Sustainable Events: A Standard is being set

This is a PowerPoint for use by the ISO

20121 mirror committee to explain the

development of ISO 20121 to others

during the public comment period

Scope of Presentation

• Who are BSI and ISO

• What are standards?

• Why create one for the event sector?

• The journey of BS8901

• The journey of ISO 20121

• The vision for the future

Who is BSI ?

• BSI is the British Standards Institution

• BSI is the UK’s National Standards Body, they

operate under a Royal Charter and a

Memorandum of Understanding with Government

• Tailor this third point to explain your own national

standard body and include their logo

Who is ISO ?

• International Organization for Standardization

• All national bodies invited to take part in an ISO

development

• Standards are developed by consensus

• A volunteer chair is assigned: For ISO 20121 the chair is

Fiona Pelham who was also BS8901 chair

• Secretariats are assigned: For ISO 20121 the secretariats

are BSI (UK) and ABNT (Brazil)

National Mirror Committee

• This slide can be tailored to explain your national

mirror committee information including key

representatives

• 3 representatives attend ISO 20121 working

group meetings

ISO 20121

• Secretariat: UK and Brazil

• Participating Countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium,

Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,

Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Spain, Sweden,

Switzerland USA

• Observing Countries: Armenia, Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania,

Morocco, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Thailand

• Liaison Bodies: AIPC (International Association of Convention Centres),

EFAPCO (European Federation of the Association of Professional

Congress Organizers), GMIC (Green Meeting Industry Council),

HORTREC (Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes in Europe), MPI (Meeting

Professionals International), UFI (The Global Association of the

Exhibition Industry), GRI (The Global Reporting Initiative- liaison tbc)

Who was on the committee to develop BS8901

and ISO 20121?

Event industry experts

Sustainability experts

Standard Makers

Standards Users

International Presence

Event Associations

People new to standards

What are standards?

• Standards are a voluntary agreed way of doing

things

• Standards are written in a specific way so their

requirements can be understood by standard

bodies around the world

• ISO Standards have special attributes, as certain

rules to ensure transparency, integrity and fairness

must be followed

Why create a standard for the event sector?

• London 2012 inspired the creation of BS8901

• BS 8901 started work in early 2006 :

– Wide stakeholder engagement via workshops

– Review of existing international event sustainability

guidelines

– Trials of the standard

– The creation of a second draft to deal with gaps

identified launched in 2009

The journey of BS 8901

The journey of ISO 20121

• In January 2010 the first of five international meetings took

place for the working group for ISO 20121

• 3 representatives from each country’s mirror committee

were able to attend and represent national comments

• Significant time was spent working on the guidance

section as the working group were keen to provide support

for the industry

• The working group began to implement the standard and

provide feedback based on their own experience

Future Timelines

• DIS ballot initiated (5 months) 2011-04-11

• Voting summary circulated 2011-09-11

• DIS comments resolution meeting (São Paulo, Brazil) 2011-11-07

• Full report circulated: DIS approved for registration as FDIS 2012-01-06

• FDIS registered for formal approval 2012-01-06

• FDIS ballot initiated: 2 months. Proof sent to Secretariat 2012-02-01

• FDIS approved for publication 2012-04-02

• International Standard published 2012-06-01

Future Vision

• Guidance is likely to be

created to explain the

standard by different

countries, associations

or individuals

Future Vision

ISO 20121 will provide

opportunities:

• To consider

sustainability at every

decision point

• To raise the profile of

the event sector

• For every small step to

make a big difference