Sustainability and environmental protection: Sustainability management in the GRC
Climate change presents many challenges for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: Climate change-related natural disasters are increasing the number of humanitarian missions both domestically and internationally. The health effects of climate change particularly affect the target groups of the German Red Cross welfare organization. Care and rescue services as well as hospitals are experiencing an increased strain.
The responsible use of resources, the need to protect and preserve our environment for future generations, is part of what the Red Cross idea is all about at its core. The GRC has clearly spoken out in favour of the sustainable use of available resources.
With this in mind, the GRC National Headquarters (GRC HQ) has agreed to develop a sustainability management policy. Although the concept of sustainability also includes social and economic aspects, the following policy on environmental sustainability was agreed upon and adopted for the GRC HQ as a first step.
The policy was developed by a cross-departmental internal working group and addresses five central topics that are relevant for the entire GRC HQ. These include: energy, travel, events, procurement, and waste prevention (described in more detail below).
Climate Adaptation in International Cooperation
In the area of international cooperation, the focus is on adapting to the challenges of climate change in various collaborations with sister societies.
Forecast-based humanitarian aid projects (Forecast-based Financing), for example, enable sister societies in high-risk countries such as Bangladesh, Mozambique or Peru to implement early, risk-reducing measures by distributing funds before an extreme weather event occurs. This way, the impact of climate change on vulnerable and particularly at-risk population groups can be effectively reduced.
Raising awareness for environmental sustainability
The GRC National Headquarters aims to promote a broad resonance for the topic of environmental sustainability in the GRC as a whole and thus commits to raise awareness of the topic. More specific details on this and on the question of how the measures of the policy are to be monitored can also be found in the following explanations.
Contact person
Any questions in regards to sustainability at the GRC? Feel free to contact us via Mail: nachhaltig(at)drk(dot)de
How the German Youth Red Cross lives Sustainability
The German Youth Red Cross (JRK) has set itself the goal of continuously incorporating sustainable actions into all areas of youth association work and firmly integrating it into everyday life. A significant step in this direction was achieved by including the sustainability criterion in the main objectives of the JRK strategy. One way to measure progress toward this goal is by defining a specific sustainability goal at a national level each year, which is implemented throughout the association. The “Sustainable Action” award, which recognizes members for their sustainable projects, is just one of many successful examples. You can read about the campaigns the JRK has implemented so far and the topics planned for the future at the JRK -Webpage.