In the 35 years since we formed, we’ve always been conscious of the environment, and have done our utmost to minimise the impact we have on it.
We’ve consistently used materials that can be used again in everything we design and build, and encourage our clients to use their exhibition stand not just once, but a number of times. And over the years, we’ve built up a stock of walling, flooring and other building solutions that we re-cycle and re-use as often as we can, until it comes to the end of its life. We also use a lot of FSC wood and similar materials every year on the stands, events and trade shows that we manage; the waste and off-cuts of which mount up considerably on a weekly basis.
That means that we’ve got a lot of material that we need to dispose of correctly. We always had collections of waste wood, MDF and chipboard; and knew that anything taken away from us would be disposed of legally and carefully. But we knew that there must have been a way to do things better.
So, we looked in to the array of options for better waste management, and just before the end of 2017 the newest member of our Leeds Headquarters arrived on site in the shape of a CAS600 Handfired waste wood burner, from Clean Air Systems Ltd.
And with the added benefits that installing a wood burner brings, it was an obvious move for us to make.
Benefits of Green
As well as reducing our carbon footprint even further with the reduction of waste, and subsequent waste collections; the burner means that we’re cleaner and resourceful when it comes to heating parts of the building, using up less energy.
The savings we make as a company on our energy bills as a result should see us recoup the cost of the wood-burner and its installation over the next 12 months too, which means that we can keep our accounts team happy as well as the environment.
How are we doing?
On average, we’re currently burning 1700kg of waste wood, MDF, chipboard and similar materials per week.
This amounts to nearly 88,500kg of waste per year, or just over 88.5 tonnes, that’s no longer being put in to a skip, being collected on a regular basis and disposed of elsewhere.
That’s the equivalent of:
One Concorde aeroplane, and about 100 of its passengers
55 Ferrari 458 cars
646 Hulk Hogan’s
44 London Eye’s
697 Donald Trump’s
The ash waste collections are considerably smaller in size, and are a lot more in-frequent. The waste is safely disposed of and in acquiring the wood-burner, we’ve invested in good old, reliable British engineering.
That’s just a snapshot of the how we’ve been keeping it green in more ways than one, since 1983. And we won’t stop there. We’ll continue to do our very best for the environment for the next 35 years. What’s not to love about being green?
Environmentally conscious and in need of new exhibition stand ideas? Call Equinox on +44 (0) 113 244 1300 or email info@equinox-design.com