BS 8900-1 Managing Sustainable Development of Organizations

BS 8900 is the first part of a standard on managing sustainable development. It provides a framework for embedding a systematic approach to sustainability into an organization’s everyday practices and decision making.

Who is this standard for?

• Any organization large or small interested in sustainable development
• Senior management and sustainability directors
• Sustainability consultants and agencies
• Environmental, waste management and quality managers

Why should you use this standard?

It provides clear and practical guidance to support the growing call for cost-efficient and effective integration of sustainable development into commercial and non-commercial organizations. It is also increasingly recognized that building confidence in processes and sustainable outcomes is an important part of valuable and continuing stakeholder engagement.

BS 8900-1 offers a maturity matrix as a way of assessing progress, clarifying next steps and combining the principles underpinning the management of sustainable development with practical implementation.

This is the second part of the British Standard on how to cost-efficiently and effectively integrate sustainable development into the management of commercial and non-commercial organizations. This part will be used to embed the principles set out in Part 1, thus helping organizations to plot and follow their own sustainable development pathway.

For the first time businesses no matter what size or sector, can be assessed. By using the requirements set out in BS 8900-2 companies can demonstrate that they have taken a genuine and effective approach to address sustainable development in line with the BS 8900-1.

BS 8900 reflects the latest practices in sustainability management and is designed to help organizations establish an approach to sustainable development that will enable them to evolve and adapt to meet new and continuing challenges and demands.