If you visit the Fairconstruction team, whose work is centred on building trade fair stands and other event structures on our exhibition grounds, you’ll be sure to notice orange tones everywhere. Ulla Kreuzer, who is responsible for Marketing and Sustainabilty here, takes out 20 or so small, orange-coloured bags and spreads them out on the table. Each bag is unique – some with black lettering, others with red stripes or with a grey pattern contrasting with the orange base colour. A small label bearing the slogan “Yesterday a banner, today your companion – upcycled by fairconstruction” is sewn onto each pencil case-shaped bag.
Why is Fairconstruction promoting these bags? As Ulla Kreuzer explains: “We wanted to show how fabric banners from trade fair stands can be put to good use rather than ending up in the trash after every event.”
More and more customers are looking for a stand that is highly sustainable and that produces as little waste as possible. Ulla Kreuzer: “Up to 80 percent of materials that we use for a trade fair stand are used again. The figure for system stands is even higher.” Using fabric graphics in trade fair stands is a good solution because this material creates less waste than an optional chipboard with graphics. This trend is confirmed by the increased demand for these stands among Fairconstruction’s customers in recent years.
Needless to say, most sustainable of all are banners that are put into storage and used again for the next event. However, it is not always possible to redeploy fabric banners bearing a specific message, so Fairconstruction came up with the idea of repurposing them as bags.
Ulla Kreuzer’s department is constantly looking for ways to make its customers’ stands even more sustainable. To this end, Fairconstruction endeavours to use materials several times or to choose recyclable materials.
In order to gauge how this kind of upcycling might work in future for customers, the team decided to try it out for themselves. Once a suitable exhibitor had been found, around 70 square metres of fabric banner were made into 400 bags for the first time. The customer’s logos and messages were cut out before production began.
It was, as Ulla Kreuzer put it, a “happy coincidence” that the bags fit so well with Fairconstruction’s orange brand profile. As well as this, the material needs to be of good quality if it is to be made into bags.
When producing the bags, Fairconstruction worked together with Reciclage, a small company based in Alzenau, not far from Frankfurt, which upcycles old banners and flags. Ulla Kreuzer’s verdict was a positive one: “The additional costs involved are manageable so if we have the option, we will do this project again.” The department itself uses the little bags as a promotional gift for its customers.
This offer is now open to all Fairconstruction customers on condition that large fabric panels were used on the stand.
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Messe Frankfurt Fairconstruction
Fairconstruction designs and builds trade fair stands, event spaces and exhibition areas for exhibitors and event organisers – primarily on the Messe Frankfurt exhibition grounds. The team undertakes some 3,500 projects a year.
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