Last month, some of the greatest marches for the environment took place. A Swedish teenager by the name of Greta Thunberg has been building up an unprecedented movement. When Greta was very young, she started suffering from depression due to the physical toll her concern for the environment was taking on her. With her family’s support, she has been able to get better, but getting better also required taking action. Only a bit over a year ago, she began skipping school to sit in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand her government take action and respect the Paris Agreement regarding climate change after a heat wave and forest fires were overwhelming Sweden. She has come very far since.
Despite the fact she suffers from several mental disorders including autism spectrum, OCD, and ADHD, she has used all of this as a driving force. She has now been a TEDx speaker, given several speeches at high-level international events and summits, and won or been nominated for several awards including the Nobel Peace Prize. She created an unstoppable tidal wave that very recently became a tsunami when, on September 20th, millions and millions of people around the world joined her plea and marched to urge governments to stop global warming. It is not the first global movement ever summoned, but it has certainly been one of the largest the world has ever seen regarding the environment.
Greta managed to make her family become vegan and to stop getting on board international flights. She even traveled by sailboat to New York to be coherent with her plea and avoid the incredible amount of carbon emissions of a transnational flight. With her movement, Fridays for Future, she has said that children should stop going to school and start taking action to make their governments listen because she says that if adults don’t care about her future (by ruining her home), she doesn’t care about her future (her education) either. A single person, no matter how young, can make a huge difference in the world. So if she can do this, so can we!
Climate change can only be mitigated if we all work together. We need a commitment to take care of our world, and leave it better than how we found it. That is why we have been taking decisive actions to become a more sustainable and eco-friendlier company. Part of our commitment is to give you quality products that last. One of the causes of global warming is the high consumption of resources that generates tremendous waste. With durable materials and high-quality setups, our booths, banners, podiums and stands are made to last, so they do not end up in a landfill somewhere. Quality is not only to serve our customers better, but to stop producing disposable materials that become garbage sooner rather than later.
But quality is not the only way we think about our customers and our environment. For a very long time now, we have been using high-quality, resistant recycled materials to make sure we are part of the solution. We also have company policies to ensure we are contributing constantly to reduce our carbon footprint and create better, more durable, and environmentally-friendly materials. That is why we will be launching a new material to help increase our support to Greta’s fight, our global fight. Very soon you will hear about a new fabric, made completely from recycled plastic bottles, that will be printed into the banners and backdrops you use in your events, trade shows and fairs.
We are so concerned about making the world a better place and giving added value to our customers that we worked with our vendors to make sure this was a superior replacement. In fact, it will have brighter colors and a softer hand feel, more luxurious indeed! And guess what, this wonderful solution does not mean higher prices. So you have a tremendous value you can truly be proud of. Our customers have always been able to count on our great quality, and now great quality can be even better for our shared home, our planet.
Our efforts are part of many individual efforts that anyone can participate in. Part of the individual decisions you can make to improve your contribution to the environment definitely include choosing environmentally conscious companies. That not only means buying good, long-lasting, high-quality products, but looking into the companies you buy from to make sure we are doing everything we can to change our materials, processes, and contributions to the environment. You will soon be very pleased to know that we are innovating to help with this cause that should concern us all. We can build the future together, and hand in hand with innovation and expertise, the future is now.
