Written by Marta Gorka, Skyline Whitespace.
Trade shows have a bad reputation of being tough on the environment by creating waste with promotional bags, flyers, brochures and leaflets. The average attendee will walk around and pick up literature from booths that offer it, but by the time they get home or to their hotel room, a lot of it lands straight in the trash.
Today, this is changing – more and more exhibitors are becoming aware of the expense of printing new literature for each show and the impact it has on the environment.
Luckily, there are a number of sustainable practices you can adopt to minimise the environmental impact of exhibiting and show how much your company cares about the environment:
Digital Brochures
The easiest way is simply to switch the format of your giveaway; instead of handing out printed literature, hand out branded USB flash drives, printed with your logo and pre-loaded with all the information the attendees need. You can even opt in for trendy bamboo flash drives, not only they look cool and will be popular with attendees, they are also made from environmentally-friendly materials and will make your exhibiting even greener. And if the attendee chooses to wipe the information to use the space for other things, they’ll still have your company’s name in front of them.
Landing Pages & QR Codes
Set up a special landing page on your website with all the relevant information and downloads, then use your trade show stand to direct attendees to the page. You could integrate QR codes into the booth design for attendees to scan with their smartphones. This approach is now quite widespread at tradeshows.
Seed Packets
Take your green promotional giveaways to the next level by encouraging your attendees to plant their own greenery. For example you could give away promotional seed packets or sticks. You can print your logo and company information on the packet and choose from a variety of seeds from wildflowers to tomato seeds. This is already a common giveaway in the restaurant industry, but with the right campaign and message behind it, it can be a much better and more engaging giveaway than the standard pen or t-shirt.
Desktop Gardens
Another option is to give away desktop garden tubes or packets. The packaging is made from recycled and fully recyclable materials and can be branded with your logo. Desktop gardens will add life to any desk and make sure your company is not forgotten by nicely displaying your logo. With today’s craze for indoor plants that we’re seeing on social media, we can’t see anyone saying no to this giveaway. It’s also a great opportunity to run an online campaign – why not ask your attendees to post and tag photos of their new plant on Instagram.
Green Printing and Sustainable Paper
Thanks to new technology developments in the printing industry, there are many environmentally friendly options to print. So, if you do have to print, consider using vegetable based, non-toxic inks. They are excellent quality and much kinder to our planet. Many companies go greener by choosing to print their brochures on fully recycled paper, paper from sustainable forests, or even seeded paper – paper that contains plant or herb seeds and can be planted in soil after the trade show to grow!
Reusable Items
Reusable coffee cups lower environmental impact and cut plastic pollution footprint by a huge amount. Almost all major coffee outlets now offer discounts to customers who bring their own reusable cups, so most attendees will love this practical giveaway. It will also put your logo in front of them every morning during their coffee run! You can also consider giving away branded reusable water bottles. They decrease pollution and landfill waste and every time your customer uses it your business will be right in front of them. When choosing your reusable giveaways opt in for items that are made from recyclable or natural and sustainable materials, for example bamboo fibre coffee cups.
About the Author
This article was written by Marta Gorka at Skyline Whitespace, UK’s leading custom modular display company and Europe’s leading distributor of Skyline displays. Check out their blogs here including more tips on how you can minimise the impact on environment when exhibiting and get on board with ‘going green’ without blowing the budget.
