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

Below are 4 key areas of the standard that have been revised and include new requirements in areas such as climates change, legacy and child & human rights and safe guarding.

For each area the following resources have been provided:

  • The standard description for that section as an audio file and transcription

  • An interview with CEO Fiona Pelham who is also the Chair of the ISO 20121:2024 committee on key areas of the standard.

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?

You can auto generate the captions in the video to your preferred language by following these steps set out in this video tutorial:



 

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.

6.3 Objectives and plans and planning how to achieve them

The organisation shall establish event, sustainability, objectives at relevant functions and levels the event, sustainability objective, shall


A. Be consistent with its sustainable development policy.

B. Be measurable if practicable.

C. Be consistent with the organization's sustainable development objectives

D. Take into account applicable requirements.

E. Be monitored, be communicated.

G. Be updated as appropriate.

H. Be available as documented information

When planning how to achieve its event. Sustainability, objectives, the organisation shall determine

  • What will be done.

  • What will be measured

  • What resources will be required

  • Who will be responsible

  • When it will be completed

  • How the results will be evaluated.

8.3 Supply Chain Management

The organisation shall request where applicable suppliers and other relevant interested parties to show evidence for sustainability requirements in the procurement process.

The organisation shall determine and apply criteria to select and evaluate suppliers and other interested parties from the supply chain that affect or can affect the performance of the event, sustainability, management system, and the performance of events.

When preparing tender and other procurement documents, the organisation shall include requirements that support the achievement of the organization's objectives and operational planning arrangements.

These requirements should be related to the sustainability performance of suppliers and their products and or their services and shall be taken into consideration in the selection process of the supplier.

If the organization does not apply a formal, tender process, it shall ensure its supplier selection, evaluation, and monitoring process takes into account sustainability considerations.

It is important that supplier compliance with these requirements are monitored on an ongoing basis. The organisation shall retain documented information of these activities where applicable when an organization decides to entrust a supplier with a conception and production of its event to a company via a call for tenders. It must be aware of the impact of this consultation on the said company, and ensuring open and fair competition with clear contract requirement and timing to reply.

See annex b. 4. For guidance and best practice.

Note 1. To entry tender and request for proposal. Process shall be developed to ensure that it's manageable for small businesses to complete.

Note 2. To entry for further information on supply, chain management and on evaluation of suppliers, post events, performance, the annex B and ISO 2020,400.

Note 3. To entry sponsors and other organisations offering value in kind products or services should be considered as a supplier promotional activities, products and services offered by sponsors shall be aligned to the organisation's or events. Sustainable development principles, objectives and values.