Day two of Spring Fair, the UK’s most exciting and vibrant marketplace for home, gift and fashion, was centred around the newly re-launched Power of One Campaign designed to energise retailers and consumers to take small steps to help change the future. As well as inviting the thousands of visitors to take part by making their own pledges, the show focused on three pledges to encourage the circular economy, combat overproduction, and prioritise wellness.
Pass It On encourages consumers to give their best-loved items a second lease of life, reducing the impact on finite resources and encouraging customers to seek sustainable alternatives. By giving customers more power to reuse, repair and recycle, retailers can also do more to protect the planet, and by creating schemes like refresh and recycle retailers are poised to help their customers do better too. Do You Need It combats overproduction at the source and really showcases the power that small steps have to make a huge change. With 94% of paper receipts binned, this pledge addresses how we can reduce waste in plastic bags, paper and more, encouraging more retailers to offer their customers options such as email receipts, so reducing our reliance on paper and plastic. Checking In gives retail staff the recognition they deserve. Retail workers are the beating heart of the industry, and this pledge asks staff the questions that matter, from time off to a healthy work/life balance. As we recover from the pandemic, there has never been a more pertinent time to prioritise mental health and long-term wellness in retail.
Throughout the day, Spring Fair staff donned Power of One jumpers to spark interest and awareness amongst visitors and encourage them to make their own Power of One pledge https://www.springfair.com/powerofone.
Julie Driscoll, Divisional Managing Director, Spring Fair & Moda, said; “Since initiating Power of One in 2018 we have been passionate about supporting and igniting positive change in our world. Our three pledges Pass It On, Checking In and Do You Need It are so simple yet have the potential to collectively create the most enormous difference, not only to our environment but to wellbeing and mental health. As a community we can encourage everyone to come together to think about how we do things and how we can do them better. Thank you to everyone who has embraced this by making pledges. We can’t wait to read them all and continue build on this campaign in the years to come.”
On the Inspiring Retail Stage, Jo Fairley, founder of Fairtrade chocolate company Green and Black’s talked about the importance of caring for people and the planet when doing business. She also posted her show badge in the handy recycle bins, posting on her @jofairley Instagram stories that she dropped her badge in the Pass It On bin so it would have a new life.
The show also placed a spotlight on its Sustainability Trail highlighting brands and suppliers striving to do their part to ensure a more sustainable and ethical future for all. The reaction from visitors was extremely positive with many finding the Sustainability Trail Icon and detailed sustainability credentials by exhibitors at www.springfair.com helpful. The Spring Fair App was welcomed by many who wanted to go paper-free, and quickly search and filter exhibitors by Sustainability.
Spring Fair takes place until the 9th February 2022 at NEC Birmingham. For further Spring Fair information please visit www.springfair.com
Register at https://www.springfair.com/visitor-registration and keep up to date with our Safe & Secure measures at www.springfair.com/visit/safe-secure.
Anyone entering the NEC venue at Spring Fair (including those during build-up and breakdown) will need to show their valid Covid-19 Pass, or a negative result to a Lateral Flow Test taken within 48hours. More details available in the above link.