USGBC Conferences & Events Team First in U.S. to Receive Certification for Sustainable Event Management

Washington, DC – (March 19, 2009) U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Conferences and Events team today announced certification under BS 8901:2007, the new British standard for planning and managing sustainable events. USGBC is the first organization in North America to receive certification for its Conferences and Events Team under BS 8901:2007, the world’s first certifiable sustainability management system standard for the events industry.

Each year, the USGBC Conferences & Events Team is responsible for over 100 events including the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, as well as the USGBC Federal Summit, various roundtables and Member Circle events. The third-party verification that is part of the certification process was done by Sustainable Event Certification and included on-site auditing at the Greenbuild 2008 in Boston, Mass. This year’s show will take place November 11-13, 2009 in Phoenix, Ariz.

“At each Greenbuild, our Conferences and Events team works closely with our vendors, host communities, exhibitors and attendees to cut down on natural resource use and reduce carbon emissions, while gaining feedback about ways to continuously improve the show,” said Kimberly Lewis, Vice President of Conferences and Events, USGBC. “Certification under the British standard validates our processing, execution and post-event monitoring and incentivizes us to continue to transform the global meetings industry.”

BS 8901 provides a robust framework through which event organizers, suppliers to the events industry and events themselves can demonstrate their commitment to a more sustainable future and requires organizations to aspire to continually improve their sustainability performance in relation to the management of events. BS 8901 shares common management system principles and processes with the ISO 9001 standard on Quality Management and the ISO 14001 standard on Environmental Management.