ISO 20121 is a management system standard that has been designed to help organisations in the events industry
improves the sustainability of their event related activities, products and services. ISO 20121 is based on the earlier
British Standard called ‘BS 8901 Specification for a Sustainability Management System for Events’ which was first
developed in 2007. Due to the high level interest in BS 8901, it was decided to create an international version of the
standard to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics.
In simple terms, ISO 20121 describes the building blocks of a management system that will help any event related
organisation to:
o Continue to be financially successful
o Become more socially responsible
o Reduce its environmental footprint
ISO 20121 applies to all types and sizes of organisation involved in the events industry – from caterers, lighting and
sound engineers, security companies, stage builders and venues to independent event organisers and corporate and
public sector event teams. Organisations that successfully implement the standard will be able to seek independent
recognition of their achievement through a process called ‘Certification’.