Duncan, originally from the UK, has been living & working in Asia for the last 16 years. He runs a creative interior design & project management company delivering projects across the Asia Pacific Region; specialised in retail, F&B and commercial sectors. Duncan is passionate about creating interiors that excite and engage Clients and Customers alike, all through the lens of sustainability.
Sharing my Experience and Best Practices to accelerate sustainability in the MICE industry
We work in an industry that uses huge amounts of natural resources and typically generates over 60% of landfill waste and GHG emissions. After being in this industry for many years, I couldn't deal with the guilt anymore!
Together with my team at Concourse, we started to try to address this issue through designing out waste and using new resources sparingly. It has been a tough but very rewarding journey.
The construction industry is very linear and a huge beast that is very difficult to implement change. We are providing solutions to deal with the linear construction economy whilst it transitions to a more circular economy. For example, we have set up an online marketplace to collect, repair & sell used furniture & equipment for the F&B industry. This ensures these items have a second or third life whilst providing cost effective solutions for the F&B industry.
We are passionate in assisting Clients who want to start or further their sustainable journey.
I have been in the retail industry for 20 years and have witnessed a lot of wasteful practices. Retail outlets have a short shelf life, typically 5 years after which they need to completely strip out the store – most of which will go to landfill. More recently pop-up stores have become more popular, and these can last from a month to just 1 day! The straw that broke the camel’s back, came when we were repeatedly asked by a Luxury Beauty client to use high end materials like marble, brass and exotic wood for pop up campaigns that would only last a month.
We decided this could not carry on and we created reXtore to find ways to better manage interior fitouts and more recently events and exhibitions and make them much more sustainable.
reXtore, pronounced “re-store,”is a Singapore-based studio dedicated to creating ‘Zero Waste’ environments, exhibition booths and furniture. It is recognized as being at the forefront of sustainable innovation, currently specializing in the exhibition and events industry, one of Singapore’s most wasteful sectors.
Our mission is committed to radically reimagining the events and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) industry in Singapore. Our approach focuses on adopting circular design principles, designing out waste, specifying sustainable materials, and minimizing the carbon footprint for exhibition stands of all types.
To achieve this, reXtore develops a range of modular, reusable exhibition stand products tailored for the exhibition and events sector. These innovations help radically reduce waste and promote sustainable practices. The company is currently collaborating closely with the Singapore Tourism Board and SACEOS (Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers) to identify solutions and rapidly drive the industry towards a zero waste, low carbon future.
Our Mantra: “The World doesn’t need more stuff.”
By challenging traditional approaches and pioneering new solutions, reXtore is making significant strides in transforming the exhibition and events industry into a model of sustainability.
It has taken a long time but we are proud to be one of the top circular design & project implementation companies in Singapore.