A sustainable business vision for RX China

President Michael Cheng reveals how RX Greater China’s ‘Go Green’ strategy is creating sustainable benefits for our organisation, people, events, customers, and communities.

In today’s challenging business environment, a company’s value isn’t confined to its financial performance. It also encompasses the value it places on its people, and the planet. That’s why RX China’s Go Green program is not just about environmental protection measures; it’s about developing a sustainable business vision built on our commitment to the ‘3Ps’

People, Planet & Profit.

While we have made progress in all three areas in recent years, we remain fully committed to innovation and evolution, working together with all our partners to create a fairer, more sustainable future.

RX is a founding partner of the UFI-led Net Zero Events pledge and we have committed to our own timetable to achieve net zero by 2040, in parallel with our parent company RELX. To drive sustainable change in China, RX launched its Go Green progra m in Greater China in early 2022 focused on three key areas. Firstly, to raise awareness of the ‘6R’ sustainability principles – Respect, Remember, Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, and Renew. Secondly, to reduce the carbon emissions of our own organization.

And thirdly, to work with our customers and partners to reduce the emissions generated by our events. The program also includes a range of executable full-chain carbon reduction measures.

Go Green in action

RX China is committed to raising sustainability awareness and driving change, internally and externally, year-round, by leveraging every online, offline and onsite channel available to us.

To encourage our own people on our journey to net zero, we have developed ten low carbon office conventions. By starting with the small things in our daily life and work, we are calling on all our people to save on everything from energy to paper consumption, encouraging non-color printing, battery recycling, recycling of office supplies, reducing the use of plastics, and a wide range of other decarbonization measures. Since June 2023, we have also designated one day in every month as ‘Low Carbon Community Day’. By encouraging our people to come to the office on foot or by bike wherever possible we are incorporating low carbon ideals into our daily routines.

RX China is also working with our exhibitors, visitors, service providers, and partners to reduce the total carbon emissions of our events by incorporating sustainable development into event marketing, operations, supplier management and procurement management. Specific actions include:

Switching from print to digital – we are reducing our use of paper on site (badges, questionnaires etc.) and replacing printed marketing communications with our digital platform, Reed Connect.
Streamlining catering service on-site to reduce waste and waste disposal needs.
Reducing our carbon footprint, and setting an example for our exhibitors, by using sustainable materials and reducing construction waste in RX-built stands and functional zones throughout our events.
Promoting our Go Green low carbon exhibit principles and standards in our exhibitor manuals and event catalogue, encouraging exhibitors to use environment friendly materials for booth setup.

Influencing and informing sustainable change

As a global leader in events, RX is in a unique position to be a sustainability influencer, helping to advance initiatives, innovation, products, and services that support the sustainable transition of the industries we serve.

For example, WePack, Shanghai, our mega event showcasing the latest innovations and trends in the global packaging industry, is committed to promoting new environmental protection technologies, materials, and applications. At WePack 2023 we launched an exhibit zone dedicated to easily collectable, recyclable, and degradable packaging, and another focused on low carbon green packaging. We also organized the World Corrugated Forum (WCF) global corrugated summit and the IPIF international packaging innovation conference covering themes such as green packaging, carbon neutrality, and low carbon lifecycles. Leading organisations and experts came to share and promote their green innovation success stories.

At Alu China, the global industry comes together to identify and pursue a sustainable growth path for the global aluminium industry. The event is dedicated to the theme of green, low carbon, environmental protection and sustainable development, providing a comprehensive view of innovative technologies and products along the entire aluminum industry chain.

Recycled aluminum production is one of the key paths for low carbon transition in China and the world. At Alu China 2023, a peak carbon and carbon neutrality recycled aluminum display zone was launched, where recycled aluminum-related manufacturers and processors could showcase their cutting-edge equipment and innovations. An aluminum packaging zone focused on sustainable public consumption was also launched, educating attendees about innovative aluminum foil packaging, cans, bottles, and bottle caps. Our ‘Go Green’ initiative encouraged visitors to recycle on-site bottles and cans to illuminate a carbon footprint tree and accumulate carbon energy tokens’.

The China Recycled Aluminum Industry Chain Fusion Development Forum and the Aluminum Packaging and Sustainability Forum were held alongside the expo, where industry experts and opinion leaders shared insights on accelerating sustainable growth of the aluminum industry.

S-Future Platform – facilitating a sustainable future

No single industry can achieve the transition to sustainable growth on its own. Leveraging our multi-industry events platform, RXGC launched the S-Future Platform in 2021 to influence and facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange on the topic of sustainable development. By working with multiple industries on sustainability, we aim to discover needs and pain points and identify solutions and business opportunities along the sustainability journey.

Since its launch, the S-Future platform has published over 100 original videos that promote sustainable science as well as over 300 media-rich articles to some 40,000 customers from a variety of industries:

In the printing and packaging industry, S-Future has worked with the International Packaging Innovation Forum (IPIF) to launch the Sustainable Development Interaction Zone at WePack, to accelerate sustainable packaging innovation solutions.
In the cosmetics industry, we worked with PCHi to jointly produce a cosmetics sustainability documentary, which includes interviews with leading cosmetics players who share their sustainability initiatives.
In the aerospace and space industry, we worked with interAirport China to carry out a series of interviews and launch the Sustainability Corner at the show. Offering a helicopter view of the green transition of airports, the discussions cover green construction, renewable energy, water resource management, and sustainable aviation fuel, among others.
In the automotive sector, we launched the sustainable development and environmental protection zone as well as the hydrogen power display zone at the AWC show in Shenzhen.
In the electronics industry, we launched an electric paper display zone at the C-Touch and Display show in Shenzhen.

Sustainability is a topic that impacts the whole of humankind. By leveraging our global industry and community connections, as well as our upstream and downstream influences, RX is committed to working with our exhibitors, visitors, service providers and partners, and the industries we serve, to provide solutions, business opportunities and cross-disciplinary cooperation to accelerate sustainable development.