Technological watch
Circularity penetrates the events industry with launch of Ecobooth
Ecobooth, a start-up dedicated to helping companies create genuinely sustainable live events, launched at London’s Disruption Summit on Tuesday 4th September.
The company designed an exhibition booth showcase made entirely from recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials for global innovation and transformation consultancy, PA Consulting, and event organisers Disruption Hub.
Events, by their very nature, are temporary but the waste they leave behind is not. An industry worth £42bn in the UK alone, the events sector services 10,000 venues a year, creating over 500,000 jobs. In 2017, 1.3 million business events were held in London alone.
After a decade of working in the events industry, including seven years at his own agency, RADAR, event specialist and environmentalist Nick Marks found the increasing levels of unaccounted event waste, which ultimately ended in landfill or incineration, could no longer be ignored. Facing resistance when attempting to uncover official waste figures from UK trade bodies, venues, suppliers and clients, Nick decided to take the unorthodox approach of independently auditing his own supply chain to obtain genuine waste figures.
By applying figures from RADAR, a medium sized agency, against the number of events in the UK, the estimated overall waste contribution signifies a sizeable impact on the UK’s overall waste figures of over 200m tonnes. Headline figures include an estimated 100,000+ tonnes to landfill and 200,000+ in metric CO2 emissions.
In reaction to this, Ecobooth approaches events in a truly innovative and fully sustainable way. All materials used for production are recycled, recyclable or biodegradable. Ecobooth’ s production lab includes bespoke large format 3D printers, plastic pressing machines and complex extruders all geared toward making unique things from waste materials. Recent waste materials processed through the lab into projects such as exhibition booths, event furniture and festival signage, include toothbrushes, street cones, supermarket carrier bags and plastic drinks bottles.
This completely novel production process was developed with the support and expertise of PA Consulting: “Ecobooth is poised to disrupt an entire industry,” said Mark Lancelott, a sustainability expert at PA Consulting. “We’re proud to have worked with Ecobooth to help take their idea from concept to reality. Our work with Ecobooth exemplifies the kinds of complex projects we work on every day that blend technology, innovation and strategy. In this case, our technologists helped assess potential materials and manufacturing technologies. And our business design experts advised on the company’s business model.”
Ecobooth’s London-based headquarters – featuring design studio, production lab, installation and logistics - runs solely on renewable energy and is committed to a zero-waste policy. All Ecobooth projects are delivered using their fleet of electric vehicles and, most importantly, once a project is complete, every piece is returned to the lab to be recycled or repurposed. This is the circular economy is full flow, nothing leaves the circle, and nothing harms the planet: genuine sustainability.
https://www.ecobooth.co.uk
The company designed an exhibition booth showcase made entirely from recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials for global innovation and transformation consultancy, PA Consulting, and event organisers Disruption Hub.
Events, by their very nature, are temporary but the waste they leave behind is not. An industry worth £42bn in the UK alone, the events sector services 10,000 venues a year, creating over 500,000 jobs. In 2017, 1.3 million business events were held in London alone.
After a decade of working in the events industry, including seven years at his own agency, RADAR, event specialist and environmentalist Nick Marks found the increasing levels of unaccounted event waste, which ultimately ended in landfill or incineration, could no longer be ignored. Facing resistance when attempting to uncover official waste figures from UK trade bodies, venues, suppliers and clients, Nick decided to take the unorthodox approach of independently auditing his own supply chain to obtain genuine waste figures.
By applying figures from RADAR, a medium sized agency, against the number of events in the UK, the estimated overall waste contribution signifies a sizeable impact on the UK’s overall waste figures of over 200m tonnes. Headline figures include an estimated 100,000+ tonnes to landfill and 200,000+ in metric CO2 emissions.
In reaction to this, Ecobooth approaches events in a truly innovative and fully sustainable way. All materials used for production are recycled, recyclable or biodegradable. Ecobooth’ s production lab includes bespoke large format 3D printers, plastic pressing machines and complex extruders all geared toward making unique things from waste materials. Recent waste materials processed through the lab into projects such as exhibition booths, event furniture and festival signage, include toothbrushes, street cones, supermarket carrier bags and plastic drinks bottles.
This completely novel production process was developed with the support and expertise of PA Consulting: “Ecobooth is poised to disrupt an entire industry,” said Mark Lancelott, a sustainability expert at PA Consulting. “We’re proud to have worked with Ecobooth to help take their idea from concept to reality. Our work with Ecobooth exemplifies the kinds of complex projects we work on every day that blend technology, innovation and strategy. In this case, our technologists helped assess potential materials and manufacturing technologies. And our business design experts advised on the company’s business model.”
Ecobooth’s London-based headquarters – featuring design studio, production lab, installation and logistics - runs solely on renewable energy and is committed to a zero-waste policy. All Ecobooth projects are delivered using their fleet of electric vehicles and, most importantly, once a project is complete, every piece is returned to the lab to be recycled or repurposed. This is the circular economy is full flow, nothing leaves the circle, and nothing harms the planet: genuine sustainability.
https://www.ecobooth.co.uk
This project has been co-funded with the support of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union [LIFE17 ENV/ES/000438] Life programme
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