Updated 'living wall' highlights Yokohama's LA Auto Show booth

Jan. 1, 2020

Last year Yokohama introduced a new type of display at the 2009 LA Auto Show, a natural, biodegradable 'living wall'. The exhibit, which featured a 120-foot decorative wall of vegetation, was a huge hit and won an award from Exhibitor magazine.

The tire maker is once again going green at this year’s Nov. 19-28 LA Auto Show with a new version of the living wall. This time it will be made up of 16,000 individual plants with the message “Technology Drives Better Tires” written into it using the varied plant species. It will be eight feet tall and 115 feet long, comprised of five different types of plants including succulents and sempervivums.

The living wall’s “Vertical Exhibit Garden” technology, created by NatureXhibits in Laguna Beach, Calif., allows exhibitors at trade and consumer shows to use living plant materials instead of printed products. The exhibits leave virtually zero waste.

“The living wall embodies Yokohama’s environmental spirit,” says Takao Oishi, Yokohama’s president and CEO. “We are always looking for ways to reduce waste and help the environment and the living wall provides us a perfect opportunity. It is a fresh, natural and visually dynamic way to have a display.”

Included in the display will be Yokohama’s eco-friendly orange oil-infused passenger car tires (the dB Super E-spec), which are 80 percent petroleum free. Also on exhibit will be a Porsche 911 GT3 race car featuring the ADVAN ENV-R2 racing tire, which also employs the company’s orange oil technology and cuts petroleum use by 20 percent. The ENV-R2 is the official spec tire of the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama and the ALMS GT3 Challenge Class races.

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The Yokohama-sponsored electric vehicle that broke the class record in the 2010 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will also be at the booth.

The company has utilized differing versions of its biodegradable display at other 2010 events, including the Mid-America Trucking Show and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

“This will be the fourth time we’ve provided Yokohama with a display using lush, oxygen-producing plants,” says Scott Hutcheon, president of NatureXhibits. “With the award from Exhibitor magazine, I’d say the merits of the living wall have been positively reinforced. It’s a perfect way to attract a crowd with something that looks spectacular, is living, recyclable and leaves almost no waste.”

For more information visit www.yokohamatire.com and www.natureexhibits.com.