Sustainability ( British Standards Institute definition):
'An enduring, balanced approach to economic activity, environmental responsibility and social progress'.

Since MS Life 2008, the MS Society has continued to work towards greater sustainability in our events. Working with a sustainable event management agency, Seventeen Events,  we devised systems and procedures to ensure that the events we organised were as sustainable as possible. The ultimate aim was to make all MS Society conferences compliant to BS8901, the new British Standard for sustainable event management.

BS8901 is a management system which benchmarks and assesses sustainability in events. It is a self-certified standard. Working towards compliance took a lot of work and commitment from every level of the organisation. Our hard work has been rewarded at the 2008 AGM, which was the first event we ran fully in compliance to the standard. Our work has been assessed and checked by our advisors, who claim 2nd party verification that the event was sustainable. Once the certification process comes online in Spring 2009, we intend to be formally certified as compliant to the standard.

What does this all mean for our delegates, suppliers, contractors and venues? We hope that they will help us in our journey towards greater sustainability. We aim to work with all our stakeholders to build partnerships which ensure that our work is being supported.

If you would like more information about our sustainable approach to managing our events, feel free to contact the Conference Team. We look forward to working with all our suppliers and stakeholders to continue outstanding events which are BS8901 compliant, and as sustainable as possible.

View a list of our events that have been managed in compliance to BS 8901.

View information from Seventeen Events, our advisors, or the British Standards Institute for more information on the standard.