Reed Gift Fair and Life Instyle 2025
15 – 18 February 2025
59.3% and 75.7% of waste diverted from landfill for Gift Fair, and Life in Style, respectively
Reduction in overall waste from 9t to 1.68t.
81.25 kg food donated to ICC Sydney charity partner Matthew Talbot Foundation
4,551 x 500ml plastic water bottles saved through plumbed water dispensers and reuseable bottles across the exhibition floor
OVERVIEW
RX Global has proudly hosted Reed Gift Fair and Life Instyle at the International Convention Centre Sydney for the past three years, continually enhancing their sustainability efforts year after year. In 2025, RX Global and ICC Sydney collaborated to elevate waste management practices and implement effective control measures. From replacing packaging materials with reusable alternatives to eliminating bins on the event floor and employing an on-site Waste Recovery Officer these efforts ensured that both organisers and exhibitors were supported to run a sustainable event and help protect the environment while driving benefits into the local community.
“Collaborating with ICC Sydney at Reed Gift Fair and Life Instyle 2025, we not only met our sustainability goals but exceeded them.
We are immensely proud of our collective achievements—from increasing our waste diversion rate from 38% to 75.7%, to engaging our community with innovative, eco-conscious solutions like reusable materials, eco-friendly lanyards, and sustainable culinary choices.
We demonstrated that impactful change is possible when passion meets perseverance.”
– RX Global
Highly skilled professionals
ICC Sydney’s team of highly skilled professionals working across Reed Gift Fair and Life Instyle have committed to improving the sustainability outcomes of the event consistently, year on year over five consecutive events. In 2025, the venue team introduced a Waste Recovery Officer on-site, which significantly improved management of the waste streams. The officer audited and reported on waste management practices, ensuring better tracking of waste types and volumes, and implementing more efficient disposal strategies.
ICC Sydney’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Manager developed and provided tools and resourced to support and equip organisers to take full advantage of the venue’s sustainability offering and expertise, such tools include venue’s Sustainable Events Guide and Plastic Free Events Checklist. Many exhibitors responded positively to pre-event education – reusing packaging materials and significantly reducing the demand for new resources – ultimately generating less waste throughout the exhibition space.
To foster continuous improvement and learning, the CSR Manager prepared post-event sustainability data that included energy and water consumption, waste statistics and more, which was shared with RX Global to comply with requirements of the RX Global Sustainability Playbook and support their future sustainable event plans.
Sustainable culinary services
ICC Sydney and the organisers were deeply committed to ensuring the event’s sustainability practices were as effective as possible. With support from ICC Sydney, the events featured a lower carbon menu served in the venue’s café and incentivising the use of reusable keep cups with a discount (A total of 103 KeepCup discounts were applied). Reusable plates replaced disposable alternatives, and plastic bottles were eliminated entirely in favour of more environmentally friendly options.
ICC Sydney’s event food and goods donation and waste reduction program was activated for exhibitors and organisers to minimise waste typically left behind after events.
Comprehensive Operational Services
Sustainable operational services were a core focus of the event. General waste bins were removed from the event floor, encouraging attendees and staff to consciously engage with designated waste stations. RX Global also installed plumbed water units in the exhibition space for attendees to refill their reusable water bottle.
Driven to Make a Difference the ICC Sydney team refined and elevated their approach by investing in specialised training, advanced equipment, and applying insights gained from previous events to enhance waste management and measurement capabilities. This resulted in more accurate tracking and improved sustainability outcomes across each event space.
The combined efforts to reduce waste across the twin events resulted in the highest contribution to waste diversion achieved in 2025 – with 59.3% and 75.7% of waste diverted from landfill for Gift Fair, and Life in Style, respectively.
