World - Work is under way to establish an international sustainability standard for event management, after a joint proposal was made by the UK's BSI and Brazilian national standards body, ABNT.
The proposal for the development of the new international standard, ISO 20121, was jointly submitted by BSI and ABNT, as members of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
The news follows the UN's Conference on Climate Change COP15 which was confirmed as being compliant with BS 8901, the BSI standard for sustainable event management.
According to BSI's director of standards, Mike Low, the events industry has adopted the standard "enthusiastically" with several organisations around the world implementing it and seeking third-party certification.
"It's fantastic to see BS 8901 being implemented across high-profile events such as COP15," says Low. "A large part of the standard is about addressing the environmental impact of an event so in this respect, it is highly appropriate that a conference on climate change is compliant."
The first meeting of the international committee responsible for the development of the standard, will be hosted in London by BSI, and addressed by Jan-Christoph Napierski, head of sustainability for COP15, and David Stubbs, head of sustainability for the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games 2012.
