Sustainability

In the current landscape where global supply chains play a pivotal role, IDA Foundation is taking steps to minimise its environmental impact while continuing its crucial mission of providing medicines and supplies to global health partners in low- and middle-income countries. A noteworthy initiative is the collaboration with CocoPallet, a startup aiming to disrupt supply chains by replacing traditional wooden pallets with an innovative, circular alternative.

Email, reports, data - in an era defined by technological process, we have witnessed a rapid increase in our reliance on digital devices and platforms, and in turn, an alarming increase in the global digital footprint. Inspired by last Saturday's National Clean Up Day, IDA launched a digital clean up challenge in our offices.

We are proud to share that we recently passed our ISO 14001 verification audit without any non-conformities. We are looking forward to continue our sustainability journey and to keep building sustainable value chains together with our dedicated partners.

This World Environment Day, we're excited to share some of our recent efforts towards making a positive impact.  Achieving our ISO-14001 certification in 2022, demonstrates our dedication and also gives us a solid framework to minimizing environmental impacts and finding innovative solutions. Below, we dive into some of our recent activities and collaborative projects.

In our pursuit of global health impact, IDA Foundation (IDA) acknowledges the importance of responsible travel practices. In line with our (ISO14001-certified) Environmental Management System, IDA has looked at all of its environmental impacts and identified ways in which we can minimise our footprint.

World Earth Day is celebrated annually on the 22nd of April, to raise awareness and appreciation for the earth’s environment. The day is dedicated to promoting the importance of protecting our planet and taking action to ensure a sustainable future for all.

This Saturday is Digital Cleanup Day (March 18). Digital Cleanup Day is an annual event that encourages people to declutter their digital lives and promote sustainability. With the rise of technology, we have become increasingly reliant on digital devices and platforms, leading to a surge in electronic waste (e-waste) and a growing global digital carbon footprint.

Today is International Women’s Day! For this special day, we organised a specific ‘Future of..’ session to discuss gender equality, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). During these ‘Future of..’ sessions within IDA, we address different topics about our working culture, projects or partnerships. We take the opportunity to invite guest speakers and to learn more about other departments and ongoing projects.

The past months we have been sharing our progress when it comes to sustainability and our approach towards achieving our long-term goals. On this Sustainability Day we would like to introduce some of the members of IDA’s Sustainability Team, who are working on IDA’s progress.

On this Dutch Diversity Day, we would like to share some of our insights when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As we set out our strategic roadmap, IDA prioritised key Sustainable Development Goals that we can make an impact on, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). These goals help us with shaping our policies, making sure all our employees feel safe and valued at work.

Through our partnership with Solvoz, we have explored ways in which the use and disposal of malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) can be made more sustainable. The outcomes of this study are now available.

Last Saturday, 17 September, was World Cleanup Day. On this day, awareness is raised on the global waste problem while uniting governments, volunteers and organisations around the world.

Each year, on the 22nd of April, more than a billion people celebrate Earth Day and aim to protect our planet from pollution and deforestation. The environment has a big impact on our health, that’s why IDA Foundation held their own Earth Day campaign among staff members to raise awareness about the importance of sustainability and to share habits that are environment-friendly.

On the 25th of September, Dutch organisations, municipalities, the Dutch ministries and embassies together take part in the flag day, an event through which they show their support for the United Nations’ Global Goals / SDGs. More than 850 Global Goals-flags will be raised on this day!

This week, our colleague Rheinhard Hein hosted two training sessions for all IDA employees on Diversity and Inclusion. As we set out our strategic roadmap, IDA prioritised key Sustainable Development Goals that we can make an impact on, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). We asked Rheinhard to provide some key insights to the subject, and why this training is so valuable for a future-proof workforce.

Earlier this year, IDA Foundation was invited to participate in the video series ‘Phases of the Global Goals’ created by the UN Global Compact Netherlands. IDA is a participant of UN Global Compact since 2018 and since then we have been redefining and shaping our strategy and short- and long-term goals to better align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In March this year, IT updated the IDA laptops, thereby allowing all IDA colleagues to work efficiently from home during lockdown. As the old IDA laptops were still fit for use, we looked for a sustainable way to give them a new life.

Within the context of upcoming International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8, we approached a few of our female agents and distributors with some questions regarding gender equality.

As part of IDA Foundation’s sustainability journey, our headquarters in Amsterdam were renovated in 2018 according to the highest green standards. As the area around our office is currently undergoing many changes, requiring our parking lot to be moved, IDA is taking the opportunity to also turn our office terrain into a climate-adaptive green zone that will benefit the local environment.

IDA’s has published its first Communication on Engagement (CoE) as a participant in the UN Global Compact.

Congratulations go out to IDA Foundation’s Ethics and Compliance advisor Geert Vermeulen, who recently received the National Compliance Award 2019.

This week (20-27 September) is Global Climate Strike week; also an opportunity for IDA Foundation to step up to support young climate strikers all over the world. Following earlier climate strikes these past years, this week has broken records with millions of people on the streets to take action for our climate. Today, our employees joined the climate strike by ‘striking’ outside our Amsterdam office.