RISE, FRA, ARK achieve ISO 20121 certification for event sustainability

    CHARLOTTE, NC, June 06, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- RISE, FRA, and ARK are proud to announce that they have achieved ISO 20121 certification, the international standard for event sustainability.

ISO 20121 outlines principles and practices to help organizations plan, execute, and assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts at their events. It assesses the way sustainability is integrated into key decisions at every step of event planning and staging. The certification emphasizes reducing negative impacts, enhancing positive ones, and promoting sustainability throughout the event lifecycle.

RISE, FRA, and ARK are brands that were acquired in 2015 by Wilmington plc, a UK-based provider of governance, risk, and compliance solutions. RISE produces live events for the health care industry. Foundation Research Associates (FRA) offers conferences for finance, law enforcement, government, and compliance industries, and ARK serves the legal industry. The three brands produce 50 to 60 conferences each year.

Sustainability is a key focus area for Wilmington plc and all its brands, making sure to engage with venues that are equally committed to sustainability, looking to reduce waste and encourage recycling, contributing to the community, and addressing the accessibility needs of attendees, among many other sustainability issues.

Bethan Cater, director of internal compliance for Wilmington plc, said the organization's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy focuses on four pillars: cultural positivity, environmental responsibility, proactive assurance, and customer empowerment. The events produced by RISE, FRA, and ARK cover all four, she said. "Our ESG focus is on organizations across all our companies and jurisdictions, and it's been great to be involved with this project where we are embedding these pillars in the products and services that we offer to our wider audience and customers," Cater said.

The certification was complete with no audit findings, a significant achievement, noted Ellen Wofford, cofounder and managing director of RISE, FRA, and ARK. The stamp of approval is a differentiator in the industry as none of the competitors across all three brands have ISO 20121 certification.

"It makes us very unique," Wofford said. "Just as ESG strategy is essential to the strategy of the plc, ESG strategy is essential to all our customers."

About RISE

RISE is an organization created on the foundation of connecting health care professionals with guidance, continuing education opportunities, and each other. Our customers are established and emerging leaders that work for health plans, provider organizations, government agencies, health care technology brands, consulting and service vendors, and community-based organizations. Our mission is to make meaningful impact on the health care industry by bringing together like-minded professionals for learning, networking, and innovating. We produce best-in-class conference experiences that bring together health care professionals inspired to elevate the quality of the health care industry and advance their careers.

About FRA

Foundation Research Associates (FRA) is the preferred resource for professionals seeking cutting-edge information on the next wave of business opportunities in the areas of finance, law enforcement, government, and compliance. FRA produces more than 20 conferences annually, featuring forward-focused agendas and unparalleled peer-to-peer exchange with thousands of executives from mid- to senior-level executives and the C-suite. Our team of subject matter experts is often first to market with emerging topics, and we pride ourselves on consistently delivering on top-quality operations and logistics to produce a seamless event.

About ARK
ARK Group is the preferred resource for law firm professionals seeking cutting-edge information to stay ahead and advance their career. We produce virtual and in-person events featuring forward-focused agendas and unparalleled peer-to-peer exchange around the practice and business of law. Our team of subject matter experts is often first to market with emerging topics and we pride ourselves on consistently delivering on top-quality operations and logistics to produce a seamless event. Our mission is to help law firm professionals and organizations work more intelligently by delivering reliable information and techniques that can be used to benchmark, instigate, develop, and improve fundamental business processes. We transform knowledge into advantage by providing best-in-class information on emerging topics, offering only the highest quality and most relevant content, and creating buzzworthy networking opportunities.

About Wilmington plc
We help customers to navigate the ever-evolving regulatory landscape. The brands within our two divisions provide customers with a complementary range of information, data, training and education solutions that support them to respond to emerging areas of risk and the evolving role of compliance. Our customers come to Wilmington for mission critical insight on the regulations that affect them but also for complementary training that helps them to embed a culture of business conduct that is compliant with those regulations.

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