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Pimm's in a beehive – how to make sustainability even more appealing

Sam Ibbott has just returned from the Milan Expo, this year focused on “feeding the planet, energy for life” where he found the UK’s sustainability challenges are far from unique.

Planet Earth is a vast place. As individuals we all inhabit our own little piece of it, simultaneously connected and disconnected from the whole. The daily ritual of work and responsibility means that many of us will never get to see first-hand the full gamut of what is on offer in a short lifetime – the breadth of nations, people, art, culture, sights and sounds.

It is in this context that the five-yearly World Expo gives us an opportunity to see the whole world in one place, in microcosm at least, like a giant trade fair. This year the Expo is in a Milan in a vast outdoor space on the outskirt of the city. Each country has a pavilion in which it can present itself in whichever way it sees fit under this year’s theme of “feeding the planet, energy for life.”

"The UK structure included 1000 LED lights that would pulse seemingly at random until you learn that the lights are linked in real-time to the movement of bees in a real hive back in the UK" 

Some countries took the theme literally with presentations on their ability to grow sustainable crops or produce renewable energy, while others took a more creative interpretation, but the end result is impressive. Some countries built their pavilions to look like castles, others looked like spaceships, or, in the case of Brazil, a giant climbing net/trampoline. Not quite sure what it was meant to represent (sorry, Brazil!), but it was great fun – I guess maybe that was the point in itself. Joy for joy’s sake, the best kind. 

The UK based its pavilion around a 14 metre high, 30 tonne aluminium beehive set inside a traditional country garden. The structure included 1000 LED lights that would pulse seemingly at random until you learn that the lights are linked in real-time to the movement of bees in a real hive back in the UK. 

It is intended to highlight the vital role of pollination in the global food chain, whilst also being a metaphor for how the UK is a hive of innovation and creativity. It was impressive, but in the searing Milanese heat it was perhaps the Pimm’s on sale which felt the most British thing about the experience.      

I was lucky enough to be attending the Expo as part of an organised UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) trade delegation, with four days of planned activities and networking events around sustainability and smart/future cities. One of most interesting parts was a smart cities thought-leadership conference, which chimed well with our own work at the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) investigating the potential for smart technologies to help cities meet their core environmental challenges.

"Some countries built their pavilions to look like castles, others looked like spaceships, or, in the case of Brazil, a giant climbing net/trampoline. Not quite sure what it was meant to represent (sorry, Brazil!), but it was great fun"

With a global outlook, it was fascinating to hear how the challenges we face domestically are shared internationally – the problems of finding effective business models for environmentally-focused smart solutions; the need for these solutions to be replicable and scalable; tight local authority budgets; technologies developing faster than the skills. But the fantastic networking opportunities provided by UKTI were a useful step in breaking down these barriers and working more collaboratively on a cross-border basis – a problem shared is a problem halved, as they say. 

Our role at EIC is to represent the UK’s environmental technologies and services sector, and this was the perfect opportunity for it. We have world-beating engineering and sustainability expertise and it was great to have an international platform from which to shout about it, alongside fellow British companies and industry experts who had made the trip.

Sam Ibbott is deputy public affairs director for the Environmental Industries Commission

EIC is the trade association for the UK’s environmental technologies and services sector