CONTENTS
1. About Youth and Environment Europe,
2. About the project “Sustainability in NGOs”
3. Introduction on the basic terms
(sustainability, environmental youth organisation, environmental principles)
4. Ideas for environmental principles
1. YEE’s experience
2. Members’ experience
5. Further reading
6. Summary
7. Evaluation and closing
ABOUT:
The webinar “Sustainability in NGOs” was organised by YEE on 18 January 2017
as part of the project with the same name. The meeting was facilitated by 2 people and
attended by 9 people from various environmental organisations – members of YEE.
The main aim of the webinar was to explore how environmental organisations follow
environmental principles, stay coherent with their mission and ensure that their office and
projects are environmentally-friendly.
We are happy to share the summary of this meeting in this presentation.

YOUTH AND
ENVIRONMENT
EUROPE
INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
41 member organisations in 25 countries
AIM
To encourage youth to be involved in environmental protection and to provide a platform
where these organisations can work together
ACTIVITIES
•Training courses for developing various competences (e.g. project management,
leadership)
•Youth exchanges on environmental topics
•Campaigns on environmental issues
•Publications
WEBSITE:
www.yeenet.eu

THE PROJECT
Online project
Started in September 2016
Based on the needs analysis of YEE’s member organisations: struggle with day-to-day work,
administrative tasks and maintaining the quality of their work and activities
AIM
To explore the concept of a sustainability in youth NGOs in order to improve the quality of
work of youth organisations.
ACTIVITIES
•How-to guides on various topics connected with sustainability in organisations.
•Online meetings between youth organisations to help them share their experience.
http://www.yeenet.eu/index.php/projects/yee-ongoing-projects/1372-sustainability-in-ngos

SUSTAINABILITY
Definition
sustainable development is “a process to meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (World Commission
on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987): Our Common Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sustainable_development.svg

SUSTAINABILITY
Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development
http://www.globalfootprints.org/sustainability
UN Sustainable Development Goals:
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

ENVIRONMENTAL
YOUTH
ORGANISATION
ENVIRONMENTAL
YOUTH ORGANISATION AIM
protect the
environment &
raise
environmental
awareness
AIM
support young
environmentalists
& support
development
TOOL
Young people use
an organisational
structure to achieve
a shared value
STRUCTURE
Young people are
actively involved
- as main target
group
- by running it
THEME/METHOD
environmental
education, often
based on non-
formal education

ENVIRONMENTAL
YOUTH
ORGANISATION
READ MORE:
•Read more:
•T-kit Organisational management:
http://pjp-eu.coe.int/documents/1017981/1667907/tkit1.pdf/28858c2d-3a8d-4912-93f5-249dc2b63044
•Youth work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_work
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/policy/implementation/work_en
•Youth worker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_worker

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES
ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES
Maintaining the
image of the
organisation –
accountability as
an environmental
organisation
Set of guiding
rules which
guide the
organisation in
everyday
management
Being coherent
and true to an
organisation’s
values
Environmentally-
friendly
management of
office and
projects

WHY
THIS TOPIC?
YEE’s observation
•Need to strengthen the network and be coherent
•Put emphasis on being an “environmental youth organisation”
Needs analysis
•Knowledge about difficulties in member organisations
•Need for improvement
Seizing the network
•Learning from each other’s best practices
Why is the topic relevant for you?
•Please use the chat and write briefly why you wanted to join?

AIM
“To ensure its projects and activities do not have a negative impact on people or the
environment, all of YEE’s projects and activities should follow this policy.
YEE expects its members to respect nature, local communities, participants and
themselves while striving to protect the environment and supporting sustainable
development.”
ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
YEE
SUSTAINABILITY
POLICY
CONTENT
Food, Waste, Travelling, Resources, Venue,…
Example: “Serve vegetarian or vegan food only.”
Creating the policy document
•Need for a reference; common set of rules
•Inclusive, participatory process
http://www.yeenet.eu/images/stories/DOCUMENTS/OFFICIAL_DOCUMENTS/YEE-Sustainability-Policy_2016.pdf

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
ECO-MAPPING
AIM
To analyse and manage the environmental performance of the organisation
MAIN POINTS:
•Self-evaluation tool
•Practical method to conduct environmental review
•Collecting data about the current situation of the office
•Tool to set priorities and identify points for improvement
•Involves all employees and volunteers
HOW IS IT DONE?
•Create a map of urban situation
•Create a map of your office
•Create several copies of the map for different points: water, soil, air,
odours, noise, dust, energy, waste, risks.
•Collect the information with your colleagues
•Identify environmental problems and points for improvement
Source: Eco-mapping © Heinz-Werner Engel 1998
Read more: http://www.sba-int.ch/spec/sba/download/Tools/EcomapGuideEnglish.pdf

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
YEE
INTERNAL
AUDIT
AIM
To review the work of the Board and Secretariat, check the progress of the Strategic Plan
and Work Plan and monitor if policies, rules and statutes are followed.
To share the result with the whole network
HOW IS IT DONE:
•Two auditors are elected from representatives of member organisations
•Choose two projects and check project questionnaire and additional information.
•The form includes questions about: food, travel, venue, materials. The auditors check
if the team followed YEE policies and organised the project in the most environmentally-
friendly way
•The auditors prepare the report which is presented at the following YEE Annual Meeting
WHY:
•To check if YEE follows the organisation’s environmental principles.
Example: Internal Audit 2016
http://www.yeenet.eu/images/stories/YEE_PROJECTS/Annual_Meetings/Annual_Meeting_2016/Internal_audit_report_2015-2016.pdf

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
YEE
INTERNAL
AUDIT
EXAMPLES:
•2016:
http://yeenet.eu/images/stories/YEE_PROJECTS/Annual_Meetings/Annual_Meeting_2016/Internal_audit_report_2015-2016.pdf
•2015:
http://yeenet.eu/images/stories/YEE_PROJECTS/Annual_Meetings/Annual_Meeting_2015/Internal_audit_report_2014_15.pdf
•2014:
http://yeenet.eu/images/stories/YEE_PROJECTS/Annual_Meetings/Annual_Meeting_2014/Internal_audit_report_2013-2014.pdf

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
YOUR
EXPERIENCE
Please share your experience and ideas!
The following questions might help to structure your thoughts
(1) Examples from your organisation
•Which environmental principle(s) does your organisation have?
•How do you ensure that your values become visible during activities?
(2) Ideas for improvement or innovation?
•Do you have another suggestion for establishing environmental principles in your
organisation?

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
ANSWERS FROM
PARTICIPANTS
Examples of the participants:
- Organise a session for participants to make eco-mapping of the venue and suggest ideas
to the owners to improve the sustainability. It is also a good chance to create the space for
participants to discuss this topic. Moreover, to make values visible, it is very important to
communicate reasons for behaviour and talk a lot about eco-friendly means.
- Set up a “Sustainability committee” - it will aim to check that the organisation is following
sustainability principles.
- Recycle, do not print when not needed, reuse materials.
- Upcycle workshops (and also upcycling competitions).
- It’s great to reuse materials from previous projects, also to promote further what has
been done before in your organisation.
- All the initiatives should also have a communication strategy, so everyone involved
understand them and follow them. It will also help to not lose good practices when people
change.

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
ANSWERS FROM
PARTICIPANTS
Examples of the participants:
For events:
- Only vegan menu
- No plastics, everything in glass
- Avoid using paper for signing in on events, introduce e-sign up with tablets
- An all events create sorting schemes if some waste is generated on the event
Office:
- Bringing plastic to the office is prohibited
- Sort 7 types of waste and introduce "Zero Waste office" - Avoid printing
- Try using biking as transport mean as much as possible

ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES:
FURTHER
READING
MORE IDEAS ON HOW TO BE
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY
1. http://www.iynf.org/download/green_toolbox/GreenToolbox.pdf
2. http://www.homoecos.lv/lat/wm/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Vadlinijas-Environment_friendly-events_EN_GALA.pdf
3. https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sustsci/ists/docs/whatisSD_env_kates_0504.pdf
4. http://www.yeenet.eu/images/stories/documets/Publications/General_Publications/EMS_EN_online.pdf

EVALUATION
&
CLOSING
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE YOUR ORGANISATION’S
EXPERIENCE OF STAYING ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY?
Contact
•Please write more to: natalia@yeenet.eu