Owen Brown and Snowdens committed in March 2011 that they would work towards achieving this certificate and set themselves 12 months to achieve certification.
Over the past year they have been working to improve their transportation procedures and as such has already reduced their carbon footprint by 13.5 tons. They have been monitoring their recycling rate and despite already achieving an above average 92% they will be working to introduce even more initiatives across their business to help them improve this figure further. The business has also developed a sustainable procurement policy and has begun to build a preferred supplier list that not only addresses their business needs but encompasses sustainability as part of the assessment criterion.
Simon Wood, Operations Director and BS 8901 leader remarks “Anyone that believes obtaining certification is easy is mistaken; a tremendous amount of effort has been required. The standard asks that you look at your complete business and its practices; no stone is left unturned of unaffected by BS8901. We hope that our clients and the industry now see our compliance and commitment to sustainability.”
Olivier Hohn, Managing Director of the GL events Grandstand and Tribune Division echoes Simon’s comments “It is imperative that GL events as a World leader, leads the field in event sustainability. I am sure that it goes without saying that our involvement in the London Olympics this year prompted us to look at the BS 8901 certificate however Owen Brown has submerged themselves in this standard and I truly believe the business is better for it. I am pleased that Owen Brown is the first GL events company to achieve a sustainable certificate and the team will now be working with the other divisions to help them follow suit.”
Simon goes on to say that the next challenge for Owen Brown will be to convert to ISO 2012 1 during the summer when the standard is launched. “There will be some additional effort by the team in order to convert to the ISO standard, but we are looking forward to taking this challenge on. And are confident we can achieve the international standard”
