Our Mission
New Hope Network is proud to continue our Sustainability Program at Natural Products Expo East 2021. We recognize our trade show has an impact on the environment. Through our Sustainability Program, we are striving to identify, understand, and address these impacts to achieve continual improvement year after year.
Sustainable Event Standards
Natural Products Expo East 2019 was the first trade show to achieve Platinum Certification to the Event Industry Council’s Sustainable Event Standards. These standards provide event planners and suppliers with prescriptive actions for producing and delivering sustainable events. Suppliers are assessed on organizational management, air quality, community, climate action, water, energy, waste management and more.
What's New in 2021!
We’ve chosen to make two changes to our live event experience: removing carpet and transitioning to digital badges as part of our approach to being a more sustainable business, as well as our hope of enhancing customer safety and championing innovation.
Removing Carpet will save 300, 354 sq. ft. of carpet, padding, and visqueen. 76% was returned to inventory but even with tremendous recycling and upcycling efforts, the carpet material usage was staggering. Also, by not shipping carpet to/from the show, we save on carbon emissions from transport.
Digital Badges will save tens of thousands of lanyards and paper waste. It will also help create a seamless, efficient, and modern experience, much like digital boarding passes have created for travelers. Since this is contactless, it also supports our continued efforts to prioritize health and hygiene.
Click the plus sign to see what we're doing in each category!
What our show is doing...
- Back of house waste sort during the show to maximize waste diverted from the landfill and ensure materials are sent to the correct stream.
- Clearly labeled 3-bin front of house systems (recycle, compost, landfill) placed throughout the PCC.
- Designated cardboard drop-off areas throughout the exhibit hall to maximize the cardboard effectively collected and recycled.
- Zero Waste boxes placed at all dishwashing stations to collect PPE that is not typically accepted in a single stream recycling stream. This includes gloves, hair nets, and masks.
- Utilizing local chalk artist to reduce floor clings in exhibit halls.
- Collection of clings in zero waste pallets post show for recycling.
- GES offers in booth recycling and compost porter service for exhibitors through ESK.
- Eliminated foamcore signage and prohibit styrofoam from the show.
- Staff meals are served on reusable serviceware.
- Identified water refill stations throughout the convention center to allow for easy water bottle refill.
- We are aiming to eliminate single-use plastics in the coming years!
What the show is doing...
- Tracking of energy consumption at the convention center and hotels to offset the carbon impact through our partnership with GreenPrint.
- No HVAC during move in/move out.
- Lighting levels are set to 50% during move in/move out.
- Energy and water consumption at the convention center and host hotels is tracked and offset by partnership with GreenPrint.
- Encourage shipping/freight through SmartWay freight partners.
- Enforcement of City of Philadelphia non-idling ordinance of 5 minutes or less for suppliers and exhibitors.
What our sponsors are doing...
A huge thank you to our Sustainability Sponsor GreenPrint who is allowing us to offset all of the water and electricity used during Natural Products Expo East in both the Philadelphia Convention Center and our host hotels. GreenPrint is not only the sponsor of sustainability at our show, they are also providing the offset credits!
GreenPrint has also committed to offsetting the electricity used by our attendees tuning into Natural Products Expo East virutally!
What the show is doing...
- Attendees are encouraged to participate in the hotels' linen reuse program.
What our sponsors are doing...
A huge thank you to our Sustainability Sponsor GreenPrint who is allowing us to offset all of the water and electricity used during Natural Products Expo East in both the Philadelphia Convention Center and our host hotels. GreenPrint is not only the sponsor of sustainability at our show, they are also providing the offset credits!
What the show is doing...
- Eliminated carpet in the exhibit hall. This removes this over 300,000 sq ft of carpet and padding from our waste stream.
- Utilizing Digital Badges for all attendees and exhibitors. This eliminates paper waste and approximately 35,000 lanyards.
- Styrofoam and foamcore have been banned and eliminated from Exhibitor Service Kit (ESK).
- Continued partnership with GES to procure more sustainable products including reusable and recyclable signage.
- The Show Directory Map is printed on FSC certified paper, which ensures products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits.
- Show Mobile App will provide all attendees with all pertinent show information
What our sponsors are doing...
Thanks to our sponsor Balanced Health Botanicals the Show Bag is made of rPET recycled plastic, approximately 2 plastic water bottles per bag! That's 20,000 plastic water bottles that have been reused to create our show bag - which can then recycled again once you remove the handles!
What the show is doing...
- Attendees have option to offset their travel impact during the registration process.
- Green Travel Raffle is a program where attendees and exhibitors get a chance to win big for partaking in sustainable travel to our shows. By sending their train or bus receipt(s) to [email protected], they’re entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card! (10 winners in total)
What the show is doing...
- New Hope Sustainability Kiosk highlighting exhibitors that participate in the Sustainable Exhibitor Program.
- Exhibitor Sustainability Guide with sustainability tips to help exhibitors improve their sustainable practices.
- Our Sustainability Exhibitor Survey encourages exhibitors to develop and implement sustainability initiatives for their show experience.
What the show is doing...
- Food and product donations: Products will be donated to non-profit Philabundance. This important organizations works to provide food to more than 350 partners in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, such as shelters, emergency kitchens, senior centers, and at locations where people access other services, including hospitals, libraries, and schools. In 2020, they distributed over 50 million pounds of food to the local community in need.
- Exhibitor booth material donations: Usable and non-broken exhibitor booth materials will be donated to Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia. By donating these products, exhibitors are supporting their mission to transform lives and the city by building and repairing homes in partnership with families in need, and uniting all Philadelphians around the cause of affordable housing. A list of acceptable materials is available at the Exhibitor Service Desk.
- Private event partners that benefit the community: The Hosted Buyer Welcome reception we're partnering with local, BIPOC and female founded winery Mural City Cellars, to support the local businesses and experience their wines from Philadelphia.
- We're engaging the award-winning Philly artist, Nile Livingston, to offset the use of clings onsite and bring a Philly experience to the show floor!
Photo Credit: Elijah Evangelos
Sponsored by
In Partnership with
Benefitting
What our partners are doing...
Celebrating Our Donation Program at Thursday Night Concert: Eliminating food waste and supporting our communities has always been a core value of New Hope Network. As a part of this core value, we prioritize post-event food and material donation programs that help not only reduce the waste produced by our tradeshows, but also collect and distribute beneficial products to the local community. To recognize the challenges of COVID-19 and to celebrate our first year in Philadelphia, the Thursday Night Concert at Expo East will be dedicated to spreading awareness of the part we all can play in this valuable program.
In Partnership with
Program Supporters
Elevating BIPOC-owned Brands: New Hope Network values diversity and is taking steps towards creating more inclusive events and seeking new ways we can bring greater racial equity to the industry. Starting in 2021, we are excited to partner with (included), a membership collective for BIPOC top executives in CPG who are dedicated to one another’s success, who advocate for diverse representation, and who commit to amplifying BIPOC voices. This exciting partnership is guiding multiple efforts for Expo East in Philadelphia and is a strong steppingstone in creating a long-term strategy for how our platforms can most effectively elevate BIPOC-owned brands in the industry. Highlights from these efforts include featuring (included) members at the Friday Night Concert, Harvest Festival, and an Education Session collaboration!
Have questions, comments or concerns about the New Hope Sustainability Program?
We'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected].
