UBM Live Amsterdam Awarded Prestigious Sustainable Event Management Standard

AMSTERDAM, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading events organiser UBM Live Amsterdam today announced that it has been awarded BS 8901 certification, the British Standard that specifies sustainable businesses in the events industry. The organiser of UBM Live's global food and pharmaceutical ingredients events (CPhI Worldwide and Fi Europe) is one of the first companies to achieve this important accreditation.

UBM Live Amsterdam embarked on the process of attaining the BS8901 standard by external accreditation in May 2009.  In order to achieve accreditation, the company demonstrated that it had fundamentally re-engineered its key business processes to align them with the principles of sustainability. Working alongside sustainability consultancy partners, CLT Envirolaw, and design and communications agency, Jellyhaus, UBM Live established key objectives and indicators to achieve its sustainability objectives. These requirements have driven innovation across UBM Live Amsterdam to ensure that its systems minimize any negative effects of the activities related to the CPhI Worldwide and Fi Europe events. The requirements also seek to achieve a balance between environmental responsibility and social progress in a way that allows the business to continue to operate successfully and profitably.

"The accreditation is not the end result. It reflects the beginning of identifying where we can make a difference, set goals, and how we can achieve those goals," said Nik Rudge, Managing Director at UBM Live. "Now that the Amsterdam office has achieved BS8901 accreditation, we plan to focus on extending the standard to the other UBM Live offices and events. Our employees are proud to be involved with a company that puts sustainability at the heart of its activities, and UBM Live Amsterdam is creating a path that other UBM businesses can follow."

The accreditation process has seen the creation of a cross-functional sustainability team that helps to support and implement UBM's sustainability values. There has been a tangible increase in interest from external and internal stakeholders in the developments within UBM Live, leading to changes in the management of the supply chain. "The depth of understanding on how to integrate sustainability on all levels throughout the Amsterdam office and its two key events is a great achievement," said Colleen Theron, Director at CLT Envirolaw.

The process of enforcing these requirements meant creating a greater awareness of sustainability issues and objectives among all stakeholders to create a working culture that encourages the promotion of sustainability and adoption of key sustainability issues. It also meant developing sound business practices and processes and integrating sustainability throughout the business. This process has led to more engagement with stakeholders, in a transparent and inclusive manner where they are encouraged to provide their support and feedback on sustainability principles. These views can be contributed through surveys and questionnaires, online forums and face-to-face meetings. This helps all stakeholders to, in turn, adopt sound sustainable management practices, and better understand the importance of sustainability to the company's business and decisions.

At the physical CPhI and Fi events, an increased sustainability presence has been made to include things such as recycling points throughout the events. An effort has also been made to source more sustainable suppliers and reward sustainable exhibitor set-ups through exhibitor sustainability awards. Additionally, there are on-site supplier focus groups and meetings with the venues to encourage engagement and participation.

Another aspect of this includes venue audits for the venues that host the CPhI Worldwide and Fi Europe events in order to ensure that the impact of the events are built into the sustainability management event lifecycle. UBM Live also engages with the local communities, both on a direct basis and indirectly through the venues, to identify any issues that might impact sustainable development principles.

Ana Ignacio, of the auditing company SGS, was present at CPhI Worldwide in Frankfurt in October 2011 to observe how UBM Live Amsterdam addressed sustainability in its activities. "The results were very positive, and the company is one of the first event organisers to be internationally recognised for its sustainability credentials," she said. She further noted that, "The professionalism of the staff, the awareness of company activity impacts and the wide understanding of how sustainability can be embedded in company strategy were the strongest aspects that influenced the auditor decision. UBM Live Amsterdam has demonstrated leadership in the events industry in this area, and will have a positive impact on other organisations by raising the bar in this competitive market."

To learn more about the full portfolio of UBM Live events, please visit: http://www.ubmlive.com/events.

Note to editors:

• BS 8901 is the British Standard that has been developed specifically for the events industry, with a purpose of helping the industry to operate in a more sustainable manner. It shares many of the common management principles of other management system standards such as ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001
• With offices in the UK, Netherlands, USA, UAE and Brazil, UBM Live operates a number of market leading exhibitions, awards, websites/online products and publications in 20 different business sectors. UBM Live is part of UBM plc, a leading global media company listed on the London Stock Exchange.  See  www.ubmlive.com
• UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. See www.ubm.com

SOURCE UBM Live