PPB May 2020

SOCIAL GOOD A Goal Beyond Green How Orbus walks the talk on protecting and preserving the environment. by Kristina Valdez W hether it’s a pen used once and passed along, a t-shirt worn for 25 years or a photo of a trip to Disney in a logoed frame, hung in your parent’s living room, like any other tangible possession, there’s a chance that promotional products may, one day, be discarded. No brand wants its promo items contributing to the 121 million tons of waste that end up in the nation’s landfills each year, so the environmental impact of promotional products is top of mind for many industry businesses. But Woodridge, Illinois-based supplier Orbus Exhibit and Display Group has made protecting and preserving the environment one of its core values. Orbus, a wholesale supplier and manufacturer of display, exhibit, graphic and event solutions founded in 2001, diverted 87 percent of its total waste from landfills in 2019. “Orbus prints over 26,000 square feet of display graphics alone each day—[and] that coupled with other aspects of operations, we produce a lot of recyclable items,” says Jim Concannon, operations manager. Since 2017, Orbus has recycled more than 1,444 tons of cardboard, cores and paper, 944 tons of fabric, 468 tons of plastic and 253 tons of aluminum. “It’s a continuous effort,” says Natalie Whited, vice president of marketing at Orbus. “As one of the largest exhibit and display manufacturers in the U.S., we obviously have a lot of raw materials and goods that we have to find recycling partners to take. And that, sometimes, is the challenge—finding the right local sources. Not all operations can take the quantity of materials that we need to provide. We are constantly trying to find different sources [that] can recycle and reuse to repurpose into something that can be consumed.” In order to continuously surpass environmental goals, Orbus has devoted talent and Over the past three years, Orbus has recycled more than 253 tons of aluminum, along with cardboard, paper, fabric and plastic. 60 | MAY 2020 | THINK