The global event industry is worth an estimated $7.3 trillion. It’s also one of the largest producers of waste on the planet; sending over 500 million tonnes of waste to be landfilled or burnt each year.

It’s temporary, pop-up, and ultimately short-lived with 60% of printed materials thrown away.

Yet, events like CES are an important sales channel for brands to stand out and establish human connection.

HERE is the world’s #1 location platform whose mission is to use real-time location data to radically improve the way the world moves, lives and interacts. To use intelligence, smart design and smart logistics to help reduce emissions and ultimately lower environmental impact. As a brand committed to sustainability, HERE was determined to apply these principles to every aspect of their business. Including their appearances at live events like CES.

Sources:

-2016 Global Meetings and Events Forecast produced by American

A modular, brand-owned Lego-style steel system that will lay the building blocks for the future of events.

The HERE CES exhibit is a beautiful, sustainable experience where every element is designed to repeat before ultimately being recycled. HERE applied their principles of intelligence, smart design, and smart logistics to the exhibit design and execution.

3 years, 3 distinct designs, the exact same 100% reusable system.

The shelf-life for the modular, steel system continues to live on as the base for HERE’s CES environment. The system and all the reusable materials within the experience are stored locally right outside Las Vegas to limit trucking needs.

And with steel being 100% recyclable, able to “be recycled into the same material of the same quality again and again”, the system is guaranteed to be recycled once retired. (Source: Sustainability in Steel Recycling, American Iron and Steel Institute)

Sustainability is a hot topic, but the pressure to generate hype and engagement is a constant variable. As the first major event of the year (115,000 attendees registered in 2023), CES is a place where brands want to show up BIG.

HERE sought to create the perfect experience to unveil their location-based, emission-reducing technologies by designing a space that would balance their business needs with their sustainability goals.

The event industry needs to go green, but research is limited. While many materials are reusable, they are not always recyclable. The best methods, custom booths, are estimated to make up only 3% of the overall footprint of shows. (Source: Finding the Future Together, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, September 2022)

HERE wants to change that.

Target: Business professionals and decision makers (automotive, transportation, manufacturing, shipping, etc.) who attend CES to learn about new technologies that will benefit their business.

Over three years, the HERE CES environment was used as a laboratory to test sustainable design ideas to reduce waste, optimize reusability, and limit transportation needs while never compromising the design.

- No onsite welding or painting was required for the reusable system. All handrails and staircases are reusable with or without the system.

- Recyclable aluminium façades were integrated with insulation to limit heating/cooling.

- Floor and wall materials were designed to repeat before recycling.

- Plant holders were built from recycled flooring and plants were rented or donated afterward.

- Interactive story units were made of recycled materials and designed to live permanently inside HERE’s visitor centers.

- Design prioritized natural light to reducing lighting along with LED’s and power-efficient IT/AV hardware.

- Design offered ways to naturally ventilate and reduce AC loads.

- Reusables are stored locally right outside Las Vegas to limit trucking needs.

HERE is using their location technology to help contain climate change. To further showcase their commitment, they also revisited how they show up at CES.

Their 100% reusable booth structure reused the same modular components for three years of live installations (2019, 2020, 2023), helping to reduce not easily recyclable waste by nearly a half.

Using a local storage facility, coupled with the system’s high-quality aluminium facade panels reduced shipping weight significantly from previous systems, resulting in fewer carbon emissions during transport – saving an estimated 3.24 metric tons of CO2 per a 1,000 mile trip (Source: Freight Truck Emission calculator).

Additionally, responsibly sourced decorations were reused and eventually moved for permanent office use, reducing venue waste by 74% (Source: Finding the Future Together, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, September 2022) that would have otherwise ended up landfilled. The added benefit – becoming smarter about reduced environmental footprint.