In case you missed it, Coldplay, one of the world’s biggest rock bands, has decided not to go on tour again.
But it has nothing to do with the group breaking up. Rather, the reason is more altruistic.
“We’re taking time over the next year or two to work out how our tour cannot only be sustainable but how can it be actively beneficial,” Chris Martin, the lead singer of the band, told BBC.
Yes, Coldplay wants its concerts to be of benefit to the planet, or regenerative.
For the past few years, regenerative agriculture has been a major area of focus in the organic industry, and the eagerly awaited Regenerative Organic Certification is expected to launch into the marketplace in early 2020. Jeremiah McElwee, Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Product Development at Thrive Market, even discussed the idea of regenerative packaging in Organic Insider’s recent report on sustainable packaging.
So, this begs the question — shouldn’t we, as an industry, start thinking about making Natural Products Expo West regenerative as well?
New Hope Network, the organizer of the show, has put forth a very significant effort to make Expo West as environmentally-friendly as possible.
Formally known as the New Hope Network Sustainability Program, its areas of focus are waste management, energy and water conservation, sustainable procurement and community engagement. Resource guides are available for attendees and exhibitors, as well as for specific areas such as water, waste diversion, venue, transportation, travel, procurement/materials, hotel, exhibitor engagement, community and carbon/energy.
Additionally, for the last three years, New Hope has released annual Expo West sustainability reports, and the organization is continually analyzing its impact and how to reduce it.
Yet, for our industry to achieve this aspirational goal of having a regenerative Expo West, the responsibility should not fall entirely on New Hope. It will require the active participation and collaboration of all 90,000 attendees, and much of the idea-generating and tracking can be done on a company-level well before the trade show takes place.
Given that Expo West is only three months away and brands are already knee-deep in their preparations about new products to be launched and booths to be built, what if they — and other attendees — started asking themselves the following:
– What does our carbon footprint look like and what could we be doing to reduce or offset it?
– How could we be using no paper or less paper at the show?
– How could we reduce our trade show swag or make it from regenerative/organic materials?
– How could the trade show booths and accompanying materials be made in a regenerative way?
– What are the big ideas that we aren’t thinking about that could actually get us to a regenerative Expo West?
There is no doubt that this last question represents something very ambitious, but if there is any industry that should have this as its goal, it is ours.
And if we really want to consider ourselves true champions of the planet, a regenerative Expo West is a concept that must be in our sights.
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With gratitude, 
Max Goldberg, Founder |
This gives credence to the idea that organic products certified through Regenerative Organic Certification and The Real Organic Project can charge slightly more for their products -- an argument that I have been making for quite a while.
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