During April 2024, ISO 20121 the global event sustainability management standard underwent a revision and is now called ISO 20121:2024.

During the revision of the standard in 2023 - key areas of the standard were revised and it now includes new requirements in areas such as climates change, legacy and child & human rights and safe guarding.

This interview with CEO Fiona Pelham, chair of the ISO 20121-2024 committee - talks about The Organisation and it’s Context (4.1). In this interview 3 questions were asked:

In each interview there were 3 questions asked:

  • What are the key changes?

  • What does this mean for the future?

  • How can this be practically implemented?

4.1 Understanding the organisation and its context

The organisation shall determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended results of its event sustainability management system.

This shall include consideration of its social, economic environmental impacts. And more specifically, the organisation shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.

Note 1: Consideration of the SDGs and other relevant frameworks can assist in determining the issues to be addressed.

Note 2: Tools that are commonly used to determine external and internal issues include but are not limited to swot and pestle analysis.

 

6.1.2 Issue Identification

The organisation shall establish implement and maintain a process to identify its sustainable development issues and to evaluate their significance. Associated with its event, related activities, products and services within the defined scope of the event. Sustainability management system.

Note, the issue identification process may be referred to as a materiality assessment or as a double materiality assessment. When identifying issues related to both the organisation and society at large the identification of issues can where applicable encompass the following, but not limited to

A.

  • environmental

  • resource utilization

  • materials choice

  • circularity

  • resources

  • conservation

  • emissions

  • reduction

  • climate change

  • environmental resilience

  • biodiversity

  • preservation

  • releases to land water and air

  • digital responsibility

Note 1- Environmental resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly without shifting to an alternative state or losing function or services.

Note 2 - Digital responsibility is using technology in an ethical, including information, security and data protection, responsible way to reduce the environmental footprint and allow positive social impact.

B.

  • social

  • human and child rights, labour standards

  • health and safety, mental health

  • well-being

  • civil liberties

  • social justice, local community, indigenous rights

  • culture and religion

  • accessibility

  • social impacts.

  • diversity

  • equality and inclusion

  • digital responsibility

C.

  • economic

  • local economy

  • market capacity and presence employment

  • shareholders value and return on investment

  • innovation

  • direct and indirect economic impact

  • risk

  • fair trade

  • economic inclusion, professional skills and profit sharing


In addition to those sustainable development issues that an organization can control directly.

An organisation shall also consider issues that it can influence.

The criteria used for the evaluation of significance shall be documented, and shall include a consideration of feedback from interested parties and the identification of new and relevant emerging issues and if applicable, scientific and academic research.

The outputs of the process shall be documented, kept up to date and shared with relevant interested parties.

Note 3. Many issues cut across economic, social and environmental categories.

These can include:

  • food and beverage

  • governance

  • transport

  • venue selection

  • supplier selection

  • accessibility

  • animal welfare

  • corruption

  • product

  • responsibility

Note 4. See annex C for further guidance. The list of issues contained in Table C.1 is non exhaustive.