The human economy depends on the natural resource economy, so it makes sense to ask ‘Can the environment sustain my economic activity?’
What is Sustainability?
By sustainability I primarily mean environmental sustainability. People often only allow environmental sustainability as a sort of add on: They only use sustainable materials and processes if they don’t cost too much. However, the current human economic system does not reflect the true environment costs. Therefore it makes more sense to ask; ‘Can the environment sustain my economic activity?’, than to ask; ‘Can my economic activity afford to help sustain the environment?’ Paradoxically, environmental sustainability is about judicious use of resources, so it often saves money anyway. When it comes to designing, producing and delivering exhibitions people often unthinkingly choose one-off designs, high shipping miles, cheaper pollutant materials, or highly durable non-recyclable materials for temporary use.
Watch this video to hear my solution for Creating Sustainable Exhibitions in the face of Climate Change
How Do I Design a Sustainable Exhibition?
There are 3 interweaving factors to think of in the design of an exhibition: design, delivery and materials.
Sustainable design is about what happens to your exhibition components when the show is over. Can you design modular units that have multiple uses and re-use? Can the furniture be flat-packed to save space in transportation or storage? Can you easily separate different materials for recycling or are they glued together?
Intouch Design’s Survivor WW1 was delivered as digital files for museum staff to print, glue onto cardboard and cut out. This eliminated shipping miles, used recyclable materials, and saved money.
Sustainable delivery is about aiming for minimum shipping miles. Can you source materials locally or share resources with another local organisation? How lightweight and compact can you make touring components so they use minimum fuel? Can you send designs for components that can be printed, cut or manufactured on site, rather than transported?
Our expo stand for local business Organic Boxes pioneered the use of a bamboo framework and recycled polyester panels held together by recycled inner tube rubber.
Sustainable materials are those with the minimum environmental pollution and energy use in their manufacture, use, shipping and disposal. However multiple variables make it hard to choose which materials are the most sustainable: How toxic is a material’s production, use, and disposal, to humans and the natural environment? What are the shipping miles, energy use, and carbon emissions involved in its production and distribution? How durable, renewable and recyclable is the material? Furthermore, information on the internet swings from detailed scientific analyses, unfathomable and out of context to the lay person, to unsubstantiated claims by both industry and the green lobby: From extreme paranoia about minute traces of isocyanates in polyurethane, to aluminium producers claiming that their release of global warming carbofluorides into the atmosphere is fine. There are a myriad of sustainable certification systems but no clear government standards.
Sustainability involves questioning our industry standards. Often highly permanent materials are chosen for exhibitions because of their perfect finish, and then thrown out. Do we need to use permanent building materials to create temporary exhibitions, now that we understand the environmental costs of material consumption? It is standard practice to repaint gallery walls between exhibitions. Acrylic paint is a cheap non-renewable petrochemical with a polluting and energy intensive production process, and yet it gives good and easily washable cover compared to more expensive plant based paint. Should we carry on using it? Do we even need to repaint the walls? Does a perfectly finished presentation matter to an audience that is now preoccupied with social interactivity? Or would they prefer something messier and more hands-on that doesn’t harm the environment?
I have researched the relative sustainability, cost and durability of commonly used exhibition materials and more sustainable alternatives. Click the button below to download a table of these findings.