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How sustainable are events?

We are witnessing a significant increase in the number of ‘green building’ events in the UK. However, there is increasing concern that some of the larger ones, whilst making good profits, may be doing little to reduce their own impact on the environment. Events tend to attract large numbers of visitors; the national and international ones bring people in from all over the world, with the consequential air and road transport issues. Add this to the associated energy and resource consumption issues and the vast amounts of waste created during the very short period of the event and the implications are very significant.

We should all ask the organisers what they are doing about environmental impact of their event and is it really appropriate to a 'low carbon' future, particularly now we have the internet and such easy access to information 24 hours a day.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has started to trial the world’s first national standard in sustainable event management. To qualify, the standard (BS 8901, ‘Sustainable Events Management System - Specification with Guidance for use’) expects good practice standards for planning and managing of events (of all types and sizes). The development of the standard is in its final stages.

BSI has invited members of the events industry to test the standard by applying the draft to their own activities and participating in pilots. http://www.bsi-global.com/bs8901

We, Green Building Press has sponsored and promoted several national events in the past but has become more and more concerned about the environmental impact of many of them. In the future GBP will only support large events if they have been awarded the BS 8901 standard.