Aztec Event Services is embarking on a 12 month journey to multiple International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications with the help of ESSA, and the ESSA Extra consultancy service, and is aiming for compliance with four ISO standards, 9001, 20121, 14001, and OHSAS 18001 by the final quarter of 2014.

These four standards will serve to strengthen and deepen Aztec’s existing commitments to total customer satisfaction, health and safety, sustainability and environmental management. The initial period of face to face gap analysis revealed many of Aztec’s processes were already consistent with the standards. Aztec will be working with the ESSA Extra consultancy service over the next year to formalise, develop and map its processes across to the criteria of the relevant management standards.

Aztec chose these four international standards as part of its policy of continuous improvement; ISO 9001 governs quality assurance and will give Aztec the opportunity to refine and improve their customer service; ISO 20121 is an event industry specific standard governing event sustainability, and ISO 14001 is a more general standard for environmental management. Attaining these standards will help Aztec formalise and demonstrate its commitment to sustainable and environmental practices. Aztec places a high priority on health and safety and thus ISO 18001, the world’s most recognized occupational health and safety management systems standard, was a natural choice.

John Robson, Aztec’s managing director, expressed his enthusiasm at the start of this certification process, “We’ve worked very hard to improve and refine our business processes, with great success, but working with ESSA Extra consultancy service has helped us select four international standards and to create a feasible routemap to successful certification.”