BS 8901
BS8901 is a new standard in sustainable event management. Devised by BSI British Standards, it was published on 12 November 2007 and offers a framework for sustainable development for all events, big or small. As of 1 April 2008, Seventeen now offer BS8901 compliance for all events we manage, at no extra cost to clients.
At Seventeen Events we have a sustainable focus at the heart of our business, so we were delighted to help trial the Standard. Our experiences in implementing the trial at the Guardian and Observer areas of the Innocent Village Fete, combined with our work for the MS Society on their MS Life 2008 event have allowed us to build up a portfolio of processes, systems and data tracking methods which allow us to state with confidence that, as a business, we are now BS8901 compliant.
This is not a static process – in order for us to remain compliant with the standard we have instituted an ongoing system of weekly, monthly and annual checks to ensure that sustainability is ingrained into every decision we make at Seventeen.
Like the Green Awards, which we organised in 2006, we used the 1987 Brundtland Report’s definition of sustainability:
“Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
We feel that Seventeen is a reflection of these values – creating events which satisfy the demands of today’s technology savvy, style hungry, ever changing clientele without risking the resources which will allow us to remain in business into the next century and beyond.