BRONZE AWARD
	Category: Green Exhibits Exhibitor: Keen Inc. Design: Department of Energy, Seattle, 206-550-4833, www.deptofenergy.com Fabrication: Greenspace LLC, Hillsboro, OR, 503-533-0500, www.greenspacegroup.net Show: Outdoor Retailer, 2010 Budget: $425,000 Size: 60-by-90 feet Cost/Square Foot: $79

hen Green is an integral part of your brand identity, anything short of sustainable exhibit design is practically sacrilegious. Enlisting the help of design firm Department of Energy (DOE), Keen Inc. set out to build a booth for the 2010 Outdoor Retailer show that exemplified eco-friendliness and personified its brand.

Keen had a simple assignment for DOE: Design an exhibit made from recyclable, reusable, and sustainable materials. Given the plethora of Green exhibit materials on the market, building a sustainable booth isn't as hard as it was even a year ago. But DOE wanted to take the Green idea one step further by salvaging materials and objects that had already been deemed junk.

DOE worked with design firm Greenspace LLC to source everything from license plates and car hoods to rebar and shipping pallets. The wood pallets formed the exhibit's primary structures: a back wall, six 12-by-14-foot meeting rooms, two 14-by-14-foot meetings rooms, and two 15-by-20-foot aisle-side conference rooms. Throughout the space, attendees found tables made of refurbished car hoods, chairs upholstered with fabric from reclaimed car seats, display shelves made out of license plates and street signs, timber beams salvaged from a tobacco warehouse, and discarded storage lockers from an area high school. In fact, 80 percent of the Bronze Award-winning exhibit was built from reclaimed, recycled, and repurposed materials.

The clever use of "junk" impressed Exhibit Design Awards judges, one of which said, "Details such as the stop-sign table, auto-upholstery cushions, and oil drums clearly branded Keen as a company that's concerned with both creative solutions and sustainability." The old saying is true, after all - one person's trash really is another person's treasure.e