World Bank Group (WBG)
NB: The World Bank Group consists of five member institutions: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The inventory also comprises data from the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
HQ: Washington, DC, USA
Number of staff: 14,933
Number of locations: 246 buildings in 155 locations
Key figures
Total emissions: 219,763 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions per staff member: 14.7 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions from air travel: 137,721 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Air travel as a proportion of total emissions: 63%
Air travel per staff member: 9.2 tonnes CO2
Building-related emissions: 104 kg CO2 equivalent per square metre
“The World Bank Group has an active programme underway to make our facilities and operations more environmentally sustainable, and our offices, as well as our operational travel, climate neutral.”
Robert B. Zoellick, President, The World Bank Group (WBG)
President's Message
“The World Bank Group has an active programme underway to make our facilities and operations more environmentally sustainable, and our offices as well as our operational travel, climate neutral. Since 2006, we have been committed to climate neutrality through emission reductions, purchases of wind power through renewable energy certificates, and the purchase of verified emissions reduction credits generated through projects by our developing country partners. Moreover, we are now developing methodologies for the much more difficult task of assessing the impacts of our lending portfolio. The WBG will continue working with the UN family on this initiative. Together, the WBG and UN System can set an example for the international community by making our activities more environmentally sustainable.”
Robert B. Zoellick
Mission
The World Bank Group, one of the world’s largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. The World Bank Group’s mission is to “fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results [and] to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.
Experience so far
The World Bank Group (WBG) has an active programme to measure, report and offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with the WBG’s global business operations, including fuel used in boilers and generators, electricity consumed in buildings, and emissions from key meetings and air travel. We have collected and managed data from all of our offices since 2007 and began using a web-based data management system in 2008 to ensure a transparent and auditable process.
WBG has also set emissions reductions targets. The World Bank recently met its EPA Climate Leaders voluntary goal, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 7% between 2006 and 2011 for its Washington, DC buildings. The World Bank is currently working on formulating a new goal for its Washington, DC and managed country offices. Electricity use in IFC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. accounts for about 20 percent of the carbon emissions generated by IFC’s internal operations worldwide. By setting targets, we have steadily reduced our electricity consumption per workstation over the years, lowering it to 5,900 kWh per workstation. Our goal is to reduce consumption to 5,775 kWh per workstation by FY15, which would achieve our 20 percent reduction target over 7 years.
In 2006 the WBG became “carbon neutral” for its Headquarters, including day-to-day operations and business travel, and since 2009 has been globally carbon neutral for all of its facility and business travel greenhouse gas emissions (including country offices).
Reduction efforts
An active reduction program is also undertaken in the WBG's Washington DC offices where building engineers constantly monitor the operations of our building systems to ensure that they are operating at their most efficient levels. In addition, we incorporate green building principles into our offices before they are constructed. WB’s Chennai, India office has earned LEED Silver certification for new construction, the newest WB building in Washington, DC is LEED platinum certified for its core and shell, two other WB Washington, DC buildings recently earned LEED gold certification for existing buildings. IFC’s Headquarters building has achieved LEED-Platinum certification for existing buildings. Listed below are a few more initiatives being undertaken:
- Both the WB and IFC have Installed occupancy sensors in individual offices and conference rooms
- The chillers in one of our Washington, DC buildings were recently replaced with frictionless, high efficiency chillers that will save $30,000 per year compared with continued operation of the previous chillers.
- Reduced operating hours of HQ’s central HVAC and lighting systems
- Eliminated unnecessary lighting in open spaces by removing 50% of fluorescent bulbs in IFC Headquarters
- Powered off drive-lane lighting in parking levels of underground parking in IFC
- Installed LED lights in one of our Washington, DC garages saving more than 100,000 kWh per year.
Several programs exist to engage WBG staff in reducing resource consumption. The World Bank has rolled out a consolidated Sustainable Office initiative. This program utilizes key champions in each unit to assess how the unit is performing in sustainability-related areas such as printing and paper, office products, waste and recycling, energy use, commuting, social issues, and event organization. To further advance an environmentally aware office culture throughout the Bank, this program provides each unit with resources such as signage, an office guide, and knowledge resources to operate their unit’s offices in a more efficient manner.
A similar program at the IFC exists called the “10-Minute Tune Up”. The goal of the IFC Footprint Program's “10-Minute Tune Up” is to build awareness among IFC staff in the DC office on their role in IFC’s commitment to sustainability in its day-to-day operations. The 10-Minute Tune Up shares simple ways IFC-DC staff can use resources more efficiently while at work and, therefore, help reduce the environmental impacts - and costs - of IFC's day-to-day business operations in DC.
Offsetting
We offset the emissions we cannot reduce, through two different instruments:
1. Investing in Renewable Energy Certificates from new wind power, which offsets our electricity consumption.
2. Investing in emissions reduction credits associated with projects in developing countries. In 2011, we purchased carbon credits from a methane capture and composting project in Lahore, Pakistan – the first of its kind in the country of Pakistan. We choose projects that bring clear and tangible benefits to the development of the communities in which they take place.
Next steps
WBG will continue to work to ensure that our GHG inventory for internal day-to-day business operations is as complete and accurate as possible through increasing the response rate to our annual survey and reducing the need for proxies. At the same time, we will continue to ensure that our GHG inventory practices meet international protocols through 3rd-party verification, and align with our peers by sharing and seeking best practice.
The WB is undertaking a new goal-setting process, carefully evaluating planned improvements to its facilities in Washington, DC and a number of managed country offices to craft a realistic but aspirational emissions reduction goal.
We are working on creative methods for increasing efficiency in our building’s cooling systems, including the replacement of old chillers in our main complex building in Washington, DC with energy efficient chillers. Daylight harvesting systems are also being considered for some of our buildings.
We are also continuing to incorporate green building standards into country office leasing decisions to ensure that our leased spaces are resource efficient. Additionally, an increased number of facilities managed by our general services department will ensure that these buildings are run as efficiently as possible.
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