On November 4-7, 2008 the Bilbao Exhibition Centre is to host the first GEO2 fair. This event seeks to take up the baton of environmental commitment and press for sustainable development as a global necessity. To that end, the organisers have designed a programme of congresses and business events concurrent with the commercial exhibition, which will present new, hybrid formulae in line with the content of the main event. The objective is to offer solutions for a wide range of current needs for innovative approaches are needed to make progress in environmental, economic and social terms.

GEO2 attendees will be able to take part in the 4^th Technology Transfer Meetings, the 2^nd International Environmental Business Forum, both of which are business to business events staged in the exhibition hall itself, and the 11^th Environmental Engineering Congress

From the outset, the Congress has sought to provide scientists, technicians and environmental managers with a regular forum for sharing results and progress in research, development, engineering and management in the fields of science, engineering and technology applied to environmental protection. This year it is to incorporate the sustainability-based approach that is so prevalent in today’s major environmental challenges, and accordingly the seminars organised will focus on environmental planning, policies and management, environmental solutions compatible with sustainable development and the maintenance, operation and control of environmental monitoring facilities.

The 1^st Forum on Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability will feature prominently at the event. It brings together the major players in the field of sustainability - organised civil society, businesses (mainly SMEs) and public institutions, NGOs and economic players – in a four-cornered programme comprising an exhibition, lectures, round tables and business meetings.

Companies specialising in waste and recycling, engineering firms and technology centres have already signed up for GEO2, in whose design the featured concepts are urban and industrial cleaning, energy efficiency, landscaping, reforestation, sustainable tourism, eco-design, sustainable transport, biodiversity, land use management, biological agriculture and corporate social responsibility.

The range of exhibitors at the event will thus extend beyond those sectors conventionally linked with the industrial environment to embrace organisations committed directly or across the board to sustainable development in environmental, economic and social terms.

The exhibition hall will have a demonstration area open to all visitors, where participating firms will have the chance to stage live demonstrations of new services and products (grinding and compacting machines, waste collection vehicles, cleaning vehicles, hybrid engines, etc). A sustainability workshop, designed to stage presentations, will round off the range of services offered to exhibitors.

The campaign to attract visitors to GEO2 will kick off in May with actions aimed at five major groups: industry in general (petrochemicals, paper, cement and concrete, foodstuffs and beverages, textiles, steel, the automotive industry, construction, shipyards, mining, etc), arable and livestock farming, the service sector and major infrastructures (ports, airports, hospitals, public buildings, sports facilities, etc), public sector organisations (ministries, state-owned firms, regional autonomous communities, provincial councils, municipal councils, water boards, river authorities, etc) and finally sectoral associations (mainly foundations, NGOs and professional associations).

The event organisers will co-ordinate efforts with the exhibition centre’s own agents abroad, SPRI delegations, commercial offices and distributors of exhibiting companies with a view to organising delegations of foreign purchasers. The list of target countries for this year is currently being drawn up.