4.1 Understanding of the organisation and its context

The organisation shall determine the external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended outcome(s) of the event sustainability management system.

REQUIREMENTS:

Clause ‘4.1 Understanding of the organisation and its context’ requires that both internal and external issues which may be relevant to the organisation’s purpose or affect its ability to meet the intended outcomes of the event sustainability management system are determined.

EDUCATION:

Consider external or internal issues that may limit the ability to do all that is necessary to manage issues at a best practice level. This could include things such as the non-existence of solutions in your region, a head office corporate policy under which you have to operate, a climate of unrest in an area which makes some aspects impossible to achieve, a requirement to have sponsors which may conflict with some of the operational sustainability ambitions, a cultural aspect which may impinge on best practice in other regions, safety concerns (such as encouraging cycling or public transport).

RELEVANT SEMS QUESTION:

PLANNING/Issue Identification: The event has a procedure to identify and document internal and external sustainability issues and evaluate their significance with respect to the activities, products and services of the event or the ability of the organisation to meet its intended outcomes.

NOTE: This question also covers Clause 4.2 and 6.1.

EXAMPLE OF EVIDENCE TEXT:

XYZ Organisation conducts thorough issues identification and diagnostic processes in order to ensure that all relevant issues pertaining to our situation are identified.

This is carried out by the [Sustainability Manager] and [members of the Greening Committee].

XYZ Organisation exists to bring a wide and varied range of arts and culture to XYZ city. This requires international artists, and as a result international travel. The nature of the event is that it has some tourism focus also. Therefore international air travel (artists) and other travel (attendees) and the associated impacts (GHGs) are unavoidable.

XYZ Organisation is held in a city (XYZ LGA) which is highly engaged with sustainability. This enables the sustainability ambitions of XYZ Organisation to occur.

XYZ Organisationl is held adjacent to XYZ Harbour in the XYZ Gardens. As such strict controls are placed on the organisation in the use of this venue.

Every three years the Artistic Director of the XYZ Organisation and periodically the Executive Director of XYZ Organisation are replaced. This requires the ongoing management team to re-engage with top management to ensure that they are focused and in support of the sustainability vision of the organisation.

The event requires that sponsorship is sought. The planned at event brand activation may in some cases be in conflict with the event’s Sustainability Vision. Compromises sometimes need to be made in order to secure ongoing sponsorship. However the sponsorship team are always aware of the vision and requirements.

Adequate resources are provided to enable the sustainability efforts to be achieved.

AUDITOR INSTRUCTIONS:

This clause requires that both internal and external issues that may be relevant to the organisation’s purpose or affect its ability to meet the intended outcomes of the event sustainability management system are determined.

This is any internal and external issue that may influence the ability of the organization to meet its sustainability goals and the auditor when undertaken the conformity assessment should consider these issues.

For example, the non-existence of solutions, a head office corporate policy under which the event has to operate, a climate of unrest in an area, a requirement to have sponsors which may conflict with some of the operational sustainability ambitions etc.

  • Interview with staff member who will explain the context to you.
  • Undertake a document review to look for documents which have described the context of the organisation and detailed external and internal issues which may affect their ability to meet the intended outcomes. This is likely to be in a policy, preamble statement to a report, or officially documented.
  • Consider your own understanding of the context in which the organisation operates and question the staff on any areas you believe may be allowing the organisation to 'opt out' of issues management by declaring it is the operating context (internal or external) that will disallow best practice.
  • Remember that in some cases international norms of behaviour may require an organisation to go over and above the destination-based 'norms' where it is seen that would not be complying with accepted sustainable development principles.

AUDIT OUTCOMES:

  • The organization has provided information about the context in which it operates which may influence the uptake of sustainable development principles and its ability to meet the intended outcomes of the management system it is implementing.