The business’ Live teams share how they’re working to achieve this

Haymarket is working hard to ensure it is socially and environmentally responsible business and is committed to driving the meaningful change necessary to build a better world. The media company’s approach is based on the three pillars of economic, environmental and social sustainability. 

Part of this commitment is ensuring that Haymarket’s Live portfolio is as sustainable as possible. 

Over the past few months, Event teams in Haymarket Business Media (HBM) and UK Procurement colleagues have been working tirelessly to provide the best-in-class sustainable event management services to its audiences and clients. 

While there has been a wealth of activity happening, one key aspect has been working towards achieving the Sustainable Events Standard, ISO 20121.

What is ISO 20121?

ISO is the International Organisation for Standardisation. ISO 20121 is the accepted standard worldwide for any business wanting their Live events of any kind to be truly sustainable. The accreditation offers guidance and best practice to help manage events and control their social, economic and environmental impact. 

The standard has been developed with input from many different stakeholders, including representatives from the event industry, to make it practical and useful. It addresses all stages of an event’s supply chain, and includes monitoring and measuring guidelines. 

How is Haymarket implementing this?

A core group of colleagues have been working with an external ISO consultancy, Blackmores, since July and we are aiming to apply for the ISO certification in March 2023. 

Their focus has been to build the Sustainable Events Management System (SEMS), which will house all of the processes and procedures necessary to prove compliance with the standard, and to identify which events will be in the initial scope. 

Five sustainability principles have also been established in the build of our SEMS – Reduction, Inclusion, Transparency, Ethics and Value – to ensure we are delivering on these throughout the process. 

For the first certification, HBM is focusing on one conference, Campaign TV Advertising Summit, in February, and one awards, Campaign Agency of the Year Awards, in March. Once they have experienced the whole process and receive certification, more events will be added into the scope over the coming months. 

SEMS awareness training is also currently underway in HBM’s Live Academy and last week, the entire live team received a short survey asking them to rate how mature Haymarket’s Live events are when it comes to sustainability. Once the results are in, these will help inform a programme of continuous improvement in order to deliver on the business’ commitments in the new year. 

Who are the key people involved?

Led by Procurement Executive, Natalie Harris, the core team are David Monaghan, Marchella Mitchell and Marija Cvetkovic for conferences, and Helen Horton and Monika Raithel on the awards side. Donna Murphy and Gary Charlton continue to be heavily involved in the project, as are Emily Pearce in Facilities and Trevor Simpson in Production. 

Donna Murphy, Deputy Managing Director, HBM said: “In HBM we are genuinely committed to sustainability across our business and our Live portfolio is crucial to that. Not only is it the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. We are beginning to make significant progress towards realising our Live sustainability ambitions, but there is still much to do. Luckily we have a great team making it happen and I am looking forward to working closely with all our Live colleagues to ensure 2023 is a profitable and sustainable year for our forums, awards, conferences and exhibitions.”

David Monaghan, Director of Events (conferences and exhibitions), said: “It’s great to see that we are well on the way to achieving ISO 20121 accreditation on this first event in February. Marija and her team have done a great job creating a sustainable events management system virtually from scratch and anyone who has been involved with a process like this will know just how much work goes into it. Getting the accreditation will be a big step forward for Haymarket as more and more of our association partners, commercial clients and delegates want to know that the events they are involved with are run as sustainably as possible.”

Helen Horton, Director of Events (awards and forums), added: “As a team we are taking sustainability seriously and have already started working with ISLA and Trace on a number of our events, so working towards getting the ISO 20121 accreditation for Campaign Agency of the Year is a natural extension to this commitment. Monika has worked so hard to ensure we are on track for our March event and I am already excited to see everything that the new year brings for us, especially the outcome of Campaign’s Agency of the Year Awards.” 

What’s next?

Haymarket is also measuring direct emissions for events using an industry-recognised  carbon measurement calculator. The results for the first two are in – C&IT’s Sustainability Forum and Campaign’s Ad Net Zero Awards – and the business plans to measure many more in the coming months.

Haymarket’s Sustainable Events & Development Policy can be found here and its Statement of Purpose, Values and Principles can be accessed here.

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About Haymarket Media Group

Haymarket Media Group is a privately-owned media, data and information company, providing remarkable content to specialist audiences across the world. The company has 1,300 employees across offices in the UK, US, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Germany. Haymarket’s portfolio consists of more than 70 market-leading brands including What Car?, Campaign, PRWeek,  MyCME and Asian Investor.

Through live, digital, print, education, data, tech services, video and audio, Haymarket’s brands inspire, inform and empower clients and communities internationally.

Shaping a better future with remarkable content.

www.haymarket.com

Media Enquiries:

Tara Geoghegan, Impact & Communications Manager, Haymarket Media Group 

communications@haymarket.com