We need to look beyond the booth. In fact, certifications, such as ISO 14001, force you to assess a wide range of impacts before deciding where your biggest problems and opportunities lie.

• 107.2 tons – Shipping and logistics of all major items to the show
• 115.6 tons – Planning, including business travel and office work
• 118.7 tons – Garbage sorting and removal during and after the show
• 517.3 tons – Exhibit operations for demos, materials used, miscellaneous
• 699.9 tons – Suppliers of food, security, cleaning, other services
• 2,575.4 tons – Transportation and accommodation of staff and guests
• 4,340.8 tons

So the numbers skew heavily toward travel, accommodations, and contractor operations on-site. How could it be otherwise, with so many people working with so much equipment week after week?

We chose an exhibitor that has been using a custom, wood construction 10-by-30-foot booth at three shows per year for the past eight years. Based on the best available data, construction created roughly 36,000 pounds (18 tons) of GHGs.

The booth travels a three-show circuit each year, leaving from an exhibit house in Southern California to shows in Anaheim, Chicago, and Baltimore. The booth is stored in the exhibitor's warehouses along the way. As a result, the booth only returns to the exhibit house once a year.

The company flies about 15 employees to each show, primarily from their headquarters in the Southeast. Two-thirds of them fly coach and the others ride up front, which matters if you calculate airline carbon emissions on a per-seat basis.

• 1,500 pounds – Booth construction amortized over 24 shows
• 3,500 pounds – Shipping for one-third of the three-show circuit
• 9,500 pounds – Air travel for one-third of the three-show schedule
• 14,500 pounds

Even in this modest, fairly typical show program, travel, shipping, and on-site operations dwarf the environmental impact of booth construction. If the exhibitor continues to use this booth in the future, amortized construction will become an ever-smaller portion of the program's total environmental impact.

Imagine what would happen if the exhibitor discarded it after two years, as some companies do. On a per-show basis, construction emissions would jump to from 1,500 to 6,000 pounds. On the other hand, if this 300-square-foot booth had been built of aluminum struts and stretched fabric instead of plywood, nearly two-thirds of construction GHGs could have been avoided. The shipping footprint would have followed suit, yielding a 25-percent overall reduction in per show emissions.

That's big. These are real numbers and they deserve your consideration. But they also point out the importance of measuring much more than the booth.

Shoot silver buckshot, not a silver bullet The lesson here is that there is no single Green fix. That's why Greening your overall show program, not just your booth, is so important. This doesn't mean your design and construction choices don't matter. They certainly do. But looking at the bigger picture can reveal many other, potentially much bigger opportunities to go Green too.