The ISO Show

Implementing an ISO can seem like a daunting task at first – There's a lot to consider! Most importantly, are you implementing the Standard for the whole business – just one location? For just one Service? In today's podcast – I'm going to share with you 'how to establish the scope of your ISO System' as it's the number one consideration when you start planning your ISO Project. This will also help to determine timescales, costs and resources needed for your ISO Project. What is the 'Scope'?... The scope of the EMS will clarify the organisational and physical boundaries to which your activities applies, particularly if the company is part of a larger organisation. Your organisation has the freedom and flexibility to define these boundaries. Your company may choose to only include a specific activity, location, product, or service delivery. How to calculate the scope… Most organisation's, particularly if they are an SME (Small and medium enterprises with less than 250 employees) will include all aspects of their business activities within the scope of their EMS, and also their scope of certification to ISO 14001. Larger organisations, or SME's across multiple locations (including international) may want to carefully consider the scope of certification as there will be additional costs and time factors to take into consideration. Why defining the scope is so Important… Once your scope has been defined within your EMS, that this is what is included in 'black and white' on your certificate. Therefore, if one of the reasons to achieve certification is to impress your stakeholders with your environmental credentials, then being fully inclusive and transparent with a wider scope covering all your company activities, services and locations will be far more credible then a restricted scope. Consider what will have the biggest impact – where you can make the biggest difference. Further Resources: We have a super useful checklist on how to plan, create, launch and implement your ISO Project so that you can successfully achieve certification. Download your FREE ISO Standards blueprint here. Pssst!... Whilst your there, you may also want to check out our membership which includes all the tutorials, check sheets, templates and training to implement ISO Standards. As a member of the isologyhub we give you all the support that you need to make your ISO Project a reality and success. In this episode I will cover: [01.55] – What is the Scope? [03.45] – How to establish your scope [05.40] – Why defining the scope is so Important [06.20] – Expanding the scope of your certification [07.40] – Further considerations We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help, and we read each one.

Today, we're joined by our resident Carbonologist David Algar to discuss SECR. What is SECR? SECR stands for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting, it stemmed from The Companies Act (2006) which was updated in 2013 to require quoted companies to report annual emissions in their directors' report. In 2018, the regulations were updated and an additional disclosure requirement for quoted companies was brought in. They now require energy use and associated GHG emissions to be reported by quoted companies, as well as by large, limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Why was it introduced? To increase awareness of a business' energy use and emissions and to encourage the introduction of initiatives to reduce energy usage. To provide organisations with the relevant data to make informed decisions. To help increase visibility to key decision makers who may not have been aware of how much carbon their organisation is producing. Provides transparency on an organisation's emissions and energy use to external stakeholders. Is it applicable to you? SECR reporting is designed to apply to all quoted companies in the UK, as well as unquoted companies and LLPs defined as 'large' under the Companies Act 2006. To be defined as 'large' under the Companies Act and therefore qualify for SECR reporting they must meet 2 or more of the following criteria: Have a turnover of £36m or more. Have a balance sheet of £18m or more. Have 250 or more employees. Who does it not apply to? Low energy users, those using less than 40MWh per year. If disclosing energy use data could inadvertently reveal sensitive information about your business, or seriously detrimental to the interests of your business. Not all public bodies are required to report. If your data would not be practical to obtain. What needs to be included? This is where it gets slightly more complex as this is where reporting guidelines specify what you must report depending on if you are a quoted company compared to a large unquoted or LLP. Similarities (what everyone needs to report): Their energy use in kWh and GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Scope 1 and scope 2 emissions you are responsible for and a subset of scope 3 emissions relating to transport. Methodologies, at least one intensity ratio and finally, everyone must report on energy efficiency improvements. Differences: A key difference between quoted companies and the other two types is that quoted companies must reference their global Scope 1 and 2 emissions they are responsible for, and what proportion of their emissions comes from international sources. For unquoted companies and LLPs there is more of a focus on Scope 3 emissions. You will need to report on the energy and emissions associated with Scope 3 transport. This mainly refers to leased road vehicles and vehicles staff own but use for business purposes (grey fleet), but also covers larger vehicles such as ships, planes and trains if you have directly paid for the fuel yourself. What are the benefits for your organisation? You would have quantified a significant proportion of your emissions, which paints a good picture of where your largest emission sources are from. You would have just taken one of the first steps towards achieving carbon neutrality. SECR also helps provide greater transparency for investors and other stakeholders. It also supports other reporting such as ESOS and the new requirement for businesses looking to obtain large government contracts to have a carbon reduction plan in place. How can Blackmores help? By quantifying your emissions for your reporting period, in the long term we can help quantify any remaining emissions that are not referred to in SECR, specifically any remaining Scope 3s We can also help provide clarity on the definitions of each scope and the subcategories within them. We have various templates that we have created and refined to help simplify the process. We can produce the SECR report, meeting all the requirements of UK Environmental Reporting Guidance, and as well as the main SECR report, we can produce the summary of your Director's Report. We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help, and we read each one. If you'd like further information on how we can help you with Carbon verification, SECR or Carbon Neutrality, check out our Carbonology Service.

A standard that seems to be growing in demand, certainly this year, is ISO 20400 which is a guidance document on sustainable procurement. However, because it's a guidance document, this means it's not a certifiable standard… But, it is useful if you are looking at your procurement, supply chain and how sustainable it is as ISO 20400 provides you with everything that you need to know on how to manage your supply chain sustainably! A little background on the standard… The standard has been around for some time, but it was a British standard (BS 8903: 2010), we've been familiar with it for a number of years, and we've aligned this standard with some of our client's environmental management systems. Why should it be something you want to consider doing? It could be beneficial for your organisation, not only from an operational point of view but also in terms of having a competitive advantage. So, let's take a look at the standard… As we know, every single organisation on the planet has an environmental, social and economic impact regardless of the size of the organisation… Therefore, this particular guidance document is applicable to ANY size organisation across ANY type of industry, because those impacts have an influence throughout the supply chain. Procurement is a powerful vehicle for organisations wishing to behave in a responsible way and contribute to the sustainable development goals. By integrating sustainability in procurement policies and practices, it helps you to be able to manage your opportunities, risks and to focus in on those sustainable, environmental, social and economic development issues. Ultimately, sustainable procurement represents a real opportunity to improve productivity, assess value and performance throughout your supply chain, enabling communication between purchase's, suppliers and all other key stakeholders and helps to encourage innovation. In this episode I will cover: [05:00] The definition of procurement and sustainable procurement within this standard. [06:16] Drivers for sustainable procurement within your organisation. [13:20] Clauses 1,2 and 3. [14:05] Clause 4- Understanding the fundamentals. [14:40] Clause 5- Integration of sustainability at a strategic level [16:06] Clause 6- Management techniques needed to successfully implement and to continually improve sustainable procurement. [17:00] Clause 7- Considerations for the integration into existing procurement processes. [19:08] The key principles of sustainable procurement. We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help, and we read each one. If you'd like to get access to further information on ISO 20400, plus many other ISO Standards, check out the isologyhub which is an online membership platform, it's a cost efficient and time effective way to implement your ISO standards and to get access to a wealth of information and guidance. There is an eLearning course you can get access to and an ISO 20400 checklist. So, if you want to find out more head over to: www.isologyhub.com

Today, we're joined by Morgan Sindall's Head of Information Security and Compliance Neil Binnie, to discuss the Information Security Standard ISO 27001. Morgan Sindall has been ahead of the curb when it comes to information security having been certified to ISO 27001 for almost 3 years, but with information breaches becoming more common it's even more vital to get ISO 27001 certified to prove you have a robust information security framework. Neil explains the importance of information security, the new cloud security standards that are coming out, and the benefits of using ISO 27001. Website: https://www.morgansindall.com/ You'll learn The importance of information security in the construction industry. The benefits of using ISO 27001 as your information security framework. How to implement ISO 27001 within your business. The recent shift in mindset around data usage. How hackers are using supply chains to attack businesses. The new standards that are coming out to tackle cloud security. Resources Blackmores Morgan Sindall Group plc In this episode, we talk about: [02:27] Why information security is so important in the construction industry. [03:34] The benefits of having the ISO 27001 framework in place. [05:28] Why supply chain security is so important. [06:20] How a construction company can help to secure their supply chain. [08:34] Neil's experience implementing ISO 27001 in Morgan Sindall. [12:43] The cloud security standards that are coming out. [14:52] The benefits of having ISO 27001 in place prior to the Covid lockdowns. [17:21] The incorrect assumptions people have about ISO 27001. [18:37] The importance of having a collaborative approach when implementing ISO 27001. If you need assistance with implementing ISO 27001 – Contact us! We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud

Today we're joined by Senior Information Security Consultant, Steve Mason to discuss how working from home has affected our online security. Remote working has become the norm during the pandemic and it's proven that it can be an effective way for people to have a good work-life balance. But with working from home comes many security risks, we need secure Wi-Fi connections, virus-free laptops, and to be working in environments where we can't be listened in to. Steve is an information security expert and as data security risks for homeworkers have shot up, he's here to explain what we can do to negate this risk. We talk about the general security risks of working remotely, and the importance of businesses taking this seriously and creating effective processes to mitigate that risk across their business... You'll learn How our approach to technology is changing. The increased security risks involved with working from home. The necessity of training your staff in home security. How to access our policy around virtual meeting room security. How to improve your home security and safety. How to reduce the chances of getting a virus or trojan. Resources Isology Hub The Virtual Meeting Room Policy – Email us for a copy! In this episode, we talk about: [02:30] The added difficulties involved with improving remote client's security. [04:06] The benefits of using company devices and the security risks of using your own device and working from home. [05:47] How to know you're using a good VPN and adequate virus protection. [06:36] Using a working from home policy and the benefits that can have. [09:30] How to monitor employee's software usage if they are working remotely. [10:50] Issues some remote workers have with backing up their documents securely. [12:17] The ways working from home affects your home insurance. [14:09] The importance of fixing all security weaknesses you become aware of. [16:56] The necessity of proper security training being given to staff working from home. [18:38] Security in virtual meeting rooms and the policy we created around that. [21:10] The main risks involved with working in public places like a coffee shop. If you need assistance with implementing ISO 27001 – Contact us!

Today, we're joined by our resident Carbonologist David Algar to discuss the seven vital steps to Carbonology. If you're looking for a sustainability roadmap for your business and looking to address the climate emergency while also meeting your stakeholders needs you're in the right place. Over the last 2 episodes Carbonoloigst David Algar and Mel have been going through ISO 14064 the Carbon Verification Standard and PAS 2060 the Carbon Neutrality Standard. Today, David and Mel will be explaining how you can meet the requirements of both standards, gain verification, and demonstrate your business as carbon neutral. That's all going to be based on our game-changing route to sustainability, Carbonology. What makes Carbonolgy unique is rather than paying lip service to the climate change emergency, Carbonolgy provides a proven methodology for sustainable success, allowing businesses to become carbon neutral and to achieve ISO standards successfully. You'll learn The seven steps of carbonology. How to achieve carbon neutrality. Why it's cheaper to reduce your emissions rather than offset them. The importance of re-quantifying carbon emissions. How to prove you've offset your emissions. How becoming carbon neutral can benefit your shareholders. Resources Carbonology In this episode, we talk about: [03:12] The seven steps of Carbonology to achieve carbon neutrality. [7:54] The different options there are to verify that you are carbon neutral. [9:07] The different areas you need to define when starting off in your Carbonology journey. [11:45] How to quantify the emissions embedded in different products that you sell. [14:22] What's included in a Carbon Footprint Management Plan. [16:50] The importance of including working from home in your scope 3 emissions. [17:57] How long a reduction period lasts and what in involves. [19:27] The benefits or re-quantification and how it works. [21:14] How offsetting works as part of Carbonology. [23:31] How making a declaration of achievement of neutrality works. If you'd like a quote for Carbonology – Contact us! We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud

Today, we're joined by our resident Carbonologist David Algar who shares with us everything he knows about the Carbon Neutrality Standard PAS 2060. Customers are demanding more environmentally friendly products and services, and to remain competitive organizations need to reduce their emissions and improve their environmental records. Having a sustainability roadmap is critical to both government and industry now and in the future. When implementing effective climate change mitigation measures the ability to differentiate between real and false claims of carbon neutrality is absolutely critical. If you're looking for a credible roadmap for your sustainability journey PAS 2060 can help you cut through the cynicism and doubt and maintain trust in your ethics to manage and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. You'll learn How to make a positive impact on the environment. Why a company can never be net carbon zero. What PAS 2060 consists of and how it helps businesses quantify and reduce emissions. How to build credibility and confidence with your shareholders. What Carbonology is and how it can help businesses become carbon neutral. Why it's so important to quantify your emissions before reducing them. Resources Blackmores – PAS 2060 In this episode, we talk about: [02:13] What PAS 2060 is and how it assists companies to become carbon neutral. [2:55] The difference between being 'net carbon zero' and 'carbon neutrality'. [3:48] The importance of quantifying and reducing your emissions. [4:18] What carbon offsetting is and how it works. [6:54] The main benefits for a business in adopting PAS 2060. [7:46] What a carbon footprint management plan is and how it can help save money. [8:50] The benefits of validating your carbon neutrality. [10:20] How Carbonology can help businesses become carbon neutral. If you need assistance with implementing PAS 2060 – Contact us! We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud

If businesses aren't talking about COVID-19, they are discussing how to become carbon neutral. To show their commitment to protecting the environment, companies are often claiming to be carbon neutral, but the issue is…where is the actual proof? Where is the credible framework that demonstrates that carbon verification? Today we're excited to share how to get started with introducing ISO 14064 (the carbon footprint verification standard). So, if you're looking for a sustainability roadmap for your business and are wondering where to begin, then you're in luck as we're going to be providing you with information on that over the next couple of podcasts! We're delighted to be joined by David Algar, our resident Carbonologist at Blackmores, over the next few podcasts as he's going to share with you information about the international standards that everybody's talking about when it comes to demonstrating your carbon neutrality. This includes ISO 14064 for carbon footprint verification and PAS 2060 on carbon neutrality. So, in this episode, let's kick off with ISO 14064 and find out what's it all about! What you'll learn: What is ISO 14064? What are upstream and downstream emissions? Certification methods Benefits of ISO 14064 How Carbonology helps meet ISO 14064 requirements ISO 14064 is a specification with guidance at the organisational level for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and their removals. So, essentially, ISO 14064 is a standard for an organisation of any type, size, quantity, or location globally to quantify its emissions of greenhouse gases, with the end product of this being the creation of a greenhouse gas inventory. Now, let's find out where we would begin with ISO 14064… In ISO 14064, the standard begins with defining the organisational boundaries and the reporting boundaries. So essentially what you're covering in your greenhouse gas inventory and what the reporting boundaries are. This will also include any exclusions you decide to make i.e. elements of your business that will not be have their associated GHGs quantified. An organisation embarking on its sustainability roadmap could carve out part of the business. So, for example by year one the UK operations, and then have a roadmap in place so that they include other locations and services as time goes on. David expands on the greenhouse gas inventory by highlighting that this is where you would document all your emission sources. So, they are divided up into scope one, scope two, and scope three sources. Scope one is the direct ones, so for example stationary or mobile combustion, or anything your organisation directly burns. Then it goes into scope two, which is your purchased energy (the electricity, steam, heating and cooling that you would use in the building that you own or lease). Finally going into scope three can be a bit more complicated. This would be your other indirect sources, upstream and downstream. For example, if you are a manufacturing company, the upstream emissions would be the emissions associated with activities, for example, before your products are delivered to your manufacturing or warehouse. So that would include the extraction of the raw materials, the processing, packaging, and then the transport and distribution. The upstream emissions associated with a vehicle, for example, include putting it in a cargo ship and shipping it across the world. So, once it leaves your warehouse or plant, it would then go off to the customer. This is where you are looking at the downstream emissions, including emissions associated with the product's use The greenhouse gas inventory does split the scopes up for you, so you don't have to worry about memorising every single little part of the scopes! It is very useful in that aspect and it lays it out in a list for you. Let's take a quick dive into the vertification options for ISO 14064… If you do decide to go for a third-party vertification from a certification board, the chances are that they're going to ask you questions on why you decided to include and exclude certain things within your greenhouse gas inventories. For example, certain operations in your business or why you have made certain exclusions. Another key element of producing greenhouse gas inventories is that you must use emission factors. These are how you quantify and convert, for example kilowatts, into tonnes of Co2 equivalent. So, the certification body may ask you why you've chosen to use a certain metric. That's why it would always be a very good idea to document these choices, as you may be asked about them. So, in essence, this provides complete transparency on your carbon emissions across the organisation because you've justified the reason for including or excluding them. Now, moving on to some of the benefits of ISO 14064… Because it's an ISO standard and internationally recognised, it provides a reliable and proven framework for quantifying your emissions. So as a result of this, this helps identify individual sources of emissions and enables you to identify the biggest source of emissions, energy usage, and vehicle usage. Therefore, you can use it to identify areas for improvement by setting targets. However, the result of going down this road is that once you've implemented those improvements, it can actually save you costs in many instances, for instance through lower energy usage. Another benefit is that it helps demonstrate your public commitment to environmental protection. This is excellent for your corporate image and CSR. Combined with third-party verification, it really does help show you are committed to environmental protection, and you're not just pursuing this activity for greenwashing purposes. It can also be a tendering requirement for a lot of new businesses as it can support a lot of governmental requirements. So, it can be a framework to help you support any mandatory reporting of emissions, such as the SECR (Streamline Energy and Carbon Reporting) and ESOS (Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme) which are requirements essentially based on quantifying emissions and energy usage. So, if you've implemented ISO 14064, you've (almost) already built that framework to help you with the data collection and data presentation that you'll need for the SECR and ESOS reporting. One thing which makes ISO 14064 very different from any of the ISO standards that we have implemented over the last 15 years at Blackmores is the fact that you don't actually get certification to this standard. It's classed as a verification, which has options for self-verification and third-party verification. There are three main tiers to it, let's find out what they are. The first tier is the self-verification method, where you essentially pour over the data yourself and decide internally within your company that you're happy to publish this publicly. Although, this is slightly less credible because your company is essentially verifying itself. The second level to that is a second-party verification, where you get an external body (such as Blackmores) to go over the data and essentially audit you on it. But what is generally regarded as the most credible is a third-party certification, the third tier. This would be done through a UKAS accredited certification body (such as BSI, or NQA). This method demonstrates confidence to all your stakeholders that the verification has been done properly because an independent third party has approved it. Unlike certificates to management system standards like ISO 14001 (where they're valid for three years). This is just valid for the period that you've actually defined within the scope. So, that could be a period of 12 months, then you would have to go through the re-verification process. We do have a podcast coming up on Carbonology which focuses on the process to meet the requirements of ISO 14064 and PAS 2060 to be carbon neutral…so, let's get a sneak peek and find out how Carbonology might help with meeting the requirements of ISO 14064. Carbonology is based on a seven-step process to help an organisation become carbon neutral. The first step of Carbonology is the Quantify stage. This is where ISO 14064 comes in because this is where you would essentially quantify and document all your greenhouse gas emission sources for scope one, two, and three. So, essentially, ISO 14064 really does form the bedrock of the Carbonology service. That's it for today, watch out for our future blogs as we'll be joining David on the next podcast where we'll be talking all about the next stage in your journey to becoming carbon neutral.

A question that we get every single time somebody asks about an ISO standard is 'how long does it take to implement an ISO', or 'how long does it take to get certified to an ISO'? In this episode, you're going to find out what you need to take into consideration when it comes to timescales for implementing and getting certified to an ISO standard. ISO 14001 (the environmental standard) will be used as an example, but don't worry -this can be applied to most other ISO standards. So, are you looking to help your business? Create a system for success? To be kind to the planet, and improve your company's brand reputation? Then we're going to be talking about realistic timescales for making this happen. If you're ready to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) to help reduce your company's damage to the climate, then you're in the right place! First and foremost, make sure you download our FREE ISO standards blueprint here. This helps you to plan, create and launch your EMS, ready for getting certified. Now, let's dive into finding out about timescales for your ISO project! What you'll learn: Timescales for your ISO project The different variables involved with an ISO project Scope of your certification The assessment processes The short and sweet answer is that most businesses take between 6 to 12 months to get certified. But it depends on the size of your organisation and the complexity of it. Let's get to know the different variables involved with this project because there is actually a way that you can implement any EMS in a much quicker timescale (we have had companies that have achieved this in less than three months!). And in fact, you can achieve this also by going to www.isologyhub.com (our new online portal), where you can go at your own pace. The main thing is to have a clear plan, which is well organised and disciplined. It's worthwhile optimising both your internal and external resources. That would include your environmental champions, or your ISO coach (if you have one) if you're looking at using the isology hub as well because that could have a detrimental impact on the timescales allowed. So, if you're wondering what you should be doing, then it's definitely worthwhile either getting help from someone that does know what they're doing or finding other people within the business who have a bit more knowledge about environmental management and ISO 14001. Now for larger organisations, it can take longer. You may take up to 12 months or even longer than that. What you need to do is consider breaking the project down into incremental phases. So, let's say you had 10 locations across the globe. You may decide to break that down into incremental phases so that you get certain locations certified in year one, and then you can have other locations included in the scope of certification in years two and three. So, don't think that you have to implement an EMS and get certified across all locations and services. You can go at your own pace. But ultimately, the scope would be for whatever you have set in your objectives for achieving implementation. What we do find is that some businesses implement an EMS across the entire organisation, but they might just get certified for a part of that business (this covered in a previous episode, where we look at assessments and getting quotes for certification as well!). Remember you can extend your scope of certification at any time. It can be revisited at the annual surveillance visits that you get. Ultimately you want to build your ambitions, your objectives, and your targets for environmental management and achieving certification into your sustainability roadmap. Now, it was mentioned earlier that you could fast-track creating an EMS, but you do need to establish a time to gather evidence and make sure that the system is working and is effective. So, when you're planning your launch just make sure that you're effectively targeting all key stakeholders (all stakeholders must be aware of this). And the general rule of thumb is to allow three months past the launch to make sure that your system is fully established because when it comes to certification, your certification body will expect to see some evidence and records. So, let's say, within your EMS you say that you have provided training for employees. You need to be able to show the evidence of that on the records and that doesn't happen overnight (obviously). So, with monitoring and measuring information on your environmental footprint, you need to allow time to do that. Ultimately what you're doing is proving that you 'walk the walk', and you will allow plenty of time to demonstrate that you're serious about reducing your company's environmental footprint. Finally, one of the things that a lot of businesses don't really take into consideration is the time allowed for the assessment. Make sure that you have briefed your employees ahead of the dates of an assessment. Essentially, ensure you consider the timescales for your stage one and stage two assessments. Let's find out what's involved in the assessment process… Typically stage one is completed first, and then stage two could be within a few weeks or up to a couple of months after. You need to manage timescales so you can go through stage two relatively quickly. You just need to allow a few days in case there are any findings and if you need to implement any corrective action! Once you've completed the assessment, you're not actually formally certified as an organisation. There's a due diligence process that takes place behind the scenes with the certification body, and it can even take several weeks before you actually get a copy of the certificate. Try and factor that into your overall planning, if you're looking at having a communications plan for celebrating your success, that's why six months is typically a good timescale. A final factor to bear in mind is that if you've already got a management system in place, you could potentially fast-track the integration of ISO 14001 if you're developing an integrated management system. Now, hopefully, that's been helpful to you for implementing an EMS and getting certified to ISO 14001. Remember the isology hub is now live, so feel free to join as a member to get access to all the support that you need on our online membership portal. It's the one and only go-to place for all things ISO. We've got video tutorials, check sheets, quick wins, and we've even got a module on timescales as part of the Planning stage. We take you through all seven stages of isology, in the isology hub. There's everything that you need in there to create, launch, and build your ISO system for success. So head over to www.isologyhub.com! And finally, don't forget your FREE ISO standards blueprint here, where we cover timescales and there's even a planner within it on timescales which you can use to get your ISO management system kick-started.

Today Mel Blackmore is joined by David Ball, the CEO and founder of Brandfuel, a leading event management company. David's here to tell us all about Brandfuel and its sustainability journey. It's an inspirational and interesting story to hear about this journey and their experience of implementing ISO 20121, the sustainable event management standards. First and foremost, let's find out more about Brandfuel! Brandfuel is a creative events agency, and they specialise in creating experiences which can be anything from very different types of virtual events, broadcast programmes, exhibitions, conferences, demos, dinners, to award ceremonies. The key thing about Brandfuel as an organisation is that they work hard with clients over a long-term period to translate their business needs and objectives into measurable results for their business. Brandfuel started with some incredible clients; David has been working with Google for the last 18 years before he even started the company. They have a phenomenally strong class of clients ranging from companies like Slack, Stripe, Snapchat, BlackRock, Barclays and Deloitte and of course, Google and YouTube. Now let's find out about David's thoughts on sustainability in the events industry… What you'll learn: Sustainability in the events industry How did Brandfuel adapt business during the pandemic? How did Brandfuel manage the transformation of physical events to virtual events? Benefits of ISO 20121 Sustainability in the events industry David believes that transport travel accounts for the majority of the carbon emissions at Brandfuel. It's almost an impossible scenario to imagine if you take the travel away in the events industry. But it has to be measured and mitigated. David is confident that there will be substantial changes following this year of very little travel. He was typically required to take an excess of 100 flights a year, and last year…he flew twice! So, that's the big elephant in the room in Brandfuel as 75% of the job is related to travel and transport in some way. However, there are some simple things that can be done to create a change. But you need your clients on board with you to make this change happen. David is happy to say that they're past what was an attitude within clients when they wanted to be seen as 'doing the right thing'. But actually, if it cost more money, they wouldn't take action. And now they are in a new realm where clients not only want to be seen doing the right thing, but they also actively want to be able to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability now and in the future, and they're willing to pay for it. So, Brandfuel seems to be heading into a very exciting journey, where sustainability is on the clients requirement list of what they want from an agency to deliver for them. So now before we dive into ISO 20121, the sustainable event management standard, let's find out how Brandfuel adapted during the pandemic. The pandemic was a major upheaval in the events industry, yet Brandfuel managed to achieve certification to ISO 20121. So, let's understand how Brandfuel made it happen. How did Brandfuel adapt business during the pandemic? David is accurate in saying it's been a quite catastrophic year! But it's also been an exciting year. The adaptation was really quick. They decided, instantaneously that switch to working online. So, they had to learn about arranging virtual events, and to become a broadcast business they had to learn every facet of broadcast as quickly as possible. They were fortunate in being agile and they were very quick to practice. David set up some vehicles to help Brandfuel achieve this. One of which was an internal brand called Fuel Studios, which was the overarching umbrella that allowed Brandfuel to play, train, learn and get as much experience in broadcast as possible within the bounds of the agency to then be able to use it for clients. They did things like turn company meetings into broadcasts and events into shows, and they started segmentizing. So, for example, they would mimic in a short video someone sharing their home with them and practice the filming, the editing and other interesting things like using triggered audio and watermarking on mobile devices to add content into video via broadcasts. So, some really clever stuff! They also arranged a 'lockdown low-down', which was getting everyone at home to video what they were up to during lockdown. The studio also learned to design three-dimensional virtual sets. They also learned about green screens, lighting, camera work, multi-camera work and camera tracking -they did everything! And it really proved so useful because within a few months, they were given an incredible opportunity with an existing client to organise the global planning summit with three and a half thousand attendees. It was super complicated, massive scale, and very quick, but it gave them a lot of confidence, and they never looked back. This really is incredible, just talk about diversification and innovation! So, moving onto 20121 then…let's find out how Brandfuel diversified in terms of the actual events that they were running, to then switch to online events via investment. How did Brandfuel manage the transformation of physical events to virtual events? David reveals that this was quite tricky! First and foremost, they needed to find a suitable set of events to be mentioned. They needed a balance of some in person and the actual event deliveries. This needed permissions from clients, and it needed a lot more planning. So, the first one they were fortunate with was the annual event for VGC partners, the world's largest electronic data brokerage. It's their charity day on September 11th and it's a recognition of all the staff that they lost in the Twin Towers tragedy. It's a very emotional and important day for them and regularly they would raise between $10 to $12 million in a day. They achieve this by having almost 100 celebrities appear on the trading floor in London, and trade with their clients over the phone. Now, to do that virtually was a challenge in itself, but David reveals that the client was willing to give it a go. Brandfuel had a big team that had to go on site and fortunately, VGC had relocated from their building. So, Brandfuel was able to use this building to social distance and managed to bring celebrities in virtually to have video conversations with BDCs clients who were also virtual. This gave them access to talent that they never got physically. They had Kelly Osborne attend virtually, along with famous cricketers and golfers. So, it was very different, and it worked really well as they raised phenomenal $10 million, with only 25 celebrities! So, now that Brandfuel is certified to ISO 20121, let's find out what David identifies as some of the benefits of this standard... Benefits of ISO 20121 Well, David believes that the benefits are huge! He identifies the obvious benefit to be that they are now commercially classified as being an agency that can be trusted to work to the highest standards in sustainability This is helpful for them as David believes this is going to be one of the biggest buying signals and cues that clients will show in the future. The other key thing for Brandfuel now is management systems; their internal management systems have improved so much. That gives them an incredibly strong platform to build on and to keep building. David believes that ISO certification comes down to focus and to allocate the right amount of resources internally. It is a time commitment and resource commitment, but when you manage this and really stand behind as a business, it runs incredibly smoothly. Brandfuel has successfully brought ISO standards into its DNA because it's part of the fuelling station, which in effect is their 'go-to' place within the business; it's their intranet. The fuelling station as their intranet has been incredibly important currently as they're all working from home. So, they made sure that all those management systems were fully integrated into new processes, and this meant being fully integrated into their communication processes. Their fuelling station was the centre of that, so they can really use it as a resource. Brandfuel are also currently in the process of implementing ISO 27001 Blackmores. The ISO 27001 progress is going really well, and straight after that they're going to implement the Health & Safety, ISO 45001 standard. This will open new sectors and new opportunities for Branfuel commercially. That's it from David! We hope you've enjoyed getting to know his journey and inspirational stories.