Introduction
It has been established that whenever many people congregate for an event, there is a chance that the environment may suffer. Over time, we have discovered that our ecosystem is degrading and that we must take appropriate measures to protect it. Corporations, event organizers, and policymakers are being pushed to understand and be more responsible for their part in these environmental impacts. The essay will discuss ISO 20121 specific considerations for more sustainable events and two major negative environmental impacts of events, and the application of ISO20121 in remedying these impacts.
ISO 20121 Overview
The International Standard on Sustainable Event Management, ISO 20121, was created to assist the event sector in prioritizing sustainability when organizing and staging events. ISO 20121 is based on the British Standard BS 8901 (Specification for a sustainability management system for events). It helps event planners and organizations identify possible event impacts and how to mitigate any negative effects on the environment, neighborhoods, and local economy and leave a good legacy (Buscarini & Gabrielli, 2019). The ISO 20121 standard describes the procedures that organizations in the events sector must follow to increase the sustainability of their events and overall operations. The guideline directs the management of social, economic, and environmental implications by organizations of all sizes. The standard tackles these issues and every level of the event’s supply chain (British Standards Institute, 2007). Because the standard is adaptable, it adapts to the diverse cultures and natures of the various organizations hosting the event.
The standard adopts the management systems methodology popularized by the success of ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) standards. To operate more sustainable events, the standard utilizes a management systems approach. It helps identify occurrences that may have harmful social, economic, or environmental consequences. Through better planning, organizers could now eliminate or lessen undesirable effects (Meng et al., 2014). This should enhance critical sustainability concerns such as venue choice, transportation, recycling or re-purposing demolition trash, developing a sustainable food strategy, supporting good health, and developing skills, employment, and business legacies.
The proper application of the ISO standard has the potential to cut expenses, carbon pollution, and waste, as well as improve venue bio-diversity and create a varied and inclusive workforce. The standard further includes guidance on; Communication, operational management and control, stakeholder identification and collaboration, supplier management and procurement, and issue evaluation. ISO 20121 is appropriate for events of all sizes and sorts. Organizations can establish voluntary compliance with ISO 20121 by one of three methods: first-party self-declaration; second-party confirmation of conformance by parties invested in the organization, like clients; or third-party certification (Buscarini & Gabrielli, 2019). As public awareness of environmental sustainability grows, so does the necessity for organizations to consider environmental sustainability when planning or presenting an event. Obtaining an ISO certificate will help reduce the environmental impact while still putting on a fantastic event. As a result, the ISO standard can be considered a significant step forward in the ongoing battle to protect the environment.
A wide spectrum of environmental effects is linked to human activity. We recognize that certain consumption habits are more harmful to the environment than others. ‘Events’ could potentially be to blame for various environmental effects that differ in nature, period, and geographic scale (Getz, 2007). Furthermore, varying environmental impacts may occur during event life cycles, including during the construction of stadiums, the running of the event, and the development of legacy results. It is likely that event managers will focus on environmental impacts connected to:
- Activities on transport and travel
- Consumption of food and drinks
- Consumption of water and energy
- Waste stream production from the events
Application to Negative impact on activities on transport and travel
The bigger an event, the bigger the environmental consequences. Carbon emissions from the construction of sports and cultural event infrastructure and tourist transport to and from events (both local and international) may have long-term global effects in terms of climate change and rising sea levels (Musgrave & Raj, 2009). Several million tons of gases are released into the atmosphere each year due to transportation within events.
For much of the last half-century, travel and tourism have combined to form the fastest-growing economic sector. At the end of the twentieth century, national and international travel/tourism was worth over 3.5 trillion dollars per year and employed 200 million people. The growth rate for domestic and international travel and tourism has averaged around 3%, which is much more than the general growth for many years (Goldblatt, 2012). Tourism supports the economies of the countries hosting major events, but there are often significant socioeconomic and environmental costs associated with it, which can be overwhelming.
Tourism has significant negative environmental consequences. One major includes the local natural resource depletion, as well as pollution and waste issues, are among them. Excessive consumption of the limed natural resources is common in tourism, especially in places where resources are scarce. Tourism places a huge strain on local land use, which has led to significant soil erosion, pollution, habitat loss, and increased pressure on endangered species. These effects can deplete the environmental resources that tourism relies on upon (Bowdin, 2010). Tourism accounts for over five percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, with ninety percent of this coming from transportation. Tourism-related CO2 emissions are predicted to rise by twenty-five percent by 2030 compared to 2016. One thousand nine hundred ninety-eight million tons up from 1,597 million tons.
In consideration of the ISO 20121 standards, to manage the issue of environmental pollution with regard to travel and transport activities for events, it is essential to consider adopting reliable management techniques to handle such events. Firstly, event organizers should seek to reduce the need for travel, particularly for small-sized events that do not necessarily need the parties involved to be physically present for the event (Fenich, 2012). For example, events like conferences and meetings that often require people to travel to other geographical locations to be held should consider video and teleconferencing as a viable alternative to the events. This will significantly reduce the carbon emissions. For example, a case study of Heathrow Airport received great protest on a third runway. Being an island nation, air transportation has been recorded as the increasing contributor of harmful air pollution, which account for over ten percent of the impact and particularly airline travel which research evidences that its emissions are largely problematic because of the height at which these harmful gasses are released which makes them twice as damaging.
On the other hand, if travel cannot be avoided for a particular event, the ISO standard calls for event organizers to consider where the people who will be traveling to this event to be at a location that will significantly reduce the need for too much travel, particularly by air or road. In the united kingdom alone, there are over thirty million cars on the road, which has accounted for over half of the nation’s transport emissions. Additionally, the event organizers could encourage car sharing and consider event spaces closer to public transport or venues that offer accommodation to reduce the amount of travel required fr the event to occur.
Most of this will drop down to proper supply chain management for event planners. Look for local vendors who use more environmentally friendly modes of transportation and get them to commit to employing fuel-efficient driving strategies for their fleet. Compared to other modes of transportation, public transportation emits far fewer emissions per passenger-kilometer. While most events have no control over their guests’ transportation choices, there are several strategies to urge a greater proportion of them to take public transportation (Van der Wagen & White, 2010). The event location should be chosen with the majority of guests in mind, and distances should be kept to a minimum. Choose a venue for an international event that has the main airport with direct flights to numerous destinations, minimizing multi-stop itineraries. The organizers should consider accessibility to public transportation, pedestrian access, and bicycle storage and provide recommendations for nearby lodging choices. Other ideas include facilitating ride-sharing through the event website, running shuttle buses to the train station, renting out bicycles, or incentivizing travel choices by providing a free drink or a reduced ticket price to those who take public transportation or carpool (Fenich, 2012). Venues and event organizers should provide guests with detailed information on public transportation choices.
Application to Negative Impact on waste stream production
Major events should include environmental challenges in their sustainability plans from the onset of the planning phase (Westerbeek et al., 2006). Waste is among the most noticeable environmental consequences of a huge event. However, measuring the amounts, nature, and destination of trash generated during an event, whether as part of infrastructure development, event operations, or guest consumption, is difficult. This is due to a diverse range of liable agents, including venues, local governments, event organizers, suppliers, and onlookers and participants.
During events, the garbage created by plastic utensils and the considerable use of electricity to power stages, lighting, and speakers have a significant environmental impact. Solid waste continues to be a big environmental issue in most urban areas worldwide. Daily challenges include waste management, proper disposal, and reuse in the most appropriate and planned manner. Major events generate a lot of waste in a short length of time (Jones, 2017). Sound waste management is essential for any event planning: it reduces carbon emissions, increases sustainability, reduces pollution and littering, affects on habitats, and lowers expenses. A big part of waste management begins with reducing the amount of garbage produced during the event’s procurement phase.
Every event needs items and infrastructure to run smoothly, but to be more sustainable, a determined effort to decrease the amount of waste transported to landfills is required. In waste management, landfills should be considered a last choice. Methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, is released as waste rots in these landfills. On the other hand, effective waste management can drastically lessen the environmental impact (Flynn, 2012). This is an area where event planners would have to follow local legislation guidelines and ISO 20121 standards and guidelines and will need to hire outside contractors that can implement a sustainable waste management plan. Prior to events, waste is generated in the event offices and on the event site during setup, delivery, and deconstruction. Paper, gadgets, batteries, cleaning products, food containers, waste food, and left-over food are among the waste streams generated by event offices (Westerbeek et al., 2006). Branding, glass, packaging, overlay garbage, and equipment can all be added to the list during the event. Of course, each event will be dependent on local resources and infrastructure, but a goal of recycling total waste and avoiding disposal is a feasible goal for all event organizers.
The initial stage of the waste management hierarchy is prevention, which involves removing any unneeded waste. This should start with a thorough examination of all waste, identifying the sources, and pursuing waste-reduction strategies. All of the events share the goal of eliminating single-use materials and products like bottled water (Foley et al., 2012). When the trash cannot be eliminated, the potential for reuse should be considered. This involves looking into the equipment rental industry, ensuring that branding is built to be reused on a regular basis, and making edible left-over food available for collection by organizations who specialize in this area.
Recycling is the process of converting garbage into comparable or identical materials. This frequently needs skilled advice from waste management providers from the start for event organizers. They will be able to advise event planners on which materials are easily recyclable and which are not. This is followed by a recovery which refers to a procedure in which waste materials are burnt and converted into energy as part of the waste hierarchy. This comprises non-recyclable plastic waste in black bags and contaminated recycling that can be taken to a waste-to-energy plant and burned to generate energy. The next step is treatment, which involves treating the waste before releasing it into the natural environment, like wastewater (Fenich, 2012). To reduce waste going to the landfill, the disposal should always be avoided whenever possible. There are more options to recover materials, including paints, carbon fiber, and resins, which venue and event organizers should investigate. Other hazardous or special trash, like batteries, lubricants, and electronic waste equipment, must be segregated and disposed of in accordance with local regulations, which the organizers should have determined during the waste planning phase.
Conclusion
In summary, the essay was able to give a detailed overview of the ISO 20121 international standard and its specific considerations and guide towards more sustainable events and effectively discussed two major negative environmental impacts of events, namely activities from travel and transport and waste stream production and the application of ISO20121 in remedying these environmental impacts and further offered detailed guide and recommendation to event organizers on how best to apply the ISO standard towards putting up environment-friendly and sustainable events.
References
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