Sustainability is a journey, and one that exhibition and event display specialist, Scan Display, has embraced. Its most recent project to promote greening has been the Cape Town branch’s installation of its own plant nursery which exclusively stocks water-wise, non-invasive plants.

One of the company’s exhibition designers, Jacob van Zyl, drove the implementation process. He says, “The idea behind this is to promote the use of water-wise plants in our exhibition stand and display designs, and we can be inspired by the plants we have on-hand. This set-up also means we are able to offer our clients a lower cost to hire these plants, which makes them more accessible.”

Jacob designed the structure that shelters the nursery, which is made from repurposed gum poles and wooden pallets.

Given Cape Town’s current water shortages, a well-thought-out system has been put in place to keep the plants watered. “The City of Cape Town’s water restriction rules clearly state that no municipal water be used to water plants. Therefore we have installed an overhead irrigation system that relies exclusively on our grey-water system,” explains Jacob.

In 2017, Scan Display Cape Town set up a rainwater harvesting system which has helped the branch to become increasingly self-sufficient for its water needs. A reverse osmosis purification system cleans the collected rainwater, and creates some grey water waste in the process. This is then used for the nursery, together with grey water collected from the basins.

The team is also conscious of the importance of re-use as a greening philosophy, so the plants are grown, maintained and used in such a manner as to promote their longevity and minimise waste.

The company will continue to seek new ways to save water and offer its clients greater value, using the drought as an opportunity for innovation.