Sustainability management in Uganda: imitators welcome
In order to achieve their ambitious environmental and climate targets, all GIZ locations around the world need to pull in the same direction. Committed action can make a strong impression, as an electric car in Uganda proved.
Fifty-year-old John Nizeye works as a driver for the Uganda country office. He takes GIZ staff to appointments in the Ugandan capital Kampala and shuttles passengers between the country office and Entebbe International Airport, 50 kilometres away. John has been driving an electric car since May 2023. It has a special parking space in the shade beneath a solar roof, which charges the battery. So, when John gets an assignment, it is always ready. ‘The car runs almost exclusively on solar power,’ says John. But even when it is plugged into the mains, it is still climate-friendly, since 95 per cent of Uganda’s electricity is generated from renewable energy, mostly hydropower.
Joseline Namara Kwesiga was the person responsible for buying the car and the charging station. She is in charge of sustainability management at the country office and has initiated a range of improvements – from the electric car to low-emission air conditioning systems and the ‘green lunch,’ where staff learn more about eating a healthy and climate-friendly diet. As the Corporate Sustainability Handprint® (CSH) officer, her job is not just to reduce GIZ’s ecological footprint in Uganda. She is also expected to stimulate climate-smart and environmentally friendly practices that are effective and resonate more widely.
To achieve this, Joseline and her colleagues work at other GIZ sites with the Corporate Sustainability Handprint®. The CSH is a tool designed to manage GIZ’s sustainability efforts outside Germany. In order to improve efficiency even more, the CSH team in Germany is continuously working to standardise its processes. This may sound theoretical, but in reality, it is extremely practical: since 2023, for example, CSH officers have had a calculator at their disposal that makes it easier for them to calculate the CO2 emissions of taxi journeys. In addition, there is a tool that they can use to convert sustainability activities into concrete figures and thus see how their office is doing compared with the previous year or with other locations.
What is the Corporate Sustainability Handprint® (CSH)?
The CSH is GIZ’s key sustainability management tool for locations outside Germany. While the environmental footprint measures things like water consumption and CO2 emissions, the handprint documents active contributions towards sustainability.
Every year, GIZ offices worldwide gather together key data about their footprint, for example their consumption of energy, water and materials or their CO2 emissions from business trips. Based on this data, every two years the country offices develop ideas on how they can act more sustainably, thereby doing their bit to ensure that GIZ has a positive handprint. Over the long term, these measures are intended to help permanently reduce GIZ’s environmental footprint worldwide.
They include climate change mitigation measures such as sustainable procurement or the replacement of generators with solar panels. Action on social sustainability also counts – for instance through health education or information about ethical conduct in conflict situations.
Trailblazers in the use of electric vehicles in Uganda
Buying the electric car for GIZ’s company fleet is a good example of a new step that is making waves. John attracts plenty of attention with his vehicle: ‘When I pull up in front of Parliament, the MPs ask me where the car is from. If I stop in a part of town, people on the street bombard me with questions. They can barely believe that a car can go without petrol!’ It’s no wonder that the car stands out: electric vehicles are still a rarity in Uganda.
»When I pull up in front of Parliament, the MPs ask me where the car is from.«
As Joseline reports, the car also attracted interest among representatives of other organisations such as the European Union and the United Nations: ‘They approached us and asked us about our experience with the electric car. We were happy to share our knowledge and show others how they can make the switch to climate-friendly means of transport,’ Joseline explains. Given that electromobility in Uganda is still in its infancy, procurement of the car and charging system was not exactly easy. Moreover, no guidelines for the taxation of electric vehicles were in place. Now other organisations such as the Belgian development agency Enabel and the energy company TotalEnergies Uganda have acquired electric cars, following GIZ’s example.
»We want to use our electric car to show people that new options are available for climate action in Uganda – especially in a country where plenty of electricity is generated from renewable energy. The amount of attention that we are getting confirms that. We are working on installing charging stations in the project offices in Uganda, too. Then we will be able to use the car beyond Kampala and the surrounding area and more people will see it.«
Joseline Namara Kwesiga, Corporate Sustainability Handprint Officer until November 2023, Uganda Country Office
New air conditioning systems at the country office in Kampala. They use environmentally friendly propane instead of climate-damaging gases.
An excellent model for others to follow
At the Energy Efficiency and Electric Mobility Conference in November 2023, Uganda’s Ministry of Energy presented the electric car to a wider public. The government is investing in establishing an electric vehicle (EV) industry of its own, and has also set clear climate targets. The country is already feeling the impacts of climate change to a significant extent: ‘Uganda always used to have stable rainy seasons. The weather has become more extreme because of climate change. We have more flooding, alternating with longer periods of drought. That is a threat to our agriculture,’ says Joseline. The country office’s efforts are having an effect not only outside the organisation but also within GIZ itself. GIZ is currently combining several smaller project offices in Uganda to form one main campus.
The plan is for the solar panels, environmentally friendly air conditioning systems and recycling processes that have been tried out at the country office to be installed and used there too. Thanks to its commitment to sustainability, the country office is now almost climate neutral and serves as a model for others.
Sustainability at the Uganda country office in 2023
7 tonnes
of CO2 avoided with a photovoltaic system
1.5 tonnes
of CO2 avoided by using an EV instead of a petrol model
17
highly efficient A+++-rated air conditioning systems installed
Our staff’s commitment to sustainability worldwide
Since June 2023, GIZ Nigeria has been supporting the Plastics for Pads project in order to increase awareness of menstrual hygiene and health. In cooperation with the non-governmental organisation Wonder Woman Nigeria, staff from GIZ Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) collect plastics in a large container at the country office. Wonder Woman sells the collected plastic to recyclers and uses the proceeds to provide girls with reusable menstrual pads. It also runs awareness-raising courses about personal hygiene and sexuality. Within just six months, around 283.5 tonnes of PET plastic was recycled thanks to the collection campaign. Besides being good for the environment, the campaign is benefiting over 30 adolescent women.
Two or three times a year, staff from GIZ Central America and the regional organisation Central American Integration System (SICA) arrange to meet for a joint learning session over lunch. At these brown bag lunches in late 2023, the topic on the agenda was environmental sustainability. The participants exchanged views on how they each deal responsibly with the environment and climate. The activities that they presented ranged from recycling and waste separation to composting and horticulture, but also climate-friendly travel and sustainable event management.
GIZ staff in India have been composting organic waste on their office premises since October 2023. They use the resulting compost for the herb garden that they have created. In a pilot phase at the New Delhi office, staff have already sorted, separated and made use of 160 kilos of waste that would previously have ended up in landfills, contaminating recyclable waste. The successful initiative is now being rolled out to all GIZ offices in India. You can find out more about our partners’ perspectives on sustainability in India here:
As part of the German Sustainability Action Days in late 2023, staff around the world organised a variety of events to do with sustainability. These ranged from talks on sustainability at the office to practical activities such as campaigns to collect waste. GIZ staff in Bangladesh used this as an opportunity to offer a gallery tour, presenting photographs and posters from their projects. These showed visitors how important high-quality education and lifelong learning are to changing the world in a positive and sustainable way.
Below you will find information about the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) sustainability standards:
Environment
GRI
UNGC
SDG
DNK
3-3
Management approach
Principles
Climate change mitigation, energy and climate change adaptation are important topics in our materiality analysis in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) (E1: climate change adaptation; E1: climate change mitigation and energy). A significant aspect, in addition to energy, is the issue of emissions, details of which can be found under GRI 305: Emissions 2016.
GIZ intends to reduce the energy it consumes by 20 per cent per employee in Germany and by 10 per cent outside Germany by 2025 compared with 2019. Measures such as energy efficiency analyses and energy consumption checks to identify actions will help to achieve our goals.
To promote sustainable development, GIZ also intends to make more use of renewable energy. The goal is to increase the installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) plants to 150 kWp in Germany and to 400 kWp outside Germany by 2025.
The total energy consumption and the energy mix vary widely between GIZ Germany and its operations abroad. In Germany, our energy consumption figures primarily involve electricity and heating/cooling energy. In our partner countries, fuel for company vehicles and generators accounts for a large share.
Energy consumption at GIZ’s locations in Germany mainly involves the use of heating and cooling energy and electricity. Heating and cooling energy alone accounts for just over half of consumption.
However, power supply remains precarious in many of our partner countries, making emergency generators indispensable. In Germany, generators are only used to supply emergency power during maintenance work on the power grid.
Measures
Almost all the power used at GIZ locations in Germany is green. In 2023, some 93 per cent of the electricity used was generated from renewables. The consumption of conventional electricity stems from the use of spaces shared with other tenants, such as reception areas, underground car parks and lifts in leased properties. Wherever possible, we are replacing conventional light bulbs with LEDs at all locations. We are also optimising ventilation systems to save power.
As a general rule, GIZ measures electricity consumption at all locations where GIZ staff work in its partner countries. Since most countries do not yet generate enough on-grid electricity from renewables, we cannot achieve the same percentage of green electricity supplied to our offices outside Germany as we do in Germany. However, GIZ is looking at where and how it makes economic and environmental sense to use PV systems in our locations abroad. Since the target was set, the number of country and project offices installing or planning to install PV systems has been increasing steadily. Energy efficiency measures are an important aspect: the lower the basic electricity demand, the better the chances of meeting demand in the event of power outages with appropriately dimensioned PV systems and of reducing the use of diesel generators for peak loads. This is also associated with greater energy security for GIZ locations in fragile contexts. Energy efficiency and renewable energy therefore complement each other.
New PV systems were installed at several locations in our partner countries in 2023, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico and Albania, for example.
Many locations in Germany have gradually switched to using biomethane for heating since 2021. In 2023, yet another building in Eschborn was connected to this system. Geothermal systems are used in Bonn and Eschborn and at Campus Kottenforst. In addition, new PV systems and heat pumps were installed at Campus Kottenforst in 2023. There are also plans to step up the use of renewable energy at some locations, by installing additional heat pumps and PV systems, for example. This is accompanied by energy-efficient refurbishments such as better insulation.
Mobility: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant decrease in fuel consumption for cars outside Germany since 2020. In order to keep fuel consumption low in the future, options for a company-wide vehicle pooling system are being explored. The idea is for cross-project procurement and use of vehicles to become standard practice. In Germany, we are prioritising the transition to electromobility. In 2023, two new electric minibuses were put into operation to replace older diesel-powered vehicles. As a result, over half of GIZ’s manageable fleet of 11 vehicles is now fully electric.
Progress
Progress made will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. Details of the progress made in 2022 can be found in the Integrated Company Report 2022.
302-1
Energy consumption within the organisation
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7–9
7, 8, 13
11, 12, 13
302-2
Energy consumption outside of the organisation
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7–9
7, 8, 12, 13
11, 12, 13
302-3
Energy intensity
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7–9
7, 8, 12, 13
11, 12, 13
302-4
Reduction of energy consumption
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7–9
7, 8, 12, 13
11, 12, 13
GRI
UNGC
SDG
DNK
3-3
Management approach disclosures
Principles
Climate change mitigation and adaptation are important topics in our materiality analysis in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) (E1: climate change adaptation; E1: climate change mitigation and energy). A significant aspect, in addition to emissions, is the issue of energy, details of which can be found under GRI 302: Energy 2016.
Principles:
GIZ is firmly committed to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target. The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and climate action is a key concern. GIZ is helping its partners in countries of assignment to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. At the same time, we are setting ourselves goals to reduce our own carbon footprint, in line with the most rigorous science-based, transparent standards and benchmarks. For GIZ’s climate management, prevention takes priority over reduction, while offsetting of unavoidable emissions is a last resort. GIZ bases its climate management on the findings of climate research. In 2021, we were the first development cooperation company to join the global Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). GIZ is thereby pursuing ambitious emission reduction goals that are broken down into different scopes, or emission sources, in line with international standards. In addition to documenting direct and indirect emissions in Scopes 1 and 2, as far as possible GIZ also records greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream value chain – Scope 3. GIZ can control and influence these indirect emissions only to a very limited extent.
Offsetting: The emissions that GIZ cannot avoid are offset by retiring high-quality climate certificates from projects where GHG emissions were successfully reduced. We have offset emissions in Germany since 2013 and emissions abroad since 2020. GIZ offsets all direct Scope 1 GHG emissions. It also offsets a number of easily measurable indirect GHG emissions in Scopes 2 and 3 such as those generated by energy use, air travel or commuting. For 2023, these are emissions from commuting in Germany, business trips in Germany and abroad, events in Germany, and fuel- and energy-related emissions in Germany and abroad. Other emission sources are outside GIZ’s control and can be mapped only in part using rough estimates. They are not offset.
To offset emissions, GIZ acquires certificates from climate change mitigation projects that meet not only environmental but also social sustainability criteria. They comply with the Gold Standard requirements, one of the most rigorous international quality standards, and are verified by the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). They also meet the requirements of Article 6 (4) of the Paris Agreement. You can find more information on how GIZ’s CO2 emissions are recorded and offset in the Integrated Company Report 2021 and climate and environmental data for 2022.
Objectives: Climate change mitigation is at the heart of GIZ’s Sustainability Programme 2021–2025, and reducing GHG emissions at GIZ locations worldwide is our top priority. By 2025, GIZ will reduce its emissions to such an extent that it actively contributes to implementing the Paris Agreement. GIZ has pledged to reduce its direct and indirect emissions – Scopes 1 and 2 – by 30 per cent by 2025 compared to 2019. 2019 was selected as the base year for the targets because from 2020 onwards the COVID-19 pandemic caused distortions. GIZ has committed to reducing absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, fuel- and energy-related activities, business travel and staff commuting by 10 per cent between 2019 and 2025. Again, 2019 was used as the base year for measuring progress. The data is updated annually and, if new information is available, findings from previous years are corrected.
Taking 2019 as a benchmark, GIZ intends to cut its GHG emissions resulting from air travel inside and outside Germany by 25 per cent by 2025. GHG emissions from the fuel consumption of GIZ vehicles outside Germany are also to be cut by 14 per cent in this period. In addition, GHG emissions linked to commuting in Germany are to be reduced by 35 per cent by 2025.
The Sustainability Programme 2021–2025 now shifts the focus more to the potential outside Germany. Photovoltaic systems are to be installed at many locations, for instance. This will reduce CO2 emissions, save energy costs and may reduce the amount of fuel consumed by generators during power cuts.
Measures
Scopes 1 und 2:
In 2023, GIZ continued the process of switching from natural gas to biomethane in Germany and further expanded the use of electric vehicles. Energy-efficient refurbishments were also initiated, including the installation of PV systems and heat pumps at Campus Kottenforst, for example. Measures conducted abroad in 2023 included installing 13 new PV systems on a total of 47 office roofs around the globe, procuring additional electric vehicles and organising awareness-raising events for employees on topics such as sustainable mobility and energy and resource consumption. Wherever possible, low-energy, climate-friendly air conditioning systems (‘green cooling’) were procured, although these are only available to a limited extent on markets abroad.
Scope 3:
Step by step, GIZ is improving its monitoring system, enabling it to record other key emissions more accurately and to reduce these wherever possible. However, a number of targeted measures have also contributed to cutting emissions. Wherever possible, business travel is being replaced by online meetings or reduced by grouping appointments. This approach proved successful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, all events now meet sustainability criteria and their GHG emissions are accounted for. Measures to raise awareness among our service providers, for instance running online training courses and including standardised information on climate-friendly travel in our contract documents, may also help to reduce GHG emissions in the value chain.
Progress
The progress made will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. Details of the progress made in 2022 can be found in the Integrated Company Report 2022.
8, 9
11, 13
13
305-1
Direct GHG emissions (Scope 1)
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7-9
8, 13
13
305-2
Indirect energy-related GHG emissions (Scope 2)
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7-9
8, 13
13
305-3
Other indirect GHG emissions (Scope 3)
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7-9
8, 13
13
305-5
Reduction in GHG emissions
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7-9
8, 13
13
305-7
Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and other significant airborne emissions
The current climate and environmental data will be updated in the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures from 2022 can be found in the climate and environmental data for 2022
7
8, 13
13
Learn more about our sustainability management here:
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