Part 1: The magic of carpet
At ACS, we pride ourselves in providing a high quality service, and we are now challenging ourselves to raise the bar on a sustainability level as well. As one can imagine, making events more sustainable needs to be addressed on many different layers. Today we want to shed some more light on what can literally be considered as the foundation of every event: carpets.
Carpets are as important as they are usually overlooked at events. However, make no mistake, without them, congresses would be perceived as a lot less comfortable. Shortly summarized they contribute in the following areas of the created ambiance:
- Looks; they make any empty congress center a lot more welcoming, instead of the bare concrete floors that are the usual standard.
- Acoustics; carpets play an important role in eliminating echo and reducing the white noise created by a volume of visitors to an event.
- Feel; walking on carpet is usually a lot more comfortable for visitors who are usually on their feet for a large percentage of the day. Especially when several kilometers need to be covered per day at the event.
One might wonder what all of this has to do with sustainability? The answer is simple. There are two ways AV companies in general lay carpet. One way consists of sol called ‘roll out‘ carpets. Though these carpets are relatively easy to install, they are in general single use. Since most congresses extend to several thousands of square meters the amount of waste caused by this single use technique is substantial.
The other carpet technique, and the one ACS prefers, is working with carpet tiles. Though the installation of these tiles takes a bit longer than the rolling carpet, the reusable proportions make this a much more sustainable alternative. The carpet tiles ACS usually installs are supplied by JMT. Each tile is usually used between 20-50 times before they are completely worn down. After each use they are carefully brushed and cleaned, they are then sent off to their next event. Even when they can no longer be reused these carpets are recycled by the initial supplier. So again; the amount of material saved from landfills by using these carpet tiles should not be overlooked. The next time you host or attend an event, it is worth considering what you’ll be standing on!