The Events Industry Council has released six new supplier standards for sustainable events for public commentary. Major changes have been made to increase their ease of use, strengthen social responsibility considerations and recognise innovation and exemplary performance. These standards will replace the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards.  

More than 100 of the industry’s leading practitioners contributed to the development of the new standards, which have been purposefully designed to increase sustainable practices across the events industry. The public commentary phase is an important milestone in launching standards that can be implemented around the world.

“Throughout the process of revising the standards, we focused on making them globally relevant. In addition to having volunteers from 15 different countries participating in the revisions, we designed the requirements to focus on environmental and social outcomes, rather than country-specific regulations and programmes. Most importantly, they have been streamlined with clear compliance levels that are actionable and trackable,” said Mariela McIlwraith, CMP, Director of Industry Advancement for the Events Industry Council.

The draft standards can be reviewed on the Events Industry Council website through 18 April 2019. Current categories for comment include accommodations, audio visual and production, destinations, exhibitions, food and beverage and venues. A new event organiser standard is being developed and will also be released for input in the next two months.

Chance Thompson, Chair of the Events Industry Council Sustainable Events Standards Committee, adds, “We are thrilled to share the first phase of industry comment for the new Events Industry Council Sustainable Event Standards. We encourage everyone in the industry to jump in with thoughts, comments and questions. The ultimate goal is for our industry to use these standards to make events more sustainable, which will help build a better future.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.