Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFI’s Community Manager

Fiona Pelham is the Managing Director of UK based Sustainable Events Ltd, a company which provides support for the implementation of sustainability within the event industry. Fiona is one of the presenters at UFI’s Sustainable Development Focus Meeting, December 12, in Geneva Switzerland.

I had a chance to ask Fiona a few questions that will give our followers a preview of Fiona’s depth of understanding on the issue of sustainable management and a sense of how important her remarks will be to the audience in Geneva.

Barry:

In your opinion do ISO 20121 and GRI EOSS go far enough?

Fiona:

In short- yes

ISO 20121 provides a framework for an internal culture where at every decision point, the economic, environmental and social impacts, is considered. Part of creating this culture is to work with your stakeholders to identify your unique issues. Then the ISO 20121 framework can take you as far as you and your stakeholders want to go. Remember that you need to have the ability to control and influence your issues to make a difference

The GRI EOSS provides indicators on common areas that you can measure and report on through implementing the ISO 20121 framework.

There are always more things you can measure and report on so no measurement framework will go far enough. Unfortunately, there is still not a large amount of measurement sharing in the event industry.

Barry:

What changes or additions would you like to see incorporated into these frameworks in the future?

Fiona:

The key thing is to increase awareness for these frameworks and incentives/requirements. There is a danger that the industry will keep inventing and reinventing things. All this does is distract from companies should be doing which is implementing these internationally recognized frameworks.

To learn more about this important meeting click here: www.ufi.org/geneva2013