Canadian pride in our “green Olympics” is about to be translated into a standard for sustainable events: Z2010. The Canadian Standards Association worked unofficially with VANOC’s Corporate Sustainability Office to develop the standard in record time, and to learn from its experience in putting on the Vancouver Olympics.
VANOC developed an impressive Sustainability Management and Reporting System, a first for the Olympics/ ParaOlympic games. It integrated components from several international standards, including the AA1000 standard on public engagement; an environmental management system based on ISO 14001; and the Global Reporting Initiative for performance reporting on environmental, social and economic issues. VANOC’s final report on the success of its sustainable event will be released later this year. Even the gold, silver and bronze medals contained precious metals recovered from discarded electronics.
The CSA Sustainable Sport and Event Toolkit builds on this foundation. It has been designed for events of all sizes, from large sporting events, such as Toronto’s 2015 Pan Am Games, to concerts, conferences and green weddings. It is organized into eight main chapters, addressing economic, social and environmental sustainability. Key issues include food, energy, transportation, accommodation, site selection, communications, education and engagement. For transparency, sustainability objectives and performance indicators should be available to the public. The Global Reporting Initiative will release related guidance, on how to report on sustainable events, within two years.
Z2010 will be released to the public soon, and should quickly become a benchmark for any event claiming to be “green”. If you go to an event, ask for it.
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One big question here is how much the standard allows people to use offsets in place of real emissions reductions. Many offsets are profoundly dubious, such as those relating to trees that cannot be guaranteed to exist indefinitely or gases like HFC-23 which allow for abuse of carbon trading systems.
Organizations that claim they are doing something in a carbon neutral way just because they purchase some cheap offsets somewhere are very often just greenwashing.
How can an event based on jetting in thousands of people from all over the globe, and using a huge fleet of SUV's to move people around the region, be considered 'green'?
You should also be aware of the evolution of British Standard 8901 for sustainable event management into ISO 20121. Paralleling the Canadian standard Olympian impetus, this standard was crafted for the London 2012 Olympics, but is now in the process of becoming an international (ISO) standard. Canada is a participating member of that process through the Canadian Standards Association. Another thing to monitor is the creation, currently in process, of a GRI reporting template for the event sector. This is also an internationally-based process, and you can find information on it here: http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework…
Sustainability is not just "green" but also needs to take into account economic and social sustainability…the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.
Thank you, Elizabeth. Great point.