How we brought a 100% recyclable booth to congress

The 2024 ASCO® Annual Meeting held great significance for us, not only in showcasing our dedication to advancing cancer patient outcomes, but also in demonstrating our commitment to sustainability.

Working closely with Emota, an Inizio Engage company, we designed and built a sustainable booth that demonstrated how our solutions – underpinned by data, tech and sustainability – achieve the best return on investment for clients.

Though talked about a great deal in the exhibition booth space, few sustainability initiatives or approaches offer meaningful difference. Emota’s EnviroPlan approach did just that.

EnviroPlan is an innovative design process that dramatically reduces the carbon footprint of experiences without limiting creativity, reducing quality, or increasing costs. It takes a holistic view of a project, examining every possible way to achieve the most sustainable outcomes.

At ASCO, it helped guide the design process and inform the re-imagining of our exhibition space, from the ground up. By applying these techniques, the physical build produced approximately 70% less CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) versus traditional build methods.

Sustainability in action

We used fully recyclable structural cardboard to produce the main booth components. It’s rigidity and sturdiness gave us the freedom to create interesting, appealing architectural shapes whilst allowing us to easily replicate the sleek, curved corners of our branding. The raw edges of the material were left exposed, which proved to be a real conversation starter during the exhibition.

The light-weight nature of the cardboard meant we could flat-pack, making handling and transportation much more sustainable and cost effective. We shared a truck with other booth owners too, choosing not to take the traditional option of our own vehicle.

The cardboard’s durability allows for multiple installations, speedy construction and comparatively little labour. We reduced our set-up to a two-hour installation versus two full days for traditional booth, reducing labour costs and accommodation as well as increasing efficiency.

We used water-based ink to ensure the booth remained ‘repulpable’ – recyclable in standard and domestic waste. The rubber tiles on the floor were reused from previous events and returned to stock to be used again. All furniture on the booth was taken from previous events, with nothing new purchased. We used LED lighting to accent content as well as providing layering and depth in our display with minimal power consumption. The rug used was from one of our offices which is also made from recycled polypropylene.

Ready to be reused at future congresses, the booth is now in storage. But we ensured the booth was created fully refresh-ready – with any new elements and graphics unaffecting any future recyclability.

The results

The booth achieved 100% recyclability with all materials being reused, donated or repurposed. 70.7% of assets were made from recycled materials. The carbon footprint was 0.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent as opposed to 2.4 for a traditional build.

At Inizio, we partner with you to provide a full range of congress capabilities – powering connection and simplifying the complex. We’ll be exhibiting our next sustainable booth at the ESMO Congress 2024 – be sure to visit us at booth 431e.

You can learn more about our full-service congress solutions here.