Handout

Herb Pharm brings a greenhouse to Natural Products Expo West

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 8, 2017—Natural Products Expo West, the world’s largest natural, organic products event with an estimated 77,000 attendees, is just the opening chapter in the life of booth #1759. On Sunday night, when thousands of other booths are getting packed up for long-term storage, booth #1759 will be getting ready for its second life battling sun and wind and rain on a Certified-Organic farm in Oregon.

The booth is a literal, functioning greenhouse filled with seedlings. And it belongs to Herb Pharm, maker of liquid plant extracts.

“The growth of Expo West has been incredible,” said Herb Pharm Chairperson and CEO Tal Johnson whose company has been attending the tradeshow since the 1980’s. “But the environmental impact has grown too. We thought we should do more to reduce our part of that impact.”

Herb Pharm approached the 2017 conference with a focus on sustainability. That meant looking for ways to reduce waste, reuse existing materials and find long-term uses for booth materials after the show closes. It was this perspective that made a greenhouse a natural choice.

Within the greenhouse, the company is reusing materials from its farm and offices, starting with the sign hanging at the front of the booth. It’s borrowed from Herb Pharm’s front gate in Oregon. After Expo, both the sign and the greenhouse are returning to Oregon and will be put to use on the company’s regenerative, Certified-Organic farm.

The tables, boxes, sprinklers (for the seedlings in the greenhouse) and even some exhibits are headed to Oregon too. One booth exhibit lets visitors view herbs under a microscope. Come Monday, those microscopes are going to Herb Pharm’s tuition-free herbal education program to help train the next generation of herbalists.

The seedlings, on the other hand, are staying local. Herb Pharm is donating them to Los Angeles-area herbal education programs.

“After nearly 40 years ethical farming we know that sustainability is a process. It’s a journey,” said Johnson. “This booth helps us, helps our whole community of herbal supplement companies, push a little further on the path of continual improvement.”

For more information about Herb Pharm go tofacebook.com/HerbPharm