The arrival of the British Standard BS 8901:2009 continues to transform the events industry and its clients. It is the first standard to forge a link between the high level concept of sustainable development and the practical needs of day to day operations for everyone from event planners to suppliers.

As part of the BS 8900 series of standards which focus on the management of sustainable development, BS 8901 is unique in that it specifies the requirements for a management system that improves the sustainability of events. Originally published in 2007, it has now been extensively revised and updated for 2009 and beyond, so to avoid wasted time and resource, ensure that you have the latest version of the standard.

In essence, the standard has been designed to help the events industry conduct its business in a more sustainable way and establishes a framework of management best practice. It allows organisations to identify and engage creatively with their social, environmental and economic impacts.

Across the industry, the pace of change is gathering speed and the practical experience gained by SEG in working with clients in the use of BS 8901 is already being fed into the development of the next generation of the standard at International level (ISO 20121)


Applicability

BS 8901 is applicable to event clients (whether they have an in-house events team or not), organisers, venues and suppliers. It applies to an organisation’s management system and describes the activities required to ensure that events (or event-related activities products or services) are being managed more sustainably. As a management system standard, BS 8901 does not specify exactly what issues to manage but instead prescribes the management system elements that need to be in place.

The standard follows the traditional management model of ’Plan – Do – Check – Act(PDCA) ’, sometimes referred to as the ‘Deming Cycle’. It therefore shares common management system processes with the ISO 9001 (Quality Management),  ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and OHSAS 18001 (Health and Safety Management)  standards. The standard will enable organisations to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce costs while at the same time helping them enhance both their reputation and brand image.


BS 8901 - What it Involves

Planning - identifying the key sustainability issues, , identifying and engaging with your stakeholders, understanding the relevant legislation and  developing a policy for sustainability (including your organisational principles and values), and. From this foundation, sustainability performance objectives, targets and delivery plans need to be defined.

Implementation - developing the key elements of the management system including defining roles and responsibilities, allocating resources, setting up appropriate controls, managing the supply chain and documentation control.

Monitoring and Control – adopting procedures to measure performance against targets. Management system audits, legal compliance evaluations and management reviews will need to be carried out periodically and progress against your sustainability policy and principles considered at a strategic level. The focus is on being able to demonstrate continual improvement.

Harnessing creativity and leadership
The event industry is now spearheading the challenging journey towards a more sustainable future. Although government and commerce is constantly investigating methods to make sustainability a reality, only the event industry has been willing to adopt such a systematic and measureable approach to the challenge.  Implementing BS 8901 requires creative thinking coupled with new ways of working and it will be the innovators that succeed and gain all the advantages of these new ways of doing business.