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New Zealand has taken a major step towards sustainability by showcasing its eco-friendly stand at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) trade show. The country’s business events professionals at AIME were seen wearing Tiaki t-shirts, a Maori term that means to care for people, places, and cultures. This concept reflects the strong sustainability message that New Zealand is striving to convey to the world.

Tourism New Zealand’s General Manager, Bjoern Spreitzer, highlighted the importance of promoting the country’s natural beauty and sustainability credentials while committing to protecting and progressing those ideals. To this end, the sustainable stand, which is the most sustainable to date, incorporates initiatives to reduce, reuse, and recycle the exhibition’s footprint at these events.

New Zealand has offset the carbon emissions for international flights for every New Zealand partner on the stand. The stand design and build utilised local crews, warehousing, printing, and production to minimise transport emissions generated. Furthermore, the stand construction was designed in collaboration with Auckland-based Peek Exhibition, Tourism New Zealand’s long-standing exhibition partner.

Tourism New Zealand’s sustainable stand initiatives include flooring that can be reused for other customers and purposes over a number of years, and once damaged or unsuitable, cut up and repurposed for items such as floor and wall packers. The aluminium floor edging is also a hired product, cut in modular lengths so that the same lengths can be used multiple times.

Existing aluminium Aluvision hire wall frames of different sizes and shapes are used to achieve the stand structure, avoiding creating waste from bespoke custom wood walls. The counter-frames, trusses, and banner rigging are fabricated using hired aluminium frames and post-and-rail systems.

Video will be shown on hired LED tiles on an aluminium hire truss, projecting digital content, and reducing the need for more printed graphics. All graphics are either printed on recycled dispa brand board or repeat-use fabric graphics and banners. New Zealand is also using a new product from Textiles Alive, which prints to a fabric made from recycled polyester fabrics that, through an alternative production process, can go to landfill as a biodegradable product.

On-stand furniture will all be pre-used hire stock, which will be returned and reused many times over. The stand will reuse existing banners, which can be repurposed for garden centre weed mat or similar at the end of their life.

This stand represents how New Zealand wants to portray itself on the world stage, and it is a benchmark for sustainability at trade events. By incorporating these initiatives, New Zealand is setting an example for other countries to follow, creating a more sustainable future for the global community.