PROSTAND is the first company in the temporary installation sector to perform and publish the study carried out by the University of Bologna on the life cycle of its products.
The Life Cycle Assessmentof LCA, is the most internationally recognised method for assessing and quantifying the potential environmental impacts associated with a product, system, service or activity, taking into account its entire life cycle or part of it.
For Prostand, which has been operating in the sector for over 25 years, the aims of the study were many:
- awareness of the environmental footprint of its business model, identified as a reference standard, in relation to 19 categories of impact, including: global warming, water consumption, cumulative energy requirements, etc. (list of parameters[1] in the footnote)
- identification of the reference unit of measurement
- Identification of the most critical phases of the model
- assessment of the environmental benefits of the choices already made by the company
- support future eco-design.
The study, launched in 2022 and now ended, was conducted by the University of Bologna in the person of Professor Fabrizio Passarini, lecturer at the Toso MontanariDepartment of Industrial Chemistry representative of the CIRI FRAME at the Technopolo di Rimini and director of SAFTE – Scuola di Alta Formazione per la Transizione Ecologica at the University of Bologna, and his research team. The results were presented at the conference What is your company’s environmental impact? Analysis and strategies. The Prostand Case held on Friday 6 October 2023 at the University Campus of Rimini.
The study focused on pre-assembled and customized booths. The pre-assembled or modular booth is designed to bring the exhibitor closer to an installation approach that if quick, simple, immediate and already priced, with a limited number of customizations. The standard size is 16 square metres but multiples are possible and it rarely exceeds 48 square metres; cost-effectiveness is achieved through modularity and the coding of proposals. The customized booth is designed and built to suit the customer’s requirements: budget, size, layout, colours, finishes, hanging structures, lighting, audio/video devices, etc., offering a wide range of bespoke choices to create unique and exclusive spaces. As you can image, the investment is higher than for a pre-assembled booth.
The research began with the analysis of all the materials used from cradle to grave, relating all quantitative results to the single square metre.
The results showed that the choices made by Prostand to date, such as the use of wood (from certified regenerated and reused forests), aluminium (100% recyclable and recycled), and carpeting (also sourced from suppliers capable of recycling it), instead of materials made entirely from pure raw material, have resulted in a savings in a 12% improvement in the company’s carbon footprint (CO2eq/m2) in the case of pre-assembled booths and 15% in the case of bespoke booths.
The reuse and repair of wooden materials , produced a 20% saving of CO2eq/m2 in the case of pre-assembled booths and of 31% in the case of bespoke booths compared to a scenario in which the life cycle of the materials would stop at 50% of the current one.
The use of self-generated electricity from a photovoltaic system compared to that purchased from the national grid produced a 2% saving of kg CO2eq per square metre in the case of both pre-assembled and bespoke booths.
The very low incidence of transport in CO2 production is the result of the location of production and storage sites close to the main markets served.
A number of actions are already being considered by Prostand to further improve performance with regard to environmental sustainability: extension of the choice of virtuous suppliers, compensation practices, increased recycling, reduction of the product sent to landfill, study of new versions of eco-booths.
A number of actions are already being considered by Prostand to further improve performance with regard to environmental sustainability: monitoring and involvement of the entire supply chain in the sustainability journey, R&D of materials, compensation practices, increased recycling and reuse, reduction of the product sent to landfill, study of new versions of eco-booths.
[1] global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, ionising radiation, ozone formation, atmospheric particulate matter formation, ozone formation, soil acidification, soil eutrophication, marine eutrophication, soil ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, seawater ecotoxicity, human toxicity, non-carcinogenic human toxicity, land consumption, scarcity of mineral resources, scarcity of fossil resources, water consumption, cumulative energy requirements