A guide to Event Sustainability Management Systems  to promote corporate sustainability

Large-scale events often have positive or negative impacts on the economy, society and the environment because of their high-profile and high-impact characteristics. In the era of sustainable development, large-scale events are increasingly required to incorporate the concept of sustainable development. ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management Systems  is a standard developed by ISO based on the British BS8901 "Sustainable Development Management System Specification for (Competition) Projects", which is applicable to event sustainability management. Large-scale project activities such as conferences, tours, exhibitions, performances, celebrations, etc., are designed to help organizations improve the sustainable management of project-related activities, products and services. ISO 20121 was released in 2012, and the application of the standard in the London Olympics that year opened the beginning of the sustainable management of the Olympic Games.

Management system standards require organizations to improve their processes and thinking to continuously improve performance, and give organizations the flexibility to carry out activity-related work in innovative ways without deviating from the objectives of the activity. For organizations that have not formally introduced the concept of sustainable development, the ISO 20121 standard can be used as a starting point to establish an activity sustainability management system; for organizations that already have a management system, the requirements of ISO 20121 can be integrated into the current in the system. ISO 20121 attaches great importance to promoting sustainability management throughout the supply chain of activities, applying sustainability to the rectification life cycle of activities to ensure the sustainability of all aspects and levels of the activities themselves. All organizations benefit from a process of continuous improvement over time.