Winners of the 2008 Climate Change Challenge Awards
Carbon Emission Reductions Award
Our offices and regions reducing carbon emissions from our business operations
Winner: "Online Onboarding
Staff members from our Human Resources Department at headquarters propose to reduce IFC's carbon footprint by replacing selected meetings that require travel, such as onboarding activities, with online meetings. The program will be built with lessons learned from headquarters staff that have been experimenting with web-conferencing technologies; three regions (Latin America and Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia and the Pacific) have held quarterly meetings via web conference instead of new staff traveling. The reduction in carbon emissions will come from eliminating business travel and paper use for these online meetings.
Runner-up (tie): "Flexwork"
Based on a year of combined research of the Flexwork Sub-Group of the Woman's Network and the Staff Association Family Issue Working Group, IFC colleagues at headquarters propose to expand the use of Flexwork (e.g. working one day from home) to reduce staff commuting and shrink IFC's carbon footprint. They have created a web-based toolkit including an overview of the types of flexible work arrangements, the business case for flexible work, and guidance for preparing flexible work proposals. The proposed follow-up activities include roll-out and training on the toolkit (e.g. development of Webinars, video conference), follow-up and monitoring of the uptake of flexwork at IFC.
Runner-up (tie): "Sun Power"
Energy consumption can be reduced by harnessing natural light. The idea, based on experience with European offices' high energy savings initiatives, is to purchase and install highly reflective metallic shades for the Mexico City office. By simply arranging these shades so that the curve is facing upward and reflects the sunlight upward toward the white walls and ceilings, the sun can generate a large amount of natural light, and thus reduce the need for lamps and energy use.
Climate Change Education in our Communities
Our staff educating and engaging local communities where we have offices on climate change concerns and solutions
Winner: "Jatras - A Drama on Climate Change"
Bangladesh has a rich tradition of using drama for education and news, including traveling drama shows called "jatras." Staff from our Dhaka office propose to use this platform — jatras — to educate university students on climate change challenges for Bangladesh and the role of young people in addressing these challenges. They plan to create and perform a dramatic show on climate change that will reach out to university students — their target audience — but also reach the general public with invitations extended to IFC's private sector clients.
Runner-up: "Egypt's First Eco-Friendly Office Towers"
Building on a 2008 Earth Day awareness raising event, IFC Cairo staff members are helping launch a "footprint" program for their office complex, the Nile Office Towers (NCT) which houses several major private companies. This initiative aims to make the NCT Egypt's first eco-friendly office towers.
The program has two main components:
- awareness raising activities (events, movie screenings, annual footprint awards)
- recycling program (expand IFC's existing paper recycling program with local NGO, APE, to include NCT Management and key tenant companies)
The initiative will encourage environmental and social responsibility by demonstrating the benefit of collective action. It is part of a wider community development program in the Middle East and North Africa region aiming to positively engage the local communities of IFC offices while promoting staff integration.
