E-learning “Practicing Environmental Sustainability in Surge Operations”, July 2023

This module developed by the IFRC focuses on environmental sustainability practices in surge response. Indeed, an emergency response can consume massive amounts of natural resources and generate considerable amounts of waste, pollution, and greenhouse gases. While this is all done in the interest of saving lives, we need to recognize the environmental impact of humanitarian activities.

Poorly planned and managed disaster responses can contribute to future environmental crises. These include:

• Extreme weather events from climate change
• Food shortages and crop failures
• Hazards caused by environmental degradation (e.g. flooding due to deforestation)
• The conflict between communities over natural resources

The good news is that there is much we can do to prevent and mitigate the environmental impact of emergency response efforts.

In this module, we’ll review how we can build more environmentally sustainable operations.

This free module lasts around 30 minutes and is available in English, French and Spanish.