Consider the planet - make minimal or no impact with your production!
Museums and exhibit practices are becoming more environmentally sustainable across the world and we can learn from their examples, guiding us in green exhibit production in partnership with NMCFS. Please read MuseumNext's Eco-Friendly Museum Practices: How Cultural Institutions Are Embracing Sustainability.
The question to ask yourself when planning your production: How can we create our displays so that they are locally sourced, nontoxic, reusable, recyclable, and/or biodegradable?
Best Practices for Green Exhibit Design:
Modular Displays: Reuse exhibit structures across multiple exhibitions.
Recycled Materials: Use sustainable or upcycled materials for displays.
LED Lighting: Lower energy consumption while enhancing visibility.
Minimal Transport Footprint: Source materials locally to reduce emissions.
Alternatives to Foamcore/Foam Board: Falconboard, EnviroBoard
Introduction, and why Foam core is bad for the environment
Foamcore has been the go-to construction material for exhibits for decades. Foamcore is used in schools for project exhibits, artists use it for framing materials, and we find many uses for it at home and work. It’s versatile and plentiful. But did you know it takes 500 years to decompose, creates microplastics, releases harmful chemicals into our environment as well as harmful fumes? There are several very viable alternatives. But first, let’s dig a bit deeper. (ref.)
Foamcore is non-biodegradable. It is filled with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Extruded Polystyrene (XPS), both of which are plastics that do not naturally decompose and cannot be recycled.
Foamcore can take up to 500 years to decompose and in the process releases harmful chemicals and microplastics into the environment.
Foamcore’s core, Polyurethane foam, is relatively stable; however, issues arise when it off-gases, releasing harmful fumes into the environment. These fumes can lead to respiratory issues, including allergies, asthma, and other sensitivities.
Styrene, a component found in foam core boards, has been identified as a carcinogen by the Department of Health and Human Services and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, as well as this report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Falconboard is a rigid graphics media board made primarily from renewable forest products that is fully recyclable. Falconboard offers superior performance over most traditional foam board options as well as high-quality printability. It is made from renewable materials and approved for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) Certified Sourcing label.
Falconboard Printers
Falconboard can be found at most local printers as it is a popular eco-friendly product, and there are retailers who ship nationally.
Ask your local printer first to reduce delivery carbon emissions and packaging waste.
Less available at local printers, yet more durable than Falconboard, and another excellent alternative. It has a solid core composed of high-cellulose waste fibres, such as the post-harvest straw of rice, barley, wheat, and elephant grass.
Ask your local printer first to reduce delivery carbon emissions and packaging waste.
Alternatives
There are more eco-friendly and sustainable foamcore alternatives available for display printing. Again, talk to your printer first to understand what non-plastic recyclable and biodegradable options are available locally.
NOTE: some printers may state their plastic product is recyclable — this is not fully true as most plastics can only be recycled once. Better to avoid plastics and the ensuing byproduct of microplastics altogether.
Smartpress - contact them to determine which substrate materials they offer for rigid displays. Other than Falconboard, it is unclear from their website how you can specify which of their eco-friendly foamcore alternatives to use.
VeganPrinter - advertised eco-friendly printing services yet they do not offer specifics from their website about which substrates they use as foamcore alternatives.
Retractable Banners
Retractable banners are another wonderful, portable, and common display signage. In the recent past, the materials printers used to print on for retractable banners was PVC vinyl. Fortunately that is no longer the case these days as we are seeing a number of alternatives that “engineered” paper, 100% recycled plastic (which unfortunately is still plastic, yet does reduce landfill waste), wood products, including the use of environmentally-friendly nontoxic inks.
Ask your local printer first to understand what non-plastic recyclable and biodegradable options are available locally for retractable banners.
Go-GreenBanners: As the name implies, their philosophy about banners is to reduce landfill waste by using 100% recycled banner material. Although these are not plastic-free, they are a start in the right direction.
LollipopSigns: They have a couple of ‘green’ options including 100% recycled plastic and “engineered” paper that is 100% recyclable.
Resource developed by Joel Meyers, Advisor and Volunteer with the National Museum and Center for Service.