Eco-friendly performance and green safeguards (sustainable development)

As an environment and development institution, it is essential that we work to minimize our environmental impacts and foster a healthy work environment. We recognize our responsibility to embrace environmentally friendly practices and strive to make sustainable practices toward a green economy and sustainable development that enhance the consumption of natural resources and prevent all types of pollution in order to preserve the healthy life for the current and future generations as same.                                                    According to the believes and attitudes of NIED toward the environment, the basic environmental concerns and practices of NIED include:

Energy Considerations:

  • Using natural light and ventilation where possible.
  • Main energy in NIED offices is solar (clean and renewable).
  • Purchasing low-energy equipment, particularly in computers and lighting.
  • Turn off all lights and equipment when not in use.
  • Arranging regular servicing of machinery to ensure operation at maximum efficiency and minimal adverse impact.
  • Identify means that reduce energy consumption while operating.
  • NIED works to introduce renewable energy whenever possible in its projects and programs via avoiding selecting products and items that are heavy consumers of electricity (those utilizing kilns, and machinery); and this might lead to reduce operational costs and positive environmental impacts.

Waste Generation and Resources Consumption:

  • Minimizing paper usage, primarily through the increasing sophistication of creating, exchanging, and archiving electronic documents.
  • Re-using paper wherever possible.
  • Re-using office supplies (folders, envelopes, etc.) as long as they remain fit for their use.
  • Recycling materials, including toner cartridges, glass, etc.
  • Trying to minimize the use of supplies.
  • Proper management of cartridges from printing machines: cartridges can be refilled instead of disposed of. If refilling is not possible, dispose of responsibly as hazardous waste.
  • Safe disposal of electronic waste: When electronic equipment is not sufficient for the needs of the office, it is cleaned properly from data and given away or sold to community organizations or to people in need. If an item cannot be reused, it is sent to be handled by the municipality.
  • NIED favors purchasing durable, toxic-free, reparable, recyclable and biodegradable products and items.
  • NIED has constant norms and regulations toward rationalizing printing, including printing when needed and printing double-sided as a clear policy in the workplace.
  • NIED avoids carrying items in disposable plastic bags; use as much as possible reusable bags or reusable containers, or biodegradable containers.
  • Obtaining input materials, packaging materials that are produced in a sustainable manner, whenever available.
  • Prioritizing the use of packaging that could be reused (glass – instead of plastic).
  • Prioritizing the use of packaging that could be recycled locally.
  • Prioritizing the use of biodegradable packaging.
  • Reducing the packaging weight as much as possible to reduce environmental impacts from extraction of materials and waste production.
  • Developing computerized forms to collect monitoring data whenever.

Eco-friendly Performance/Greening of Practices (reducing GHG emissions):

• Obtaining materials/products locally when available to reduce transportation.
• Favoring purchasing environmentally friendly products.
• Informing and educating our staff regarding the environmental effects of their activities and encouraging them to read and commit to the environmental policy and adopt eco-friendly performance and practices all the time.
• Placing plant tubs in all rooms of the institution.
• Promoting practices that lead to energy and water savings in the offices of NIED.
• When buying new equipment, identify if there are alternatives that have less environmental impacts in terms of its operation and production, and note the importance of environmental considerations in the technical evaluation of tenders.
• Cartridge refilling and proper disposing are also important issues that were considered, particularly in the absence of hazardous waste collection from small producers.
• NIED works all the time on minimizing e-waste generation caused by lack of knowledge of e-waste’s environmental impacts and of green hubs/enterprises processing/recycling.
• Utilizing carpooling whenever possible / using public transport.
• NIED encourages utilizing spaces of community organizations, women service organizations, or women/youth organizations rather than big hotels which results in enhancing the social positive impacts of the projects as well as decreasing the travel required for all participants.
• Working on benefiting from online purchasing of raw materials, and sale of products.
• Encouraging cooperation with other producers in purchasing and sales to reduce emissions (which also could reduce costs and increase the marketability of all products).                                                                                                                                                                • Identifying small packaging businesses that produce environmentally friendly packaging, including packaging products by women and youth; as they could provide tailored packaging solutions for the need of the business, while increasing social and environmental benefits.
• Decreasing of GHG emissions and waste generation caused by the growing production activities (transport of raw material, energy consumption and its source(s), the release of waste in the soil or water, etc).
• Encouraging and supporting social and voluntary initiatives and economic empowerment projects that motivate sustainable environment and encourage green jobs especially for women and youth.
• Promoting environmental issues through communication and information technology.
• Create linkages between green businesses and cooperatives or tourism organizations focusing on sustainable business.
• Working with partners to develop an environmental code of conduct for their works and how to green their performance. Moreover, to share the competitive advantages of environmentally friendly products, and to add marketing strategies that highlight sustainability.
• Identify possible cooperation with other producers in purchasing and sales to reduce emissions.