History

Dating back to the early 1990s, the World Bank Group Staff Association (SA) has been a consistent voice in promoting environmental practices in the WBG. Prior to any formal program, the SA has hosted an Environment Working Group, which led many early-on institutional greening efforts including external audits of the WBG's greening efforts, the introduction of a reusable mug program, providing benefits to encourage public transportation, and more environmental practices in our food services.

Efforts to improve IFC's footprint strengthened in 2002 after a third-party environment, health, safety and social audit was conducted for our Washington, DC office. An ad-hoc group of staff further researched the recommendations of the audit. This process, combined with the persistent voice of the SA in generating institutional recognition for footprint issues, led to the launch of a formal Footprint Program with dedicated resources and staff in 2005. There were many early successes of the program, including our carbon neutral commitment, inclusion of program results in IFC's 2005 Sustainability Report, and creation of a Footprint Committee and a network of Champions.

Since 2006, a formal strategy has been created, and is reviewed on an annual basis to define priorities and objectives.

Since 2007, the major emphasis has been on our global footprint—collecting data from our country offices and developing targets and goals to guide our corporate footprint strategy. We are also working to ensure our corporate footprint strategy is closely aligned with IFC's business strategy for our lending operations. It is important for our staff, as well as our key stakeholders, that we tie together how we integrate sustainability in our day-to-day operations with how we are embedding sustainability in our investment activities.