Sustainability — It’s one of the hot buzzwords in our environmentally conscious world. The events industry, in support of events of every size from outdoor concerts to the Olympics, has developed a sustainability standard, ISO 20121. And to support compliance, now there’s a new auditing guide – ISO/IEC/TS 17021-4, “Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems – Part 4: Competence requirements for auditing and certification of event sustainability management systems.”
How do you know that an organization is really operating in a sustainable fashion and that an event is not negatively impacting it’s surroundings? Claims can only be supported by facts and in the world of commerce, 3rd party testing is the preferred method of finding those facts out.
Auditing event management companies is a challenge. Special requirements are needed by the various auditors involved. This is covered in detail in this specification. Be sure to take a look at Table 1, a review of the clauses of the ISO 20121 against 3 certification functions:
- Conducting the application review to determine the audit team competence, members and time required
- Reviewing audit reports and making certification decisions
- Auditing itself
Auditors are expected to be able to review such environmental impact effects as emissions and releases to land, air and water in the vicinity. They will also assess economic issues like the development of long-term assets to an area (like a new stadium) or the impact on local employment. And there may be potential effects on local communities from traffic congestion to late night noise and so on. The auditing team will evaluate all of these.
For the sake of the auditors, Table A.1 covers typical event function activities. This helps the auditing team confirm that they are reviewing all functions that could come under the umbrella of the ISO 20121 standard.
This technical specification is the final piece of the puzzle for ISO 20121. It was originally developed as BS 8901 in 2007 and published in it’s current form by ISO in 2012. With the migration of the document into the ISO/IEC arena, the requirement document’s unique characteristics have created the need for the supporting auditor’s specification. ISO/IEC/TS 17021-4 is that document.
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