MSF Operational Center of Brussels (OCB), one of the six MSF headquarters that deploy and manage humanitarian operations worldwide, has published a roadmap to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and lower its environmental footprint.
OCB environmental roadmap outlines tangible solutions to reduce the negative environmental impact of its operations whilst maintaining and improving the quality of the care provided to its patients across the world.
“As the climate crisis already profoundly affects communities MSF serves, we have a responsibility to meaningfully and deliberately reduce our negative contribution to the environmental crisis”, says Tejshri Shah, OCB general director.
We are not changing who we are. Our priority remains to provide critical and urgent medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and alleviate suffering to those most in needs and/or those most denied access to health. But we are changing our practices so that, by 2030, our climate footprint will have been cut in half compared to our 2019 baseline, without purchasing carbon offsets.
Tejshri Shah
OCB General Director
Following the 2020 commitment of MSF extended Board of Directors and the 2022 signature of the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations, OCB partnered with the NGO Climate Action Accelerator to design, implement and monitor our environmental roadmap.
Four carbon emission sources currently represent over 95% of our total emissions: indirect emissions related to the purchase of goods and services; passenger transport; energy consumption; and freight transport. While these areas are prioritized in the roadmap, there are a further 28 tailored solutions to support our commitments including waste disposal, digital management as well as promoting awareness and our own responsible behavior.
We will embed these actions into our everyday work, positioning each of us, both individually and collectively, as active contributors to the decarbonisation journey. We prioritise transparency over greenwashing, ensuring adequate monitoring systems that will allow us to take measures to align with our commitments and learn along the way.
Tejshri Shah
OCB General Director
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