Jack caught up with FESPA’s Graeme Richardson-Locke who explained how FESPA continues to embed certified sustainable practice into its events
Most of what FESPA does on sustainability will be completely invisible to you when you walk the show floor in Berlin. You won’t necessarily know that many of the B-Matrix frame systems on the feature stands have been through over a hundred build cycles. You won’t see the recycled polyester stretch graphics that were compressed into a fraction of their original volume after the last event and sent for recycling. And you certainly won’t spot the reams of legislative compliance that sit behind the scenes. That is rather the point.
Watch the full interview on FESPA’s commitment to sustainable events here…
Graeme Richardson-Locke is Head of Associations and Technical Lead at FESPA, and is the person driving the organisation’s sustainability agenda. He has been in print himself for over 40 years, starting as a screen printing apprentice, and joined FESPA nearly a decade ago. After completing a course at the Stockholm Institute of Resilience in planetary boundaries, he pushed FESPA towards ISO 20121, the international standard for sustainable events management systems.
“I’m not sure I’m always grateful to myself for that suggestion because it’s not always easy, but we have achieved great progress,” Graeme reflects.
FESPA is now in its third year of certification under the standard. The organisation has just been audited and successfully transitioned from the original 2012 version of ISO 20121, which was first developed for the London Olympics, to the updated 2024 version. That newer standard is considerably more demanding, covering climate change, procurement guidance around modern slavery and child labour, and alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals.
He explains, “As the management system standard develops, we have to develop with it. I would be misleading anyone to think that it is easier.”
FESPA has also completed three cycles of carbon emissions reporting for its UK head office, covering everything from staff commute and travel to procured goods and services. But Graeme is clear about keeping the scope realistic. The events management standard currently applies to the FESPA Global Print Expo only. Other exhibitions in the portfolio have not yet been brought into scope. As he puts it, you have to learn to walk before you can run.
Choosing the right partners
A big part of FESPA’s approach is about who it chooses to work with. Stand builders and event partners are assessed on their sustainability maturity. Ideally, FESPA looks for businesses that hold ISO 20121 themselves, or that have achieved ISO 14001, EcoVadis certification or equivalent. And it doesn’t take claims at face value.
“We have to ask them what their current certification number is and do the due diligence, go and check with their awarding body to make sure that what we’re being told is fact. It’s just leaning into being more resilient, more scrutiny, more care in who you choose to work with,” Graeme says.
Waste is another major focus. FESPA’s operations team works with exhibitors to enforce a banned materials list. “Chipboard, for example, is not allowed. The goal is to reduce what ends up in landfill, and there are real consequences for non-compliance. During breakdown, floor managers scrutinise what exhibitors are doing. Those who fall short can expect fines,” Graeme insists.
The organisation’s own builds are designed with end of life in mind. At the last Berlin event, the entire build used a single material for the graphics: dye-sub printed recycled polyester stretched around rented aluminium frames with over a hundred build cycles behind them. After the show, that material was compressed for transport and sent to be recycled into the light block layer in future print media. It can’t be turned back into virgin white polyester, but it stays out of landfill and gets a second use.
The commercial argument
Graeme is practical about why any of this matters. Sustainability, in his view, has to support the business. Otherwise, it won’t stick.
He continues, “If you set your benchmark today and you measure your costs of energy and where your hotspots are, and then you consider whether there are opportunities to reorganise yourself so that you can reduce that impact, then you’ve got a marketable piece of value. You’ve got a little nugget of something real. This is a demonstration of what we are doing, rather than what we’re talking about.”
That distinction between doing and talking runs through everything FESPA is producing for its members this year. Rather than running a sustainability spotlight feature at the Global Print Expo, the organisation has redirected that budget into producing practical guidance on EU sustainability legislation. That means accessible guides on the EUDR, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and digital product passports.
“My view is that the EU Green Deal can only succeed with cascading legislation and requirements being explicitly presented down to people that are producing and doing business,” Graeme adds.
These aren’t theoretical concerns. Businesses in the FESPA community export into the EU from all over the world. Graeme points to a conference he attended in Tirupur, India, where digital product passports for the textile industry were a central topic. With 30% of Tirupur’s output heading into the EU, manufacturers there need to understand the requirements just as much as anyone in Berlin or Amsterdam.
FESPA has also recently published its understanding and avoiding greenwash guide, developed with Claire Taylor, a Chartered Environmentalist with decades of experience in print. “Most greenwashing is not intentional, but people don’t always know where the lines are,” says Graeme.
He continues, “If you offer a service but can’t communicate what the specific upside value of a material is, you can’t be surprised when a client turns around and says, I’ll just take the cheap version. The advantages are material if you do the right things and then derive the marketable value.”
The work you won’t see
The truth is that most of this effort will remain behind the scenes when the doors open in Barcelona. Nobody walking the aisles will count how many containers of waste have been diverted from landfill, or know that the venue was selected partly on the strength of its renewable energy supply. The legislative compliance, the supply chain due diligence, the audits by BSI. All invisible.
But that is what proper sustainability looks like. Not a badge on a stand, but years of incremental, audited, occasionally hair-pulling progress.
Graeme concludes, “An improvement is an improvement and people should be appreciative of any attempts to improve. The better you get, the more protected and resilient your business becomes. And that is what really matters.”