As Earth Day comes along, it’s a good time to write about our environment policy. As we design and produce our high-quality displays, we’ve made a concerted effort to examine our processes and facility to look for ways to minimize our environmental impact. We are very pleased with the changes we’ve made lately. One aspect we are particularly proud of is that many of these initiatives were triggered by suggestions from our dedicated employees.
Recycled Materials
In the past, Patrick Brooks, from our Exhibit Services team, made it a practice to gather up discarded pieces of sintra and using his own personal blue recycling bags, would cart them home and set the bags out with his home recycling at the end of his driveway. He then took it upon himself to explore our options for increasing our recycling practices on site. He engaged the help of our waste management company, Advanced Disposal, to review all the various types of materials we use in the creation of and shipping of products and exhibits. After a walk through of our facilities, we received an additional dumpster for recycling and our efforts began in earnest. We have reduced the amount of waste heading for landfills by over 100 cubic yards per year! Our recycling practices are not limited to our warehouse and shipping areas. We’ve installed recycling bins throughout our corporate offices as well.
We also work with a local recycling partner, United Milwaukee Scrap, who recycles aluminum and heavy metal scrap materials for us. They provide full service recycling solutions while being committed to the community and the environment.
We choose to do business with other companies who have similar concerns and who employ eco-friendly practices. For example, our partner for portable exhibits, Nomadic Displays, strives to use recycled materials whenever possible and appropriate in their display solutions.
- Nomadic’s aluminum structures feature 80% post-consumer recycled content.
- Nomadic’s Eco-fi™ for Velcro®-compatible fabrics which contain polyester made from 100% certified, post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.
Waste Reduction
Through another employee’s suggestion (kudos to Mark Mittlestadt), we have established a strong working relationship with our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore program. Exhibit Services Manager, Tom Panosh, facilitates this ongoing relationship. On a regular basis, Tom reaches out to our Account Executives to request a review of inventory, with the goal of identifying items that could be set aside for Habitat for Humanity rather than being discarded. Once Tom feels we have enough items to donate, he connects with Larry Starkey, ReStore Director. Larry then visits our facility to approve the donations and the Habitat for Humanity logistics arranges for pick up of the items.
Through this program, we have donated everything from full trade show booths to lighting, cabinetry, counter tops, and other building materials. According to Larry, the items donated by Exhibit Systems are highly desirable and don’t last long at the stores. We estimate that over the years we have been working with Habitat for Humanity, we’ve donated 4-5 semi-trucks worth of items. That’s 4-5 semi-trucks fully of items that did not end up in landfills!
Energy Conservation
- We use LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights in our warehouse areas. These use up to 100 times less energy and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors.
- To conserve power, many areas within our facilities have motion-sensing switches for lighting.
We weave environmentally sound practices throughout our business. We strive to build light-weight and compact exhibits that are more efficient to transport, and are designed for multiple uses over many years. We use LED lights in our displays that use less energy at the shows. Much of our construction material is eco-friendly and we re-use foam and cardboard packing materials regularly.
