About BS 8901 > Introduction
Introduction
BS 8901 – Specification for a Sustainability Management System for Events is a management system standard that has been designed to help organisations in the events industry improve the sustainability of their business.
The standard was triggered by the London 2012 Olympic Games which aim to be the most sustainable games ever. First launched in November 2007, the standard has been recently revised in the light of practical experience and organisations can now seek certification to the BS8901 – 2009 version.
There are three significant differences between BS 8901 and the considerable number of environmental guides that exist for the events industry.
Firstly, BS 8901 is not a checklist; the standard prescribes the management system elements that an organisation has to have in place in order to enable it to improve the sustainability of its operations.
Secondly, BS 8901 does not apply to events per se but to the management system that an organisation uses to run its events business successfully. It is the management system operated by an organisation to deliver its event related activities that is certified and not the event.
Thirdly, BS 8901 is about sustainability not just the environment. From a business perspective, sustainability is about adopting strategies that will not only ensure long term financial success but will also drive social prosperity and progress as well as reduce environmental degradation.
There are good points and bad points about the standard.
On the bad side, BS 8901 is not an easy read and is full of jargon and unhelpful terminology. However, we have developed plain English tools and checklists that take the complexity out of the standard and help organisations understand what is really required.
On the good side, BS 8901 is simply a business management system and in our experience, most organisations are already doing up to 80% of what the standard requires. Hence, for most organisations, achieving BS 8901 does not require the adoption and implementation of radically new systems and processes.
BS 8901 – Specification for a Sustainability Management System for Events is a management system standard that has been designed to help organisations in the events industry improve the sustainability of their business.The standard was triggered by the London 2012 Olympic Games which aim to be the most sustainable games ever. First launched in November 2007, the standard has been recently revised in the light of practical experience and organisations can now seek certification to the BS8901 – 2009 version.
There are three significant differences between BS 8901 and the considerable number of environmental guides that exist for the events industry.
Firstly, BS 8901 is not a checklist; the standard prescribes the management system elements that an organisation has to have in place in order to enable it to improve the sustainability of its operations.
Secondly, BS 8901 does not apply to events per se but to the management system that an organisation uses to run its events business successfully. It is the management system operated by an organisation to deliver its event related activities that is certified and not the event.
Thirdly, BS 8901 is about sustainability not just the environment. From a business perspective, sustainability is about adopting strategies that will not only ensure long term financial success but will also drive social prosperity and progress as well as reduce environmental degradation.
There are good points and bad points about the standard.
On the bad side, BS 8901 is not an easy read and is full of jargon and unhelpful terminology. However, we have developed plain English tools and checklists that take the complexity out of the standard and help organisations understand what is really required.
On the good side, BS 8901 is simply a business management system and in our experience, most organisations are already doing up to 80% of what the standard requires. Hence, for most organisations, achieving BS 8901 does not require the adoption and implementation of radically new systems and processes.
