Sustainable standout stands at LiGHT 25
LiGHT Expo London returned this November for its fourth, and most successful year to date, drawing thousands of visitors to the Business Design Centre over its two-day run. The event continues to expand, with a third hall introduced this year dedicated to technical products within the lighting sector. With this growth comes an inevitable increase in stands, materials, labour and energy required to build and dismantle installations.
Since Covid, however, the appetite for extravagant, show-boating stands – once a hallmark of trade shows such as Light + Building – has noticeably diminished. Designers are now prioritising the products themselves, while many exhibitors are looking to gain extra credit for embracing sustainable practices in their approach to trade shows. At LiGHT 25, several brands placed sustainability at the very heart of their stand design. Here, we highlight just a few of the exhibitors who championed renewable, responsible and eco-friendly solutions on the show floor.
formalighting’s stand at LiGHT 25 offered a masterclass in sustainable exhibition design, guided by a simple but powerful principle: toolless construction. As explained by Sharon Maghnagi, the company’s Global Operations Director, the entire structure was conceived to avoid drilling, painting or any chemical treatments that would limit the reuse of components.
“The main idea was no drills – toolless,” says Maghnagi. “Once a component is drilled for one configuration, you can’t recycle it for another.”
This pursuit of reusability shaped every element of the stand. Height adaptability was built in from the outset: a central post could be swapped out to move the structure from three metres down to 2.7 or 2.5-metres without altering the rest of the frame. Pre-existing holes within the framework allowed the ceiling height to be adjusted cleanly, eliminating the need for invasive fixes on-site.Even the finishes reflected this flexible, low-impact approach. Rather than using adhesives, the fabric walls were tucked into the edges of the frame. “It’s basically just fabric that’s tucked in… it’s not glued, it just slides in,” says Maghnagi as she demonstrated the mechanics of the frames. This allowed the stand to be assembled, dismantled and reassembled with minimal waste – and without compromising its crisp, modern appearance.
Despite a brief setback during build-up, when a structural engineer queried the stand’s freestanding design, the team resolved the issue quickly with support from neighbouring contractors. The experience highlighted not only the adaptability of the system but also the collaborative spirit of the show floor.
Where many exhibitors still default to single-use construction, Mesh took a refreshingly resourceful approach to their stand at LiGHT 25, one that embodied circular design in both concept and execution. Speaking with Mesh’s Director, Matilda Tierus, it was clear that their guiding principle was simple: nothing should be built for the bin. 
The stand’s most striking feature was its perimeter of rented living hedges, forming natural green walls that required no construction materials at all. Delivered, installed, and later collected by the rental company, who care for the plants year-round before ultimately selling them on for private gardens, they created a fully circular system with virtually zero waste. As Tierus notes, this effortless solution replaced the MDF (medium-density fibreboard), carpet, and paint she had seen discarded in vast quantities at major European trade fairs throughout her career.
Inside the stand, the philosophy continued. The central storage and display units were standard IKEA cupboards, chosen precisely because they could be reused rather than disposed of. Once the show closed, the pieces were immediately rehomed, this year the cupboards will be rehomed to one of her staff’s family garages to become long-term storage. Mesh’s vertical lighting columns also followed a low-impact lifecycle, constructed from 75% recycled aluminium and reused each year, with only the internal optics upgraded to showcase the latest technology.
Far from being a compromise, this sustainable approach proved to be a practical advantage. The hedge walls were installed in around 45-minutes, a fraction of the time required for a traditional build. The entire stand system was modular, making it easy to refresh year after year without scrapping materials. As Tierus explains, their intention was always “to reduce having anything on the stand that’s just going to get chucked away afterwards,” and LiGHT 25 showed how seamlessly that ambition could be achieved. 
Mesh’s stand was calm, green, and deceptively simple, but beneath that simplicity lay thoughtful, clever design. It demonstrated that sustainability need not be complicated, expensive, or showy; it can be quietly effective, delightfully practical, and, in Tierus’ words, “so cyclical and friendly.” It was a compelling reminder that exhibition architecture can be beautiful, responsible and sincere.
For XAL, sustainability is not a marketing veneer, but a structural principle woven into every element of their exhibition presence. As commercial manager, Joanne Welbon explained, the stand at LiGHT 25 had already lived a full life before arriving in London. Originally built for a show in Pakistan, it was simply reconfigured for this event, with new graphics and lighting applied to the original framework to reflect the IQ Lux brand, part of the group’s wider family. Rather than building afresh, XAL chose to rebuild again, extending the lifespan of a stand designed from the start to be reused.
That ethos echoed through their product display. One of the core fittings on the stand was designed under a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ philosophy, using no glue and requiring no tools for disassembly. If a component breaks, it is removed and replaced, rather than the entire fixture being discarded. “It just keeps going round and round,” Welbon notes proudly, an ethos the company clearly takes beyond the showroom and into its exhibition architecture.
Material sourcing was equally intentional. All the timber used on the stand came from certified sustainable forestry, ensuring that even the structural elements carried an ethical footprint. The logistical footprint was kept deliberately light too: the stand is stored locally rather than transported long distances, reducing emissions and avoiding unnecessary shipping. For international events, the company avoids sending the UK structure altogether; instead, overseas stands are managed and sourced through headquarters to prevent wasteful freight.
In one of the most charming examples of circular thinking, the packing crates used to transport the stand were simply turned upside down and repurposed as tables on the show floor. The only genuinely new additions were the graphics, freshly printed and applied to the existing boards after the originals were peeled away.
Transparency is another part of XAL’s sustainability identity. Their eco-pattern certification, an accolade held by just 1% of companies, was highlighted on the stand, alongside a QR code that linked directly to their publicly available sustainability report for independent scrutiny. Even a previous German stand has avoided the skip: once dismantled, its components were rebuilt into the company’s new showroom.
At LiGHT 25, XAL demonstrated that sustainability is not a standalone initiative; it’s a system. A structure reused across continents, products designed for endless repair, timber sourced responsibly, transport minimised, and even crates given second lives, all these gestures combined to create a stand that exemplified longevity, transparency and circular thinking. In a world where waste is often accepted as the cost of doing business, XAL offered a compelling alternative. 
XAL, Mesh and formalighting are just a few of the exhibitors who placed sustainability and adaptability at the forefront of their stand design this year. Honourable mentions also go to Phos and Stoane Lighting, both of whom consistently reuse materials and source ethically across every trade show they attend.
As LiGHT continues to grow, so too does its commitment to sustainable practice, extending even to its own reusable light-art installations, which return each year in new and imaginative forms. With the industry increasingly embracing circular design and low-impact thinking, there is every hope that LiGHT London may one day be recognised as the most sustainable trade show in the country – perhaps even the world – if the lighting community continues to build upon its collective eco-conscious foundations together.
