Preparation of a Compendium of Good Environmental Practice for DG ECHO

“As the environmental crisis deepens, humanitarian actors, from donors to local volunteers, are faced with a collective responsibility to ensure that their work does not further contribute to deteriorating the environment people live in and rely on for their livelihoods and, ultimately, their health and well-being. This calls for taking all necessary measures to reduce the climate and environmental footprint of humanitarian aid. As a major donor of humanitarian assistance, the European Commission has a critical role to play to make change happen.”¹

In 2020, DG ECHO published its “approach to reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian aid”, environmental approach to humanitarian assistance encouraging all its partners to scale up their ambitions to improve their climate and environmental footprint and design more environmentally-sustainable interventions.

In order to do so, the sector needs to become more aware of its environmental and climate impacts, of existing tools and guidance and of the numerous good practices that have been piloted by organizations across the world.

This compendium provides examples of 12 environmentally-friendly practices that have already been successfully implemented by organizations. Their aim is to serve as an inspiration for others who are curious about what is needed technically and financially to implement different environmentally-sustainable projects and programmes. Some provide details as to how environmental issues can be mainstreamed into an existing humanitarian project, while others show how these issues can be addressed at an organizational level.

Photo: © ICRC/Alyona Synenko 

1. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/d0d3395d-1e51-11eb-b57e-01aa75ed71a1