Guidelines for Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters

Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment Guidelines, Version 4.2 December 2003
Reduce Energy Requirements
This area is similar to energy efficient equipment, but the focus is on minimizing the downstream
energy requirements needed to use assistance items. For instance, reducing energy
requirements can be accomplished by providing food aid which requires the least energy
possible to prepare at the beneficiary level. An example is milling maize before distribution,
where this milling requires less energy and results in less short-term damage to the
environment than preparation and cooking at the user level.
Green Procurement in Emergencies Checklist
The elaborate review process to define the sustainability or greenness of a procurement
used in normal times will not work in emergencies. In disaster conditions, the objective is to
procure the greenest or most sustainable items without compromising the assistance effort.
The best way to do this is to use a simple yes/no screening process based on the focus
areas summarized above. This approach has been formalized into the following checklist.
The checklist can be complete for each item or class of items to be procured. The best point
at which to complete the checklist is when the results of needs assessments are being
turned into assistance requests.
Alternatively, the checklist can be used by procurement staff to try to select the greenest
product or service from a range of available options. Use by procurement staff would, of
course, require ensuring that an item or service eventually selected was acceptable to field
staff and beneficiaries.
Greenness Procurement Screening Checklist
Question Yes No Not
Applicable
Is the piece of equipment selected rated as the most energy
efficient of the type of items needed and available?
Is the least possible packaging used?
Have field personnel or beneficiaries identified this item or
service as critical with a high likelihood of being used in
during the disaster?
Does the item or service to be procured include recycled
parts or materials, and are these parts and materials more
costly than alternate items or services?
Can the item (and packaging) selected for procurement be
reused or recycled after it is no longer needed for the
emergency?
Will the supplier take back, or can another business be sold
the item and recycle it, when it is no longer needed for the
emergency?
Have alternate, environmentally friendly, energy sources
been chosen when they are economically justified and can
be supported by local capacities?
Do the items or services being procured require the lowest
possible energy for proper and safe use by disaster
survivors?
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