The development of global standards
By Aaron Pedersen, part of paper presented at BESA, Sustainable Concepts of Supply
Two years on from the release of SEMS there is still no extant Australian management standard for running an event sustainably. There are still only two such standards worldwide - the British, BS8901 and the Canadian, CSAZ2010, However, this is all about to change with the release of International Standard, ISO20121 Sustainable Event Management Systems, and the Global Reporting Initiative’s sector supplement for event organizers, EOSS in 2012.
BS8901 was the first management system standard relating to sustainable event management to be published anywhere in the world. It was launched in 2007. Following industry feedback and comment, a second version of the BS8901 was published in 2009. It quickly became apparent that in the absence of any other international or local standards the BS8901 was being used around the world as the only available guidance on managing events in a sustainable manner.
In 2010, the International Standards Organisation (‘ISO’) formed a committee to investigate the possibility of creating a standard for applying sustainable development principles to the management of events. Fiona Pelham, Chair of ISO/PC 250 which is responsible for creating the standard, explains, “The future standard will provide a framework which event planners, venues and other members of the event supply chain can use to implement, maintain and improve sustainability within their way of working.”
Given the positive international reception of the BS8901, it was agreed that this would be the starting point for ISO 20121. This enabled the ISO committee to elect to fast track the development of the standard (within two years, rather than the usual three years), with the intention to finalise it in 2012 to coincide with the London Olympics.
A draft ISO standard was released in May 2011, and 35 countries are now part of the process to define the ISO standard. Australia is an active participant in the process, and has appointed its own twelve person mirror committee to manage its engagement with the Australian Industry and the international delegation.
ISO 20121 will be a management system standard for the application of sustainable development principles to the management of events. As an international standard it will have universal application - suitable for any geographic location around the world, any event stakeholder, event type, and any size of organisation.