There isn't anyone on the planet who has not been bombarded these past few years with sustainability issues - films, documentaries, magazine articles, demonstrations in the streets, your children coming home from school with ideas to save paper - and rightly so.

Every company has also been affected in some way by the current recession. The danger, we all know, is that all these wonderful ideas to cut emissions, reduce paper, sort garbage and use solar energy are easy to put on the back burner.

When you look at the forecasts though, I encourage you to now consider right now as the best time to make those cuts. Think about not carpeting an exhibition venue - imagine what waste you can save from unnecessarily entering a landfill.

Cut out the trade-show directories - how many tonnes of paper will you save? Make the decision now to not use plastic badge-holders, or plastic at all. Instead, why not have clients sponsor your reusable non-woven paper bags?

At UFI and at my company, UBM Asia, we are taking big steps to put our words into actions. Exhibitors and visitors will be sympathetic  – except those who will miss the carpets and find the concrete floors too hard. In Asia, at least, you can employ foot masseurs to help them.

By supporting your actions, you will have more money to spend on visitor promotion. In a recession you need to dig deeper to ensure you convince people to make the trip and also explore new avenues where buyers can be told about your fair. I am sure your accountants will be pleased as well when they see reductions in costs. Good luck on the journey ahead.

Michael Duck is senior vice-president of UBM Asia, and chairman of the UFI Committee for Sustainable Development