UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, has named Better Stands as the winner of the 2026 UFI Sustainable Development Award.
The UFI Sustainable Development Award honours outstanding initiatives and organisations that drive sustainability across the exhibition ecosystem, showcasing innovative approaches that inspire the global community to build a more responsible and resilient future.
This year’s UFI Sustainable Development Award topic was “Best Carbon Reduction Initiative”. It aimed to recognise initiatives that are taking meaningful, measurable steps to reduce carbon emissions, showcasing exemplary practices that can be replicated or adapted across the exhibition ecosystem.
Joerg Zeissig, IFES President and Co-Chair of the Better Stand Initiative, comments:
“Winning the 2026 UFI Sustainable Development Award is a remarkable achievement for the Better Stands Initiative, and I am, on behalf of many supporters and team members,
immensely proud of what our global community has accomplished together so far.
This recognition reflects the commitment of many stakeholders such as organisers, venues, service providers, exhibitors, assessors, and associations worldwide who have united behind a shared vision. Together, they are proving that reusable stand-building practices can deliver meaningful, industry-wide change and positive impact.
Better Stands oKers a practical, tangible solution that makes sustainable action easier to adopt and helps our industry move from intention to implementation. This award is a powerful encouragement to continue scaling that impact worldwide and implement more features to measure success.”
Noor Shalghen & Peirui Tan, UFI Sustainable Development Working Group Liaisons,
add:
“‘Better Stands’ is this year’s UFI Sustainable Development Award winner, recognised by the jury for its industry-wide collaborative framework tackling single-use stand construction, a long-standing sustainability challenge in the exhibition industry,
through a practical, tiered system.
This year’s competition was especially strong, with six recognised as best practices and four finalists, reflecting the growing maturity and ambition of sustainability initiatives across the global exhibition industry.
The jury noted that Better Stands’ approach reflects a broader industry shift towards systemic, cross-stakeholder solutions rather than isolated efforts.”
The jury also congratulates this year’s Finalists:
Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, RX Global & Fiera Milano, and Singapore EXPO, and Best Practices: Bella Center Copenhagen, bematrix, CORFERIAS, Koelnmesse GmbH, MCH Group, and PETSHKA.
Each year, the UFI Awards celebrate excellence in digital innovation, marketing, sustainable development, operations & services, people & culture, and industry partners.
Selected projects from the UFI Awards are shared through UFI’s Best Practices Library, supporting knowledge sharing and helping exhibition professionals worldwide learn from the industry’s leading initiatives.
Discover more at www.ufi.org/awards.
The 2026 UFI Award winners will be recognised at the 93rd UFI Global Congress, taking place from 2–5 November 2026 in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Further details on the recognition programme will be shared in due course.
For more details on the UFI Global Congress, please visit www.uficongress.org.
About UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry:
Founded in 1925, UFI has been the voice of the global exhibition industry for over a century. UFI’s core mission
is to represent, connect, and advance the exhibition community worldwide, serving trade show organisers,
exhibition centre operators, major national and international exhibition associations, and selected industry
partners.
Today, UFI unites close to 900 member organisations across 90 countries and regions, directly representing
over 50,000 exhibition industry employees worldwide. Headquartered in Paris and supported by five regional
offices, UFI continues to shape the future of the exhibition industry from every corner of the globe.
For more information, please contact: media@ufi.org | +33 (0)1 46 39 75 00 | www.ufi.org
