The arrival of the British Standard BS 8901 is already transforming the events industry and its clients.
As part of the emerging BS 8900 series of standards which focus on the management of sustainable development, BS 8901 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. It has already been submitted to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) as the basis for development of an international 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.



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” and 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 - developing a policy for sustainability (including your organisational principles and values), identifying and engaging with your stakeholders and identifying the key sustainability issues. From this, 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, 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.