesseldorf required exhibitors or their contractors to either remove waste themselves or pay for disposal and logistics costs. Since it was, and still is, cheaper to dispose of or recycle sorted homogenous waste materials, the company offered a price incentive for sorted waste. It uses the "prevent, reduce, recycle" motto to encourage exhibitors and contractors to be environmentally conscious. Entire booths can be recycled if designers and builders use system elements and reusable material.

Waste has to be collected separately. Collection is generally done using 1-cubic-meter (35-cubic-feet) container, which can be easily wheeled between booths. Larger containers can also be provided, depending on the volume and type of material to be collected. During a tradeshow, exhibitors receive garbage bags that are color coded for the collection of different waste types.

There are also special collection stations, available free of charge, for hazardous waste outside the exhibit halls. By offering free disposal at these special collection points, Messe Duesseldorf can recycle or dispose of the bulk waste produced during a tradeshow at a low cost (paid by the facility).

Messe Duesseldorf also initiated an information program to help exhibitors build environmentally friendly booths and avoid or reduce the volume of waste they produce. This led to a dramatic reduction in waste, with the messe recovering around 40 to 50 percent of its costs for waste collection. The company informs exhibitors of the waste collection program in advance of shows so they can order collection containers prior to setup.

During tradeshows, personnel in the halls and a hotline are available to order containers and remove waste from the aisles and booths. After events, organizers send exhibiting companies invoices according to the type of waste collected, with mixed waste being more expensive than separated waste.

More than half the waste is mixed, but of a quality that can be sorted. On average, one-third of the sorted waste can be recycled, while 15 percent goes straight to incineration (kitchen waste, for example).

For fair ground visitors, Messe Duesseldorf provides recycling islands with different colored bags for glass, paper, food and packaging material waste.

Efficient traffic management has also had a positive impact on the environment and helped reduce emissions. In 2000, Messe Duesseldorf introduced a new truck guidance system that is in operation at its major tradeshows. The system has improved turn-around times for loading and unloading on site, not only reducing emissions, but also minimizing the cost for exhibitors because of diminished forklift and crane times.

With this guidance system, trucks are registered at a holding area in the parking lot. Operations staff enters the trucks' data into the logistics database, to which all forwarding agents, the parking company and Messe Duesseldorf have access. When the space on site and the loading equipment are available, vehicles are allowed to leave the holding area individually and drive to the designated loading spot.

Messe Duesseldorf has approximately 18,000 parking spaces on 77 acres in lots outside the fairgrounds. The parking lots themselves were designed to reduce their environmental impact. Apart from the main lanes, they have grass paving, minimizing the sealed surface area, and more than 1,000 trees.

Another important element in the environmental program was the launch of the combined entrance-public transportation pass for regional transport to Messe Duesseldorf tradeshows. Since the introduction of the combined ticket in 2000, public transportation use has increased by more than 20 percent. Today about 40 percent of visitors come to the fairgrounds via public transportation, reducing emissions and helping avoid traffic congestion.

Finally, the state of North-Rhine Westphalia and two commercial partners have launched a new five-year project to operate small hydrogen-fueled buses at Messe Duesseldorf. As part of that program, one of the few fuel cell gas stations in Germany now operates at the fairgrounds. This long-term project will examine the commercial viability of hydrogen-fuel technology, and the program will be expanded to include one or more forklift trucks with hydrogen fuel cells.