Lagardère Travel Retail and Concourse reinforce partnership around circular economy & sustainability
On December 4th 2019, Lagardère Travel Retail and Concourse representatives met in Singapore to take part in a Circular Hotspot – a monthly ideas workshop designed to encourage the discussion and development of a circular approach.
Hosted by Lagardère, the event focused on how circularity can be implemented in the designing of stores and activations. Grant Fleming, Head of Strategic Development, ASIA – Lagardère Travel Retail and Chris Morriss, Managing Director - Concourse, introduced the issues in the current TR concession business model and asked participants what kind of, solutions could encourage Re-use, Re-purposing and Recycling.
‘Circular Challenge’ brain-storming sessions addressed airport retail sustainability challenges and possible circular solutions to these. Subjects included how to design out waste generated by travel retail stores during initial planning stages by incorporating design, materials, interior fit-out and logistic solutions; to concession after-life and how to close the loop of store closures.
Regarding this initial Circular Hotspot and aims going forward, Chris Morriss, explains; “We have been working on innovation and education when it comes to sustainable brand activation, store implementation and what happens at the end of a display asset’s lifecycle. We are thrilled that Lagardère Travel Retail Asia have responded to this call to educate industry colleagues as to what this actually means and to commit to initiating circular business model solutions to make it achievable.”
Deemed as an educational success for many of the participants, Grant Fleming, comments: “The industry has to react to the need for stronger and more defined answers to sustainability. The Circular Hotspot allowed us to hear first-hand strong expertise on the topic that was outside our typical industry view and actions – this type of innovative approach to challenges is welcomed and helps us all speed up.”
In parallel, Concourse is currently working with Lagardère using ReStore – a sustainable CSR-led initiative developed by Concourse to reduce the amount of retail furniture, fixtures and merchandising that end up in landfill sites. This initiative identifies projects and charities that can benefit from Travel Retail’s unwanted retail displays and provides a dedicated service to collect, repurpose and recycle old materials into new and worthwhile pieces of furniture that can meet other charities’ needs.
The first ReStore project involves the repurposing of some of Lagardère’s old and no longer needed confectionery store displays from Changi International Airport – the furniture has been redesigned and repurposed to make food donation boxes for the Food Bank Singapore, a charity that provides food to those in need who need extra help to feed their families. More information on the completion of this project will follow soon.
About Concourse
Dedicated 100% to Global Travel Retail, Concourse provides a full service of implementation and project management to brands, retailers and operators: from creative concepts to engaging brand activations & digital installations, to complete store design and concession build, with an emphasis on sustainable materials and initiatives. The company is a firm advocate for a sustainable approach in the implementation of retail furniture and, to date, has completed up to 4,000 projects across 380 Travel Retail locations worldwide, providing sustainable design, build, project & asset management, maintenance and analytics.