IFPRI takes the current climate crisis seriously and recognizes our opportunity to make an impact on global nutrition, poverty, agriculture, and the development sector with both our research and our own actions. With the latter in mind, IFPRI established the staff-driven Sustainability Task Force in 2019. The Sustainability Task Force, composed of 40+ leaders across all our offices and divisions, seeks to embed IFPRI’s mission and environmental values into all aspects of the Institute’s operations and culture.
IFPRI’s everyday operations have a planetary cost. Our travel and the energy, goods, and services we use all take a toll on our environment. Our staff is keenly aware of the escalating threats caused by our collective greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is one of the primary drivers of hunger and malnutrition, with low-income communities across the globe bearing the brunt of the vulnerabilities.
IFPRI’s Sustainability Task Force is striving to mitigate the Institute’s negative climate impact on communities we serve by researching and implementing concrete actions that embody our sustainability mission:
- Measuring: You cannot manage what you do not measure; therefore, we aim to measure all IFPRI emissions from goods, services, transportation, and energy usage, and to conduct regular waste audits to track our waste reduction efforts.
- Mitigating: IFPRI strives to reduce its waste and greenhouse gas emissions by setting concrete organizational goals, and empowering employees to make climate-conscious decisions and changes in their personal and professional lives.
- Modeling: By increasingly reporting our sustainability efforts and partnering with other organizations to harness our collective power, IFPRI aims to provide global leadership in our sector by sharing our successes and failures, progress and setbacks, and lessons learned along the way.
IFPRI’s headquarters building is LEED (Leader in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, with reduced electricity and water usage. The Sustainability Task Force focus areas are Waste (compost, recycling, waste audit, and food waste), Carbon Accounting (commuting, business travel, goods and services, and energy use), Resource Use (paper and goods reduction, sustainable purchasing and catering, and reducing disposables), and Culture (staff education, communication and outreach, surveys, events, commuting culture, sustainable investment, and collaboration across offices).