Emota wins Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability

The award celebrates the team’s commitment to challenging established industry practices, developing innovative materials and embedding sustainability into every stage of the exhibition lifecycle.

It’s a significant achievement for our 65-strong team across the UK and US, and recognition of the measurable environmental and commercial impact being delivered for clients.

Campaign’s judges described Emota as:

“A genuinely transformative team redefining sustainability in exhibitions – a heavy lift for that industry.”

Challenging the way exhibitions are built

For an industry traditionally reliant on short-lived structures, resource-intensive production and wasteful dismantling, creating more sustainable exhibitions requires a fundamental change in thinking.

That’s exactly what our Global Exhibitions & Environments Team has been working to achieve.

Rather than treating sustainability as something to consider at the end of an event, the team has made it a central part of how exhibitions are conceived, designed and delivered.

Through Enviroplan, Emota’s sustainable experience design methodology, environmental responsibility is built into decisions from the very beginning. That means questioning whether new structures are needed, finding ways to reuse existing materials, designing assets that can work across multiple events and reducing the impact of production and transportation.

The approach is guided by four principles: Build Less, Build to Last, Build Clever and Build to Reuse.

Together, they help the team minimise waste and carbon emissions while creating experiences that continue to deliver on creativity, quality and audience engagement.

Innovation that delivers more with less

A key part of this work has been challenging conventional exhibition construction materials.

One of the team’s most significant innovations is the development and use of structural cardboard as an alternative to traditional materials.

Through extensive prototyping and testing, the team has demonstrated how this lightweight, durable and recyclable material can be used to create everything from large-scale exhibition structures to intricate architectural features and interactive installations.

Its flat-pack design makes transportation more efficient, while simpler construction processes can significantly reduce installation time and costs.

The team continues to explore other sustainable materials, including recycled plastics and recycled-fibre acoustic products, working closely with suppliers to find alternatives that reduce environmental impact without compromising the finished experience.

But innovation goes beyond the materials themselves. It’s about rethinking how exhibitions are designed for longevity, adaptability and reuse, rather than being built for a single event.

Sustainable exhibition design with measurable results

The impact of this approach is reflected in the results being achieved across client projects.

As highlighted by Campaign in announcing the award, the team has delivered:

• Up to 98% reduction in waste
• Up to 70% reduction in carbon emissions
• Up to 96% material reuse
• 40% cost savings

These results demonstrate that more sustainable exhibition design can also be commercially effective, delivering lower environmental impact alongside high-quality, engaging experiences.

Projects including AstraZeneca’s booths at ASCO and ERS, and Inizio’s booth at ASCO, have put this thinking into practice through circular design, innovative materials and smarter logistics.

At AstraZeneca’s ERS 2025 exhibition, for example, the team achieved a 56% reduction in carbon emissions and 82% less production waste compared with traditional builds, while welcoming 7,962 visitors – 41% of all ERS attendees.

For Inizio at ASCO, an exhibition booth constructed using recyclable cardboard delivered 40% lower cost, reduced installation time from two days to four hours and all materials were reused, repurposed or recycled. At the same time, Inizio far exceeded its goals for attendee numbers, sales qualified leads, social media impact and new business wins.

And for a global healthcare client at ERS, a modular booth designed for multiple years of use achieved a 98.44% reduction in its total waste footprint, with 96.8% of materials reused, donated or repurposed. Digital interactives on the stand achieved 5,500 page views, a 4x increase from previous years, and the stand received ERS’s sustainability design award for 3 consecutive years.

These projects show how sustainability and exceptional audience experiences can work together, rather than being competing priorities.

Putting measurement at the heart of sustainability

Achieving meaningful reductions in carbon emissions and waste requires more than good intentions. It requires reliable measurement and informed decision-making.

That’s why Enviroplan is supported by tools including TRACE, developed by industry sustainability body isla, and BOSS (Best Overall Sustainability Solution).

TRACE enables the team to measure carbon emissions and waste, identify opportunities for reduction and make more informed choices throughout the project.

BOSS provides a broader sustainability framework, helping connect individual events to clients’ wider ESG objectives and supporting transparent reporting.

Together, these tools help the team make evidence-based decisions, prioritising the prevention and reduction of environmental impact rather than relying on offsetting.

Making sustainability everyone’s responsibility

While innovative materials and measurable results are important, what makes this award particularly significant is the recognition of how the team has changed the way it works.

Sustainability isn’t the responsibility of one specialist or department. It’s embedded across the entire Global Exhibitions & Environments Team, bringing together expertise in strategy, creative, design, project management, production and delivery.

This approach also extends to clients, suppliers and partners, encouraging new ways of thinking about materials, processes and the long-term value of exhibition assets.

Campaign’s judges recognised this wider influence, highlighting the team’s robust methodology, cross-disciplinary collaboration and ability to drive behavioural change across the supply chain.

It’s an approach that’s helping make sustainable exhibition design more practical, scalable and commercially viable.

Recognition of a team driving change

Winning Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability is an important milestone for Emota and recognition of the people behind the work.

The award was also accompanied by a second win at the 2026 Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards, with AstraZeneca at ERS 2025 winning Best Practice in Sustainable Events and/or Awards – EMEA.

Together, these awards recognise both the team’s wider contribution to sustainability and the impact of its approach in delivering more sustainable experiences for clients.

There’s still more to do, but this recognition reinforces the importance of continuing to challenge convention, invest in innovation and work collaboratively to reduce the environmental impact of exhibitions.

Sustainable experiences. Zero compromise.

That’s the ambition behind Enviroplan, and the thinking that will continue to shape our work.