IFEMA MADRID wins the UFI Industry Partner Award for its successful sustainable carpet recycling project
The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) has rewarded the Madrid institution for forging strategic alliances among enterprises to lead innovative, creative projects to support the exhibition sector.
IFEMA MADRID was also a finalist in three other categories of these awards: Sustainability, in recognition of its energy-saving achievement in the last five years; marketing, for the recently implemented new brand; and Operations, for its Visual Space project.
The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) has awarded IFEMA MADRID the 2022 UFI Industry Partner Award. The accolade recognises its ability to forge strategic alliances with specialised companies and work on innovative, creative projects that support the success of trade fairs. The winning project was for the sustainable transformation of carpets from events held at IFEMA MADRID. It is a three-way alliance to reuse this waste to manufacture trade fair furniture.
IFEMA MADRID has been working to improve the sustainability of its events and reduce their environmental impact for years. Last year, one such initiative addressed the implications of carpeting, a common material at exhibitions, by recycling and avoiding scrapping more than 50 tonnes of waste, transforming it for other uses. As a result, it has reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 8 tonnes and has already set its sights on doubling these figures in 2022.
Juan Arrizabalaga, general manager of IFEMA MADRID, says: “We believe in strength in numbers, so in recent years we have forged into strategic alliances, pooling our efforts to improve our impact on sustainability. The UFI Industry Partner Award is such a great incentive for our work, acknowledging the carpet transformation project by promoting a triple alliance that allows this sustainability project to be sequenced in three phases: recycling the carpet, converting it into chippings and reusing the material to produce trade fair furniture, closing the sustainable cycle within the exhibition environment by collaborating with specialised companies".
The Madrid trade fair institution was also a finalist in three other categories: Sustainability, for the energy savings of the last five years; Marketing, for the recent change of its brand; and Operations, for the Visual Space project.