Meeting Professionals International held the first event to be certified as being in compliance with the British Standards Institution’s BS 8901, a standard for sustainable events developed as a guide for planning the 2012 Olympic Games.

MPI’s European Meetings and Events Conference, which drew 750 delegates to ExCel London last April, has been certified in each of the three phases of BS 8901: planning pre-event, implementation during the event, and review post-event. MPI worked with Organize This, a Manchester, England–based event management company, to plan the meeting.

The BS 8901 standard, available online through BSI, provides a framework for planning and managing events in a way that considers the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the meeting. It was officially launched in November 2007, and MPI is the first organization to have an event certified in the process.

MPI has been involved in refining the BS 8901 standard and making it applicable to the meetings industry. The standard has been supported in part by the MPI Foundation and The Rezidor Hotel Group. BSI is attempting to gain international recognition for the standard under the International Standard Organization.