Eleven exhibition organisers have come together to pilot the rollout of a programme called Better Stands, which aims to reduce single use disposable stands at exhibitions in favour of reusable structures.

The Eleven organisers are Amp Events, Clarion Events, Faversham House, Hyve, IMEX, Informa, Montgomery Group, Raccoon Media Group, Reset Connect, ReThink HK and Terrapin. The pilot is currently supported by isla, an event sustainability body. 

The pilot’s key objective is to identify ways in which Better Stands can be easily adopted across different organisations. Each organiser has identified one or multiple events in their portfolio to implement Better Stands during the pilot period ending in March 2024. The intention is to scale implementation of this evolving programme by handing it over to the global Net Zero Carbon Events Initiative.

Better Stands provides a consistent framework to measure the sustainability of event stands, setting classification criteria according to how much of a stand/ or booth is reused or recycled.  Stands that do reuse some of their elements can achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold Better Stands status, recognising the great work and commitment to sustainability by the exhibitors and stand contractors.