Summary
Meeting minutes reflect the HNPW Green Procurement conference held on April 25, 2023, focused on innovative approaches to reduce emissions and waste. Key outcomes included enhanced eco-design, improved packaging, and collaborative strategies among humanitarian organizations for sustainability.
Content
The use of research and lifecycle assessments has provided data to humanitarians on some of the negative impacts of humanitarian action on the environment, in the form of waste creation (such as single use plastics and packaging) as well as carbon emissions. To reduce these impacts and curb the unintended negative effects of humanitarian response on the communities we aim to serve, the humanitarian community is taking action and innovating items to reduce their carbon footprint and waste. During this session, members from the humanitarian community came together to discuss some of the recent innovations, with examples, and lessons learned by trying to change item specifications to be more environmentally sustainable but also ridged enough to withstand the harsh environments in which humanitarians frequently operate. Panellists from: UNHRD, UNHCR, KLU, ICRC.