IMEX Frankfurt unveils first-ever sustainability report

The annual trade show has also committed to benchmarking its sustainability efforts year on year.

Simplifying and standardising carbon footprint measurement, sourcing more carpet with recycled content and expanding community donation.
Simplifying and standardising carbon footprint measurement, sourcing more carpet with recycled content and expanding community donation.

Diverting a significant amount of waste, powering the venue with renewable energy and high levels of show waste recycling are some of the key milestones achieved by IMEX Frankfurt.

The IMEX Group has tracked and published the environmental performance of its American show, IMEX America, since 2012 but today’s report is the first-ever from its German trade show counterpart.

The report covers aspects such as waste management, energy and water usage, event design and social impact. Findings showed that 99.5% of all waste was diverted, 100% of venue electricity is powered by renewable energy, 87% of show waste has been diverted to recycling, organics or donation channels, 95% of event service ware was recyclable or reusable and 635kg of event material was recovered and donated to the Frankfurt community.

Several areas were also highlighted as opportunities for improvement. These include simplifying and standardising carbon footprint measurement, sourcing more carpet with recycled content and expanding community donation.

Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group said: “We’ve long been committed to improving and developing our sustainability practices at IMEX Frankfurt and were able to share some good results prior to the pandemic. I’m delighted to share this first externally-verified Sustainability Report for IMEX Frankfurt 2022. This, together with our sustainability reports since 2012 for IMEX America, is part of a long-term commitment to the environment."

Bauer added that IMEX Frankfurt is also set to publish its roadmap to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 later this year.

Meet Green, which works with the events industry to help it meet sustainability targets, prepared the report.

This year’s IMEX Frankfurt is taking place from 23-25 May.