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BSI British Standards Case Study
BS 8909:2011 – Specification for a sustainability management system for film
The British Film Institute (BFI) uses BS 8909 to
address sustainability in its role of film exhibitor
At a glance…
• The British Film Institute (BFI)
supports the UK film industry, from
funding and development through
to distribution and archiving. From
April 1st 2011, BFI took on the
majority of the activities of the UK
Film Council and became the lead
body for film in the UK.
• Commensurate with that position,
BFI feels it is imperative that it
leads the way on sustainability for
the UK industry, building on its
existing sustainability credentials
by adopting formally-recognized
best practice.
• BFI therefore got involved in
the process of trialling BS 8909,
the new British Standard for
sustainability in film. The trial
focused on BFI’s work as a
film exhibitor.
• As a result of participating in the
trial, BFI aims to undertake a full
implementation of BS 8909 and
to seek third-party certification
to the standard.
“British Standard 8909 will
provide the framework for BFI to
manage our environmental, social
and economic impacts on an
ongoing basis. BS 8909 is a
cutting edge sustainability tool
that the British film industry
should be proud of and embrace
to maintain a healthy and
competitive film industry.”
Amanda Nevill
Director, British Film
Institute
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BSI British Standards Case Study
How BS 8909 works
• The standard works by asking
organizations to state what
they want to accomplish within
their organization in terms of
sustainability and to describe
what they will do to achieve
their aims.
• Organizations then implement
their plans and review actual
performance against their initial
objectives, which must take
social, economic and
environmental issues into account.
• Accurate records are kept
throughout so that results can
be reviewed and improved on
in the future.
• Historically this Plan-Do-Check-
Act cycle has proved an effective
way of ‘holding’ organizations
to their stated course. It has
produced significant results for
hundreds of thousands of
organizations using other
management systems standards
such as ISO 9001 for quality
management, and ISO 14001
for environmental management.
Getting to grips with BS 8909
For the purposes of the trial, the
management system would cover only BFI’s
exhibitor activities. In this respect, BFI runs
two venues: BFI Southbank (formerly the
National Film Theatre) and BFI IMAX.
The former shows over 1,000 films a year;
the latter is one of the top three most
commercially successful cinema screens
in the world.
Exhibitor activities cover a range of tasks that
include researching the availability of films,
and shipping, storing, screening and
returning films to source. It also includes
elements of ‘front of house’ such as the
bar, restaurant, café facilities and shop.
BFI felt that the standard would help it
extend the work already underway on
reducing carbon and provide a holistic
framework for capturing and managing
wider sustainability impacts. In addition
BS 8909 would provide a business case
for an organization-wide approach to
sustainability and enable senior management
buy-in that would in turn allow for proper
investment in sustainable solutions.
Duncan McKeich, BFI’s Facilities Manager
took on the role of Sustainability Manager for
the trial, with Eddie Berg, the Artistic Director
of BFI Southbank assuming the position of
Project Leader.
Putting BS 8909 in place
BFI began by deciding to focus its
implementation around the creation of
a new Sustainability Committee. This would
meet quarterly with a chair from senior
management (likely to be the Director of
BFI – Amanda Nevill) and representatives
from all departments.
HSE Manager Frank Horn would draft
BFI’s statement of purpose and values for
circulation among stakeholders and for sign
off by the Director and Board of Governors.
He would also develop BFI’s sustainability
policy for approval by the Sustainability
Committee and for circulation to stakeholders
for comment and review. This would ensure
‘buy in’, support and an opportunity to
capture views from all stakeholders.
Thereafter the Sustainability Committee
would develop a list of BFI’s sustainability
issues and engage with stakeholders to
prioritize them. The Sustainability Manager
would identify the stakeholder groups and the
most appropriate ways to engage with them.
Next the Sustainability Committee would
develop objectives, targets and plans,
ensuring that targets were challenging but
achievable. In the first instance BFI would be
likely to focus on energy, water use, waste
minimization and health and safety issues.
The standard also calls for users to consider
what they would do when activities, products
or services change unexpectedly. BFI felt this
What is ‘sustainability’?
BS 8909 uses the most widely adopted
definition of sustainability, that of the
World Commission on Environment and
Development. It says that “sustainable
development is meeting the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”.
In practice, sustainable behaviour takes three
areas into consideration: social, financial and
environmental. To improve their sustainability,
organizations must safeguard social and
economic resources and must not take more
out of the planet than the planet can renew.
Why sustainability in the film
industry?
Film is one of the most influential media
on the planet. In sustainability terms, this
influence carries both risk and a significant
opportunity to improve.
Aside from the moral imperative, sustainability
influences all the levers that organizations use
to create value: from helping recruit and
retain staff to brand building. Crucially, there's
also money to be saved from better resource
and energy use. Exemplary sustainability
performance leads to recognition from peers,
audiences, investors, stakeholders and NGOs.
It reduces reputational risk and enhances
competitiveness. It helps organizations get
on top of existing regulatory requirements
and ahead of future legislation.
There is also a clear correlation between
sustainability performance and profitability.
Using the well-respected MSCI World Index¹,
analysis shows that companies which
improved their sustainability performance
between 2006 and 2008 financially outperformed
their peers in 2008/9 by more
than 11 per cent².
¹ Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index ² http://greeneconomypost.com/global-1000-sustainable-performance-leaders-11432.htm

was useful – it noted that in the film industry,
technology is always changing. For instance
the move from film to digital raises a number
of sustainability issues, e.g. digital cinema
projectors are more sensitive and require
additional cooling. Staff can also change –
and at short notice – so it is necessary to
build in resilience by sharing information
and storing it appropriately.
BFI then mapped its current level of
sustainable development on the Maturity
Matrix in the standard’s Annex. This provides
a way to benchmark organizational
improvement over time. BFI also decided that
day-to-day development and implementation
of procedures would be the responsibility of
the Sustainability Manager, and that ultimate
responsibility for the sustainability performance
of BFI belonged with the Director.
Operational control of the management
system would be achieved through
procedures implemented by the Sustainability
Manager, and these would be appropriate
to the user. For instance, a procedure for
projectionists to minimize energy use could
be ‘Do not switch on air conditioning until
one hour before the first show.’
Sustainability responsibilities would be built
into job descriptions and appraisals, but BFI
would look to have a collaborative rather
than an adversarial approach to ‘non
conformance’. Therefore, stakeholder
engagement (with the projectionists in this
case) would identify what support would be
required to keep targets on track – e.g. should
a light be installed to let the projectionist
know when the air conditioning is on / off?
Reflections on the BS 8909 trial
Duncan McKeich found the standard to be
less than clear in some areas and overlong
in others but appreciated that this is because
BS 8909 is written in accordance with the
structure and language of an international
standard. BSI is already working to address
clarity by preparing explanatory guidance.
Notwithstanding, McKeich also commented
that the trial had helped him understand that
implementing BS 8909 “isn’t as onerous as
I had initially thought.” He concluded that
the standard would certainly help provide
a framework for capturing and managing
BFI’s sustainability impacts.
In fact, BFI has already worked on reducing
carbon and has lowered its emissions at BFI
Southbank by 5 per cent since the start of
2010. This was done through a combination
of replacing equipment, reviewing HVAC
systems and changing behaviours. BFI is
currently reviewing its lighting systems.
However as BFI Director Amanda Nevill notes,
“We recognize that we are only at the start
of the sustainability journey.” To date these
efforts hadn’t been put into a context with
other sustainable development issues, and
other sustainability areas still hadn’t been
tackled – specifically waste.
A strength of BS 8909 is that it brings
all activity into a holistic, organizational
approach. As McKeich puts it, “Sustainability
needs to be considered in a similar way to
Health & Safety, that is, as basic good
practice, integrated into all organizational
decision making.”
As a result of its involvement in the trial,
BFI now aims to fully implement BS 8909 to
manage its sustainability impacts. Also, given
that the UK film industry will expect BFI to
lead by example, it intends to demonstrate
its conformity to the standard by getting a
third-party verification in due course. As part
of the BFI’s new, wider remit, it is expected
that BFI will review linking film funding with
commitment to sustainability, in which case
BS 8909 will prove an invaluable support to
the film industry.
“If the UK film industry can
become a leader in sustainability
then we will have a real
competitive advantage
internationally for years
to come.”
John Woodward,
Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film
Council, May 2010

About BS 8909
BS 8909 sets out the requirements to enable users to implement and run a system that manages their environmental, social and financial
risks and impacts. BS 8909 was initiated by the UK Film Council under the auspices of BSI. The standard was developed by a committee with
representation from across the film industry (production, distribution, exhibition, facilities, sales, archive, trades unions) and sustainability
expertise. A wide range of industry bodies was invited to comment on the draft before it was published.
BS 8909 can help organizations to:
• take stock of their environmental impacts such as carbon footprint, waste management, and effects on biodiversity; social impacts such
as community involvement and fair employment; and economic impacts such as local investment and long-term viability
• meet legal requirements
• plan more effectively and use resources more efficiently
• improve and demonstrate improved sustainability performance within available budgets.
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development of sustainability standards. To learn more, please visit www.bsigroup.com.
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please visit www.bsigroup.com.
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offering environmental management, CSR strategy & reporting, renewable
energy and funding solutions.
This case study was enabled by the Department for Business, Innovation and
Skills as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting innovation in the UK.
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