WASHINGTON, May 3, 2012 -- The World Bank has made great strides in reducing its global corporate environmental footprint over the past six years, according to its FY 2011 Sustainability Review. Since 2006, the multilateral development institution has cut greenhouse gas emissions from its US-based facilities by 7 percent, water usage by 54 percent, and paper by 47 percent.
The news was revealed this week in the Bank’s Corporate Responsibility website (http://crinfo.worldbank.org) which provides in-depth information about the organization’s sustainability practices. This website includes responses to sustainability indicators set by the Global Reporting Initiative.
The Bank has been actively managing its corporate environmental footprint since 2002 and has published reports on its sustainability efforts since 2004. The FY 2011 Sustainability Review brings together information on the Bank’s commitment to sustainable development building on the Annual financial report, and using international standards as the foundation. Looking ahead, the Bank is working to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill through a communication campaign for staff, and further integrate sustainability into its corporate procurement.
“We are committed as an institution to taking every step possible to reduce our corporate environmental footprint,” said Mary Barton-Dock, World Bank Environment Director. “We have a great program working to internalize this mission into our day-to-day operations. It’s making a difference but we recognize we have more work to do.”
The web-based sustainability review highlights other key corporate responsibility achievements:
- In fiscal year 2010, the World Bank was ranked as the highest-performing donor among 30 major donors in a new study on aid transparency by U.K.-based Publish What You Fund, a coalition of civil society organizations working on governance, aid effectiveness, and access to information.
- Innovative financing flows for climate-smart investment, raised in the capital markets by the World Bank Treasury, were reported to surpass $3 billion. Since the inaugural issue in 2008, World Bank Green Bonds have been issued with 46 transactions in 17 currencies.
The review also documents progress in the World Bank’s commitment to giving back to the communities in which it works. World Bank staff and retirees donated more than $1.8 million to local community projects through the Community Connections Campaign. More than 60 percent of staff participated in the Bank’s online pledging system, EGive. The Bank made a 100 percent corporate matching contribution, bringing the total money donated to $3.6 million. World Bank staff also provided over 10,000 hours of community service to charities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in FY2011.
