Environmental Responsibility
At People in Need, we recognise that our work not only makes a positive difference in people's lives, but it also impacts the environment. The transportation of goods and employees generates greenhouse gases, using fossil fuels contributes to air pollution, packaging our aid produces waste, and the goods we purchase carry an ecological footprint.
While we cannot altogether eliminate these impacts, our teams worldwide are working to maximise environmental sustainability in our operations and project activities. We are committed to embedding environmental protection across all our programming and have policies and procedures that help us do so. This includes our Environmental and Social Management System and Environmental Policy. We prepared a Greening Report to be transparent about our progress—highlighting both what has worked and where challenges remain—and to help others learn from our experience.
Beyond this report, we share our greening know-how in different ways: through open webinars attended by NGOs worldwide, by publishing practical guides and tools on our platform Civil Society Now, and by offering training and advice to our local partners. By sharing our results and expertise, we make it easier for others to start or accelerate their own greening journey.
How we reduce our environmental footprint
Organisations can take hundreds of measures to make their operations and project activities more environmentally conscious. At the same time, they must often balance numerous priorities with limited time and resources. "That is why we decided to prioritise and to focus on solutions that have the greatest impact on reducing our environmental footprint," explains our Environment and Climate Advisor, Petr Schmied. Among our key priorities are:
- assessing project activities for environmental risks and introducing mitigation measures
- making travel more sustainable
- prioritising the purchase of more eco-friendly goods and services
- using energy more efficiently
- switching to renewable sources of energy
- producing less waste and managing it better
- saving water
Please browse our photo gallery showing some of the concrete measures we adopted abroad and in the Czech Republic.
Our Specific Environmental Measures
Supporting Our Partners in Greening Operations
Strengthening the capacities of local civil society organisations is among our key priorities. A part of this commitment is helping to ensure that their operations, such as managing offices, transportation, and procurement have a less negative impact on the natural environment and the people who depend on it. Our approach to supporting partners includes offering practical guides and tools, organising thematic webinars, helping partners develop their greening work plans, and offering financial and technical support to implement their environmental measures.
Impact matters
Our goal is not merely to implement greening measures but to ensure that these actions lead to tangible and meaningful outcomes. That is why we focus on developing internal systems that help us understand what our greening efforts have achieved. These include:
- measuring the carbon footprint of our humanitarian and development operations using the Humanitarian Carbon Calculator
- using environmental indicators focusing on assessing changes in our priority areas, such as fuel efficiency of our vehicles, use of renewable energy, and improved waste management
- assessing the return on investment and savings generated by the implemented measures
Explore the stories of our greening efforts:
