Should Companies be Charged for Displaying Items at an Eco-Centre? Input and Experience Appreciated

Hi there!

We are currently designing an Eco-Centre to be located here in sunny South Africa. The centre is to take the form of an educational tourist attraction where visitors can see displays about a variety of solutions to environmental topics eg: energy efficiency ideas, composting, recycling, renewable energy, food gardens, sustainable transport, alternative building techniques etc (find out more on our website - see below). One of the possible income streams we are considering for the centre is via the displays - the centre acting somewhat as a show-room for products and services. We have purposely decided not to take the approach of a non-profit undertaking (we are registered as a small businesses) in order to (hopefully) illustrate that it is possible to adopt an eco-friendly approach in a financially sustainable manner. Do any of the list members have experience with such undertakings? Questions include the following:

- Should companies/businesses be charged a fee for displaying their products/services?
- If so, should this be relative to the space that their displays occupy or relative to some other criterion?
- Should the products rather be donated to the centre?
- Another possibility - companies/businesses could display their products for "free" (or possibly they could be expected to make some sort of once-off contribution in order to cover the costs of the buildings etc) - allowing the centre to use them - but the companies/businesses remain responsible for maintenance and/or upgrading
- Should maintenance of the displays remain the responsibility of the companies/businesses or that of the centre?
- Who is responsible for financial issues associated with the products once they are on display in the centre (damage - visitor or weather etc - to the displays, possible injuries to visitors, malfunctioning devices etc)
- Should the centre do comparative testing of products - and if it does - how do we make this a positive feature and not a threat to potential displayers (nobody wants to have their solar water heater rated as the "worst" for example). One thought we had was to only display "the best ones" - i.e: limited display space available and displays are subject to allowing us to test products.

Obviously this is a complex topic with many facets and implications - any ideas - especially based on real-life experience would be greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,
Eunete and Simon