Low-Carbon Literacy of Exhibitors in the Exhibition Industry in China

Chia-Wei Liu,Jen-Son Cheng

doi:10.3390/su14042262

Abstract

While low-carbon and environmentally friendly construction by the exhibition industry has gradually improved, there is a lack of relevant research on whether exhibition-relevant personnel have corresponding low-carbon knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours to jointly assume the responsibility of developing low-carbon exhibitions. This research draws on the literature regarding low-carbon literacy and applies it to the exhibition industry to preliminarily assess the level of low-carbon literacy in China. A questionnaire was formulated through expert surveys and a pre-test. During the formal investigation, 412 valid questionnaires were obtained from exhibitors at seven Chinese exhibition events. The results revealed seven important dimensions of low-carbon literacy in exhibitions, namely, altruistic behaviour, values, low-carbon sensitivity, locus of control, low-carbon knowledge, low-carbon consumption, and action strategies. Low-carbon knowledge and low-carbon sensitivity ranked at the bottom, and middle- and high-level managers and exhibitors with large booth areas exhibited relatively insufficient performance regarding some low-carbon literacy factors. Based on the results, insights for exhibition management and future research directions are proposed in this paper.

Highlights

As the largest exhibition market in Asia and with the opening of the world’s largest exhibition centre, Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center [1], China is deeply aware of the importance of low-carbon environmental protection in conjunction with vigorously developing the exhibition industry
According to Cheshmehzangi et al, Shenzhen has been selected as an International Low Carbon City (ILCC) providing advanced information communication technology (ICT), some of which is being presented in the current convention and exhibition centre as a green building demonstration [2]
Considering that this study aims to investigate low-carbon literacy in the context of the exhibition industry, nine professional teachers in the industry and twelve exhibition participants who had at least five years of experience in exhibitions, were familiar with the work of exhibitors, and who worked in important exhibition-developing cities in China, including

Summary

Introduction

As the largest exhibition market in Asia and with the opening of the world’s largest exhibition centre, Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center [1], China is deeply aware of the importance of low-carbon environmental protection in conjunction with vigorously developing the exhibition industry. In 2015, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China implemented China’s first green exhibition standard, i.e., “Regulation for energy saving and consumption reducing in convention and exhibition industry” [3], which put forward practical standards for reducing carbon emissions, conserving energy and reducing consumption by the exhibition industry. With the rapid development of the exhibition industry, a large amount of waste products is generated; for instance, booth designs often fail to follow the green design concept, resulting in disposable materials and special booth applications that aggravate carbon emissions and environmental problems.

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Conclusion