Environmental SHOWTIME

UK businesses are looking to ET '99 to find efficient solutions to environmental problems, says the ET Partnership, organisers of the event. The partnership is between Reed Exhibition and publishers Faversham House Group, who collectively have put together a combination of trade show, seminars, competitions and other features that should appeal to a wide cross-section of the business and industrial community.

With the environmental protection industry said to be worth some £203billion worldwide by next year, the ET exhibition provides an ideal opportunity to catch up on the latest technologies for this burgeoning market. Overleaf we highlight just a few of the products and services that will be represented at the NEC. But first we take a look at some of the complementary activities that will be staged at the same time as the exhibition itself.

Setting the agenda for the show are the heavyweights of the Confederation of British Industry and the British Standards Institution. These two organisations are hosting a major environmental conference on 9 June. Titled `Profiting from the environment', the half-day conference will examine the latest environmental policy developments and offer delegates practical advice and case study evidence on how they can improve their competitive edge through environmental best practice.

This conference also incorporates ET's `TalkBack' session, which this year features the UK environment minister Michael Meacher. Other speakers are likely to include: Peter Agar, CBI deputy director general; Biffa Waste's recycling manager Philip Conran; and John Elkington, chairman and co-founder of SustainAbility, and one of Europe's leading authorities on sustainable development and environmental strategies for business.

Keith Tozzi, chief executive of BSI, who will be making the opening address at the conference, says: `Environmental best practice is now a cornerstone of successful business, and market leaders continue to strengthen their competitive edge through financial savings and efficiency gains. This conference will enable all kinds of businesses to sharpen their environmental awareness and reap significant savings.'

The Environment Agency has also chosen ET '99 as the key platform to announce consultation on the next stage in the development of the agency's monitoring certification scheme, MCERTS. As well as exhibiting at the show, the EA will be issuing a report setting out proposals for consultation with industry on extending MCERTS to include manual stack emissions monitoring.

MCERTS was established by the agency to promote quality monitoring based on international standards. ET '96 saw the official launch, with the initial focus on continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMs) for use on stacks. In 1998 the instrumentation stage was opened to business and ET is now seen as the forum for this next stage of development.

The main seminars of the ET event are once again organised by IBC Global Conferences. They run concurrently with the exhibition and echo the show's main areas of water, waste, air, contamination and environmental monitoring. Each day consists of two sessions, focusing on specific areas within those fields.

A panel of informed speakers will also present legislative and technical sessions on the following areas:

* Understanding the implications of the Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) directive.

* The practicalities of working with the Environmental Impact Assessment directive.

* Managing water resources;

* Meeting the challenges of waste management;

* Successfully managing and remediating contaminated land;

* Using performance indicators, environmental benchmarking and performance management systems to improve companies' environmental accountability and record.